After watching all the lien films over a few days, I have been able to make a few deductions about the series. The main one being Alien Resuerection is pants.

I hate Alien 4 with a passion. It makes AVP look like Aliens.

I have decided to document here, exactly why I hate it, so bare with me, and feel free to disagree.

First a few generalisations....

Alien 1-3 were all very gritty, realistic films. Alien 4 is is filmed as cross between a dream and a comic strip.

Most of the actors keep pulling funny faces all of the time. This is not real acting.

The characters are really poorly written. There is not one really likeable character, or remotely believable. Even Alien 3 had some sympathetic characters, and you at least felt most of them had back stories. The heros turn out to be a genetically enhanced Ripley, who the Aliens are not really interested in killing, and an Android a cripple and an Ugly nutcase. Symapthy for most characters come from being likeable or vunerable. In this case the two leads dont really provoke any sympathy at all.

The dialogue is what you would expect to see in a comic book.

The humour is really misplaced half of the time, with Arnie style one-liners

Despie having lots of guns, no one wants to shoot them. this is probably due to Sigourney Weaver, and he loathing for guns which influenced both this and Alien 3 as producer. Lets hope she has no involvement in any ALien 5.

Now to the gaping plot holes.....

USM Auriga, a military research vessel with over 50 decks and about 2 or 3 miles long. Why would there be a crew of only 42 on a ship the size of a city?

Her blood was taken from Fury 161, not sixteen.

Blood samples would not supply enough dna to clone the Queen inside Ripley (But hey, thats the plot, so maybe we will let this slide).

Johner drops a knife into his ship's engineers leg, for fun. How stupid. Thats his characters arc. That tells the audience he is not a nice guy. Makes no sense whatsoever.


The Betty crew try to smuggle at least 4 weapons past a metal detector. Is that really the smartest thing to do? Even airports have better tech (x-rays) to detect weapons.

Note: They are in Unregulated space (currently).

The Betty crew try to start a fight with Ripley. Christie tries to smack her in the face with a steel bar. Again, nt the

brightest thing to do on a military ship. This could get them all executed.

An Alien shows on screen signs of actual intelligence for the first time when he stops hitting the screen when Gediman hold up his hand next to the button. Then in the next Aliens scene, they have chucked 3 in together. Is that really sensible?


When Call asks Ripley who whe is she replys "Ripley, Ellen, Lieutenant first class, number three-six-seven-oh-six." The first 2 films describe her as a Warrant officer.

Ripley can smell Aliens, sense the ship moving, but not that Call is an Android.

In the mess hall, at least 5 soldiers are shot even though their guns are bearing on the Betty crew. Two mercs are able to kill highly trained soldiers before they even get a single shot off.

Christie bounces a bullet off two bulkheads to shoot a soldier in the head that he cant even see.

The microphone between Gediman and security just stops working.

You would think they would have a method to kill the captured Aliens quickly, like an incinerator.

The ships computer can detected escaped Aliens but not gunfire.

Gediman just walks into the cage without a weapon. Followed by the guard who only has a pistol. Would you only have a single

guard handy armed with just a pistol? They know how dangerous the situation is, or else they wouldnt just imediately abandon ship.

The ALien operates the punishment device with its extendable teeth, something which can punch through skulls without any problem.

Perez pulls his own brain out!!!!

Elgyn goes off on his own to start a gun collection, despite knowing that there could be some nasty creatures walking around.

Not a particularly intelligent leader.

The Alien decides to just kill Elgyn instead of taking him for impregnation.

None of the crew will fire at the Alien, although I am sure they have flame throwers. Surely the bulkheads on a military ship

are thick enough to withstand a gun shot?

The workcrew sold to the miliary were in Stasis, but the Aurgia can get from Unregulated space to Earth in that matter of a couple of hours. Why is stasis still used?

This next bit is the swim through the galley. This just makes no real sense at all.......

Now, the cooling has been shut off, and caused folooding. I am guessing they are at the bottom of the ship, and need to head up to get to the docks. The fact that water will drop down, and the deck is flooded suggests this is the case, plus the fact

they climb upwards at the lift shaft, and the betty flew upward some way when docking.

