Now this is more like
it. For the fourth installment in the Alien saga, the producers
decided to hire French director Jeanne-peare Junet, who had
previously directed the black comedy "Delicatesan". It
was hoped he would bring a fresh approach to the saga,
considering part 3 was such a terrible flop, and fortunately for
us it worked.
Starring Sigourney Weaver and Winona Ryder, the film is set some 200 years after the events of Alien 3, on board a secret government space station. Ripley is brought back to life by a couple of mad scientists (played by J.E. Freeman and horror veteran Brad Douriff) using a bizzarre cloning process, which also duplicates the alien queen embro inside her.
The government wish to use the alien queen queen to provide them with alien creature specimins, that they can study and experiment on in the hope of using them as biological weapons (Bad Idea). Of course things go terribly wrong and the aliens break loose.
Notorious screen baddie Micheal Wincott turns up as the commander of a group of space mercenaries, who find themselves stuck onboard the station with the alien menace and are forced to team up with Ripley in order to try and fight their way back to their space ship.
There's some great action scenes - most notably where the cast have to fight an underwater battle with the creatures - as they attempt to swim through a flooded section of the station. There's also a better feeling of tension than the previous film, combining the suspense of the first, with the rousing action of the second.
Ripley's character is a lot darker in this episode, the reason being that during the cloning process she inheretted some of the aliens DNA, complete with acid blood and black fingernails, which I thought worked very well. She's not the heroine trying to save the day, she's more like a rogue character, who's trying to save her own skin. Sigourney Weaver described her character as "She's more like an "Anti-Ripley" the opposite of her former self".
Whilst the film isn't quite as good as the first 2 movies, it's certainly a great improvement over the third. Particularly with the introduction of Winona Ryders character , as an android member of the mercenaries. The twist in Ripleys Character, and the type casting of Micheal Wincott and Brad Douriff, also seem to work resonably well.
Overall marks : 6/10.
| Other Information. The first draft of the script contained an action sequence that took place in a garden contained within the spaceship "Auriga," with Ripley driving an electrically-powered jeep to avoid aliens attacking from all sides. This was to take place after the scene in the chapel but before the sequence where the Newborn is introduced. The sequence was cut due largely to budget constraints. Sigourney Weaver actually made the behind-the-back half-court basketball shot on her own, despite the fact that the way the ball disappears offscreen for a split second before going into the basket implies that she had offscreen help. Actor Ron Perlman, who is probably best known for his role in the 80's TV show "Beauty and the Beast", nearly drowned while filming the underwater sequence. At one point, when trying to surface, he hit his head on a sprinkler in the ceiling, knocking him out cold. He was rescued by nearby film crew members. Horror veteran Brad Douriff is probably best known for voicing "Chucky" in the "Child's Play" series of movies. Script writer Joss Whedon apparently went through five different versions of the final battle with the "Newborn" creature, the first four versions of which all took place on Earth, in such settings as a hospital maternity ward, a giant junkyard, a snowy forest and cliffside, and a desert. |
Extra Info. |
| Video
Clips. Requires RealPlayer. Theatrical trailer. (699KB) |
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| Buy
Online.
Buy the video at Blackstar. Buy the widescreen video at Blackstar. Buy the DVD at Blackstar. Buy the DVD box set at Blackstar. Notes on affiliate sites. |
Other films in the series.
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