ALIEN IV: THE RESURRECTION

Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder

The "Alien Franchise" has become some sort of dark sister to the
Star Wars saga, spanning decades, influencing the collective 
unconscious and popular media, these drippy feminist horror Freudian
nightmare sex metaphors have come erupting out of the chest of 
American cinema every 6 or 7 years. The 1979 original was a rite 
of passage, an endurance test of terror spoke about in hushed, 
reverent tones around the schoolyard. In the mid-eighties with 
ALIENS, James Cameron solidified his ability to work with 
actresses in creating refreshingly strong yet still sexy and 
vulnerable female action star leads. Then the series nose-dived 
in the hands of the visually surefooted but narrratively clueless 
David Fincher (who has since displayed similarly paranoid 
pointlessness with "Seven" and "The Game") who gave us the 
depresing Alien 3.  In this glum turkey, some creative genius 
decided Ripley should shave her head and hang out with a bunch 
of penitent British TV actors dressed in their muddiest medeival 
summer stock wardobes, doing dour "Beckett" theatrics on a rain 
soaked sets. So naturally, these many years later, as once again 
the franchise is dusted off and re-slimed for action, we can 
approach only with some trepidation.

There is reason to be optimistic however. Winona Ryder is on board,
which should please Sci Fi geeks in love with her big puppy dog eyes,
and the director is the French nutball who did "Delicatessen" and 
'City of Lost Children", Jeanne-Pierre Jeunet, and although he 
clearly has not much grasp of English (lots of the dialogue should 
no doubt have been re-dubbed for better inflection) he does know 
how to make a good looking picture. The film has a dark, gold & 
black look and a sleek, kinky feel which comes as a pure joy after 
the dull grays and humorless brooding of Alien 3.  Ripley's 
character has undergone a refreshing change as well, having been 
cloned back to life from a DNA strand of blood mixed with that of 
an alien, she is now "super-Ripley" and Sigourney's delight in 
this refreshing change in her character is contagious.

On the negative side is the by now commonplace use of computer
generated beasties, which in some sequences look pretty poor, 
as if we have really wandered into an Aliens game on Sony 
Playstation rather than an actual movie. Also lacking is any 
sort of real character development. No sooner have we been 
dolloped our cliched collection of killable protagnoists than 
they are off running through hallways, emitting blood-choked 
cries as they are sucked through sewer grates, shouting and 
emoting, and since we don't know where they're running to, 
or whats going on, it's tough to feel much suspense or sympathy.

So... a bunch of characters running willy nilly through a space 
ship lit like the horror ride at a theme park, a reincarnated 
uber-Ripley who has sex with aliens, and the gamine Winona Ryder, 
it all adds up to something, but what? Though not as scary as the 
first installment or as thrilling as the second, it's at least not 
as dull and depressing as the third. This Alien stands out as the 
"kinky" one; the Freudian sexual dark undertones prevalent 
throughout the series are finally given fully realized treatment, 
while narrative and characterization take a back seat to goo and 
ambient lighting.