Uploaded November 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The fourth movie, and last in what many think of as the original classic Alien films, the “Quadrilogy”. before Alien Romulus , the Prequels and AVP
Resurrection was, for a long time, the “final” Alien film; that was until Alien Covenant in 2017; around 20 years.
However, that’s not counting the two AVP movies or Prometheus, but rather the “actual” Alien movies, with Alien in the title, and no doubts as to whether it’s a main entry or spinoff.
20 years is a long time, and many would have agreed the Alien series ended on a low note. Despite Alien 3 being a huge step-down in quality after Aliens, the general consensus (online at least) seems to be that it was the superior of the two lower rated films of the four part story.
But having re-watched it semi-recently (that would be before I saw Romulus in the cinema), I always had thought of it being really bad. But, something about this viewing changed my mind, somewhat.
I appreciated and enjoyed it more for what it was, rather than getting stuck on how it wasn’t as good as the others, or how it didn’t take itself seriously enough; but I actually found things about the film I liked this time. Maybe as I must be at least a good 10 years older than when I last watched it, I’m not sure, but they do say your taste changes with age. Or maybe as I wasn’t watching alone this time, but had someone else in the room to discuss parts of it as we were watching.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get around to reviewing Resurrection before Romulus’ release as I originally planned to do. I wanted to review all previous movies before the new film’s release like I did before Prey with the Predator movies, as a fun way to build up to the new film dropping.
Sadly, doing so slipped further and further down the list of priorities. But don’t worry, if you enjoy my movie reviews, I do still plan to review the two prequels after this eventually.
So, what can I say about Alien Resurrection…
It released in 1997, and kinda picks up directly from Alien 3, but doesn’t actually. As Ripley dies at the end of the last film, we see a clone of her, waking up for the first time, so it is like a continuation of her consciousness, but taking place 200 years later than the previous film.
The reason for Ripley being cloned, is that in the future, after the Alien/Aliens/Alien 3 time, huge corporations like Weyland Yutani have been banned, and the government took control of everything. All of Weyland Yutani’s research has been taken over by the military, so the military have cloned Ripley as she was carrying a Xenomorph inside her, so they cloned her to also get a clone of the Chestburster.
I don’t see how that works, as it’s a separate organism than her, so it shouldn’t appear in a clone; but I’ll forgive that as it kinda *needs* to happen in order for the story to take place.
So, as we know, the Xenomorphs escape as they always do, and the clone of Ripley has to figure out an escape plan with a group made of two factions reluctantly working together, the survivors of the military of the ship, and some illegal smugglers, who smuggle some cryotubes containing Humans for the military to impregnate with their Xenomorphs.
I actually found the lighter tone of this film, and how it doesn’t take itself seriously to be entertaining, and I did have a fun time watching it. It’s a bit sillier than the last films, with some weird moments, but on the whole, what it did, it did do well; But it does feel disjointed from the previous three films, which all had a serious tone. That even includes Aliens, as, while that did have characters like Hudson and Vasques who did behave silly, when it gets down to the brass tacks, they behave more seriously; so in that film the atmosphere still feels serious, whereas in Resurrection, the atmosphere feels un serious.
So, it depends on how willing you are to let go of that; whether it has to fit with the others for you to enjoy it; or if you can forgive that, and just take it at face value. I always thought of myself falling into the first camp, but now lean more towards the second.
Something that is a downgrade here, is certainly the characters, as unlike the first two films, the characters here aren’t really memorable I find; I don’t even remember their names, apart from Ripley of course.
There’s Ron Perlman , the guy with the Taxi Driver guns, Wheelchair guy, another android, Tuco from Breaking Bad. That’s how I remember them.
You can tell they tried to give us a varied crew of good guys with their own personalities, but they just didn’t vibe with me.
Another thing I don’t like is the aesthetic, as it is very bland looking, with a boring colour pallet throughout the films locations.