The corridor through to the gally goes downwards for some reason. You would expect the deck to be flat, as it makes the ships space more efficient,

The crew can swim 90 feet without breathing, while carrying weapons or people.

The crew all decide to either swim away or drop their guns completely when being attacked underwater, despite Johnner showing that its possible to kill one.

The Aliens set up some kind of ambush, and membrane with eggs all around - in record time, but attack from the rear.

When Christie gets a bit of acid on his face, he just decides to cut his harness and fall in the water, instaed of shaking the alien off his foot. And instead of climbing back up, he just drowns.

Di Steffano cant be bothered to help shoot the Alien climbing the shaft.

They only climb up what seems a single level before Dr Wren exits.

There must be other exits but they act as if they are trapped.

Call opens the door from the other side, even though it was stressed there was no other way to get up to the next level other than this shaft.

Call claims she came to stop the breeding of the Alien, because she cares, but didnt do much to save the guys the betty crew sold to the USM.

Wren is trying to get to the Betty, why would he not just head to a lifepod, there must be more left on a ship that big.

Ripley cuddles the Alien Queen - Stupid

The Aliens queen is whacked apart with a single slap from the newbord.

The Alien queen has no drones defending her.

Wren shoots purvis several times without killing him. Purvis gains superhuman powers.

The Newborn manages to open the door to the Betty, but doesnt close it again properly.

Call - the caring android all out to DiSteffano, but doesnt warn him about the newborn.

In the next scene, Call has climbed out from her hiding place, for no reason.

Instead of orbiting Earth, Johnner and Vriess try to renter the atmosphere, even though the cant fly.

The Newborn get sucked out of a hole in the ship, when by covering the hole with its body, it should have maitained pressure.

You dont get sucked into space. You get blown.

The window is stronger than the newborns body, and doesnt crack any more under the pressure of it getting sucked out.

Crashing a ship as big as the Auriga into Earth would wipe out all life on the continent, and probably severely effect the environment across the whole planet

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I didn't like it much when I saw it at the cinema, but I will admit watching it again on DVD I managed to see past its faults and find some thing I like. There are some moments where the tension is building, some chilling atmosphere is there. But it doesn't last long.

This film is just too much of the same. We've already had 3 films of running around dark corridors. They needed to try something different. Set it outdoors. On an isolated planet, or something.

I'd agree that the characters are all so unlikeable. Even Ripley annoys you. You just don't care much if any of them die. And they're all so odd looking. I know the directors likes these actors, but it just doesn't fit with the more real "truckers in space" style of the first films.

Then about three-quarters of the way through it turns into a freak show. The alien-human baby is disgusting, but hardly terrifying.

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Time cube is evil.

Just wait 20 years. We may get quality remakes of the entire Alien/Predator series. The first 2 Alien movies don't need remakes, but the rest sure do.

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Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

No, no no. Not remakes, prequels!

--hipster

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Mining: In Space, No One Can Hear You Drill

Alien4...in space, no one can here you suck!

Good point about space shouldn't be able to "suck" a monster though a pinhole. That never occurred to me while watching it. At the most, maybe a nasty raspberry?

The part I didn't like about that scene is the flicking of acid onto the window. People think acid will just dissolve anything, but it really doesn't work like that. Acid is just a very good solvent for metals, and perhaps organic flesh. However, glass should be pretty darn stable. In fact, acid is stored in glass containers all the time (in a lab, for instance). I just rolled my eyes at the premise that acid could in anyway make a pinhole in a glass window.

That whole Sigorney Weaver thing and artistic input...I think we can see how easily nutty personal views can really deep six a film. It's ok to have all the personal views you want, but don't inject them into movie projects just for the hell of it. We don't go see movies because we want to see how "Sigorney Weaver" would battle xenomorphs. We go see movies to see how space people deal with xenomorphs, and if that requires lots of gunfire, that's the way it's got to be, imo.

