Alien: Resurrection (1997)

As I sat watching the events in this third sequel unfold, I kept thinking to myself how they really should have ended things for good with "Alien 3". I mean, the third one was not all that great, but that film's ending really seemed to have put a solid, final closing on the series. You know, Ripley once again saves man from the alien menace, Ripley kills self at the end once she finds out she is carrying an alien egg, the end right? Well, what should have been is just sadly not the case.

Since the original Ripley has now been dead for 200 years, this Ripley is nothing but a mere clone from the original's DNA, constructed by a military outfit that has also spliced Ripley's DNA with alien genetics. This military group is intent on using the aliens as soldiers and experimenting with their DNA, as well as attempting to train the creatures to serve their own ends. Of course, we can all guess how that turns out, right? Also, for some reason that I can't remember, a group of smugglers boards the military ship, giving the viewer even more characters to hate and more fodder for the aliens to slaughter.

I believe the filmmakers wanted you to root for these guys, but I found myself really giving a rat's ass about them. This film has some of the most unlikable characters to ever grace the screen. And if you don't care if anyone gets slaughtered by the creatures, then what really is the point? Speaking of the aliens, there were thankfully more of em' in this film than the last. We get a queen alien, a couple warriors, and an alien hybrid baby that was sort of odd looking. A lot of the red stuff gets splashed around, but it seems to be more of a cartoony type of gore than in the previous films. CGI was thankfully used sparingly, and when it was utilized it looked quite good. The terrific underwater chase with the aliens is a good example. Without a doubt this was the bloodiest of the series, but could hardly be labeled scary by any means. So with an odd confusing story, Ripley not acting like Ripley at all, and truly unlikable characters, "Alien: Resurrection" truly is a disappointment for fans of the series.