Some standout moments though, were the part with the failed Ripley clones
The fourth movie, and last in what many think of as the original classic Alien films, the “Quadrilogy”. before Alien Romulus , the Prequels and AVP
Resurrection was, for a long time, the “final” Alien film; that was until Alien Covenant in 2017; around 20 years.
However, that’s not counting the two AVP movies or Prometheus, but rather the “actual” Alien movies, with Alien in the title, and no doubts as to whether it’s a main entry or spinoff.
20 years is a long time, and many would have agreed the Alien series ended on a low note. Despite Alien 3 being a huge step-down in quality after Aliens, the general consensus (online at least) seems to be that it was the superior of the two lower rated films of the four part story.
But having re-watched it semi-recently (that would be before I saw Romulus in the cinema), I always had thought of it being really bad. But, something about this viewing changed my mind, somewhat.
I appreciated and enjoyed it more for what it was, rather than getting stuck on how it wasn’t as good as the others, or how it didn’t take itself seriously enough; but I actually found things about the film I liked this time. Maybe as I must be at least a good 10 years older than when I last watched it, I’m not sure, but they do say your taste changes with age. Or maybe as I wasn’t watching alone this time, but had someone else in the room to discuss parts of it as we were watching.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get around to reviewing Resurrection before Romulus’ release as I originally planned to do. I wanted to review all previous movies before the new film’s release like I did before Prey with the Predator movies, as a fun way to build up to the new film dropping.
Sadly, doing so slipped further and further down the list of priorities. But don’t worry, if you enjoy my movie reviews, I do still plan to review the two prequels after this eventually.
So, what can I say about Alien Resurrection…
It released in 1997, and kinda picks up directly from Alien 3, but doesn’t actually. As Ripley dies at the end of the last film, we see a clone of her, waking up for the first time, so it is like a continuation of her consciousness, but taking place 200 years later than the previous film.
The reason for Ripley being cloned, is that in the future, after the Alien/Aliens/Alien 3 time, huge corporations like Weyland Yutani have been banned, and the government took control of everything. All of Weyland Yutani’s research has been taken over by the military, so the military have cloned Ripley as she was carrying a Xenomorph inside her, so they cloned her to also get a clone of the Chestburster.
I don’t see how that works, as it’s a separate organism than her, so it shouldn’t appear in a clone; but I’ll forgive that as it kinda *needs* to happen in order for the story to take place.
So, as we know, the Xenomorphs escape as they always do, and the clone of Ripley has to figure out an escape plan with a group made of two factions reluctantly working together, the survivors of the military of the ship, and some illegal smugglers, who smuggle some cryotubes containing Humans for the military to impregnate with their Xenomorphs.
I actually found the lighter tone of this film, and how it doesn’t take itself seriously to be entertaining, and I did have a fun time watching it. It’s a bit sillier than the last films, with some weird moments, but on the whole, what it did, it did do well; But it does feel disjointed from the previous three films, which all had a serious tone. That even includes Aliens, as, while that did have characters like Hudson and Vasques who did behave silly, when it gets down to the brass tacks, they behave more seriously; so in that film the atmosphere still feels serious, whereas in Resurrection, the atmosphere feels un serious.
So, it depends on how willing you are to let go of that; whether it has to fit with the others for you to enjoy it; or if you can forgive that, and just take it at face value. I always thought of myself falling into the first camp, but now lean more towards the second.
Something that is a downgrade here, is certainly the characters, as unlike the first two films, the characters here aren’t really memorable I find; I don’t even remember their names, apart from Ripley of course.
There’s Ron Perlman , the guy with the Taxi Driver guns, Wheelchair guy, another android, Tuco from Breaking Bad. That’s how I remember them.
You can tell they tried to give us a varied crew of good guys with their own personalities, but they just didn’t vibe with me.
Another thing I don’t like is the aesthetic, as it is very bland looking, with a boring colour pallet throughout the films locations.
Some standout moments though, were the part with the failed Ripley clones