For the longest time, she wanted a "make love to the Alien" theme, too, I hear. Get too close to some of these celebs, and you find what real kooks they are, I guess. She suggested it in Aliens production, but not until Alien4, did she get her wish. 'kay, whatever, Sig. I guess when it comes down to it, it's not like Alien4 could really have been ruined any worse Alien-luv or not.

As for the topic title...I don't know about it being the worst ever movie, but it certainly was bad. Battlefield Earth still gets my vote for worst sci-fi movie ever.

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Dude, don't be a Quaid!

There are far, far worse films out there than Resurrection. I prefer it to AvP for a start.

Sure, there are giant plotholes, and the whole thing is a big demonstration of how taking some of my favorite people in film-making and sticking them together doesn't work if they don't get on (from "Amelie" and "City Of Lost Children" director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, to Joss "Buffy" Whedon), but that whole underwater sequence lifts it out of 'worst' for a start.

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Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by ignorance or stupidity.
Isaac Asimov

I'd actually enjoyed AvP (other than the whole running around Antarctica without a jacket on thing, which irritated me to no end.)

I'd forgotten the pinhole in 4 was made by a drop of acid. For some reason, I (vaguely) remembered it as a bullethole (which would have been slightly more plausible.)

Correct me if I'm wrong, though, wouldn't a bullet-sized hole with comfortable air pressure on one side and hard vaccuum on the other simply make a lot of noise and empty the room of air over a few minutes or so? Maybe cause a detectable breeze if you're close enough to it? I mean, you can only get so much air through that tiny little hole, right?

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Dreadful film altogether. An insult to the other films in the series.

You are absolutely correct. They did this on Mythbusters, though not in a hard vacuum. They shot a bullet through the side of the plane while it was pressurized (so that the pressure difference between the inside of the plane and outside were the same as if it were at 30,000 feet), and the results were pretty much what you described. When they shot a hole through the cabin or the window, nothing moved, not even stuff right near the hole. This result was disappointing to the Mythbusters team, so of course they had to see what would happen when high explosives were used instead. Those results were pretty much what you would expect.

Well, way back in the first Alien movie, the facehugger ate its way through Kane's faceplate, so I guess the ability of the acid blood to eat through glass was well-established.

Uh, the acid that caused the hole in Resurrection was alien blood, wasn't it? 8-[

I also found the "likability" factor (or lack thereof) of the characters in this film to be off-putting.

Hard to believe that Joss Firefly Whedon wrote this, ain't it?

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2008 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

I think the first would be in the first movie. The alien hided in the escape shuttle to escape the ship before it blew up. It showed enough intelligence to figure that it had to get off the ship and how to get off.

I'd say that's debatable. It may have just picked that place because it was remote from the rest of the ship and approachable only through one entrance - like a cave. The alien seemed to want the place for a nap, since it seems to be sleeping when Ripley spots it.
Also, the alien was less than a day old. It seems much more reasonable that all of its behavior was instinctual.

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"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky

I don't think the difference between "hard vacuum" (in quotes because I don't know of a definition of hard vacuum) and 30,000 feet vacuum would be significant for this effect.

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Agreed. It's hard to get into a movie if you find you really don't care what happens to those annoying people.

Say it ain't so, Sean.

It's slangy, Swift. In science fiction, hard vaccuum usually implies significant peril; the prospect of experiencing vaccuum while unprotected.

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New! It combines the power of science with the gentleness of your mother's best intentions!
A new miracle technique, we apply homeopathic methods to achieve scientific efficaciousness
for dilutions WAY beyond Avogadro's Limit. It's New! It's Fresh!
It's Placebo^[tm] Brand Power Drink! *[Use as directed. May increase kidney function.]

Whedon's IMDB page.

I believe he has somewhat "disowned" the final film, saying that the director changed a lot of what he wrote - he certainly didn't have the creative control here he had on Firefly or even Buffy. Still, his name is the only one on the "Written By" credit (except for a "Characters" credit for the writers of the original Alien).

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2008 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF