Alien: Resurrection

Name: Alien: Resurrection
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Released: November 26, 1997
Duration: 109 min
Rating: 63
Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder

1997

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews

See All

USER SCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 472 Ratings

See All

5.4

VOTE NOW

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

5.4	Your Score
5.4	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 472 Ratings

Would you like to write a review?

There is a 75 character minimum for reviews. If your review contains spoilers, please check the Spoiler box. Please do not use ALL CAPS. There is no linking or other HTML allowed. Your review may be edited for content. 0/5000

Check box if your review contains spoilers

Play Sound

Please enter your birth date to watch this video:

You are not allowed to view this material at this time.

Alien Resurrection

Now Playing: Alien Resurrection

Movie Details & Credits

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: November 26, 1997 | R

Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder

Summary: Ellen Ripley (Weaver) died fighting the perfect predator. Two hundred years and eight horrific experiments later, she's back. A group of scientists has cloned her-along with the alien queen inside her-hoping to breed the ultimate weapon. But the resurrected Ripley must team up with a band of smugglers, including a mechanic named CallEllen Ripley (Weaver) died fighting the perfect predator. Two hundred years and eight horrific experiments later, she's back. A group of scientists has cloned her-along with the alien queen inside her-hoping to breed the ultimate weapon. But the resurrected Ripley must team up with a band of smugglers, including a mechanic named Call (Ryder), who holds more than a few surprises of her own. (20th Century Fox)… Expand

Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Genre(s): Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Rating: R

Runtime: 109 min

See All Details and Credits

Watch Now

Stream On

Buy on

Stream On

Expand

Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

Lisa Schwarzbaum

By rocketing ahead 200 years from the previous film and jiggering the story cleverly (with a script by Toy Story coscreenwriter Joss Whedon as late-'90s wiseacreish as Alien3 was early-'90s portentous) to create a Ripley reconstructed through a mix of human and alien DNA, Alien Resurrection power-kicks the whole definition of the Horrifying Other into a fresh, deep, exhilaratingly thoughtful, millennium-sensitive direction. [5 Dec 1997, p. 47]

Desson Thomson

Recycles the great surprises that made the first movie so powerful. And most significantly, it makes a big hoot of the whole business. Read full review

Rick Groen

Jeunet manages a terrific pass in an extended underwater sequence, but, beyond that, he runs out of ideas as we run out of patience. Read full review

Richard Schickel

On the whole, the eek-for-yuks trade-off is more than fair--hip without being campy or condescending to one of the better movie franchises. [1 Dec 1997, p. 84]

James Berardinelli

Has a bold, inventive style that occasionally compensates for story weaknesses. And, admittedly, there's a certain visceral appeal to the action sequences. Read full review

Derek Elley

As a series of action set pieces, the movie is frequently gripping and always highly watchable. However, when the movie strays into weirder territory --- where, one feels, Jeunet's heart really lies --- there's a growing feeling of inadequacy. Read full review

Roger Ebert

It's a nine days' wonder, a geek show designed to win a weekend or two at the box office and then fade from memory. Read full review

SEE ALL 21 REVIEWS

Write a Review

User Reviews

AngysYoungg321

Nov 7, 2020

Silly but it tries to be different and it succeds at that!!!!!! Not perfect but definitely a fun movie that shouldn’t be taken as a Oscar worthy movie.! I had a good time watching it and deffo underrated.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Harry210

Apr 21, 2011

After seeing Alien 3, I thought that the Alien franchise was running out of new ideas and Alien Resurrection seems to recycle the same plotline from previous Alien movies but I still enjoyed watching it. The Aliens are back in this movie (don't know why this movie is called AlienAfter seeing Alien 3, I thought that the Alien franchise was running out of new ideas and Alien Resurrection seems to recycle the same plotline from previous Alien movies but I still enjoyed watching it. The Aliens are back in this movie (don't know why this movie is called Alien Resurrection since there's more than one Alien again. Should be called Aliens Resurrection) and they seem to have the same motive as before: breed, prey on humans and make everyone's lives a little bit more uncomfortable. Having Aliens in the movie rather than one Alien does make the movie a little bit more exciting but doesn't really produce any scares, due to the fact I've seen these monsters in 3 movies although they still look gruesome. The movie takes place straight after Alien 3 where scientists attempt to clone Ripley and extract the Alien Queen inside her. This movie has got to be the most disturbing in the series and seeing the sleeping naked Ripley clone inside a glass tube was creepy if a little bit sexy. Just looking at the scene where Ripley and the mercenaries discover the failed attempts to clone Ripley in glass chambers and one clone lying on the table, with a deformed body saying "kill me" in a desperate voice. I cringed a little bit but thank god the other not so grotesque main Ripley clone torches the room with a flamethrower. The Alien queen makes a return and just serves the same purpose as in Aliens: She produces eggs which then spit out facehuggers and, you know the story. This movie's plot is a bit predictable: the human gets hugged by a facehugger and then an Alien hatches and kills everyone in sight thing, has been done 3 times. I thought the story was fine and it was enjoyable to see the Aliens again attacking in large numbers and the mercenaries fighting them off rather than another plot like the 1st and the 3rd Alien movies. The movie really gets going straight away, as soon as the Alien queen was extracted from Ripley; you don't really have to wait long until the whole terror of the Alien swarm start to engulf the screen and start attacking our heroes. The effects in the underwater scene where the Alien swims underwater and tries to catch up with his prey were quite good. Where Alien Resurrection is set is natural for an Alien film but it's a bit repetitive. It even recycles a bit of the plotline from the first movie where Call (another android like Bishop from Aliens and Alien 3) sets the spaceship on a collision course to Earth, much like the spaceship in Alien that was set to blow up to stop the Alien from escaping. I thought the acting was good - I enjoyed seeing Ron Perlman playing a bad tempered mercenary, having seen him first in Hellboy. Ripley played once again by Sigourney Weaver was a little bit less of a heroine in this one than in Aliens since she has a link with the Aliens. She now has enhanced strength, acidic blood and can smell an Alien from a mile away and can even tell if a human has an Alien inside him or her. She seems to accept that she now has a link with the Aliens produced and theoretically, she is their mother because she gave birth to their queen: She even says to an Alien host, Pervis, "I'm the monsters mother" while slightly grinning. This movie does inject some originality into its Alien character design with the introduction of the Alien/Human hybrid which is what you get if you give an Alien queen a female humans womb, then let it give birth. This Alien/Human hybrid looks like a white ape and doesn't kill anyone except for its mother, due to the fact that Ripley is the "proper" mother of the Aliens. This movie just like the previous movies is gory; the scene where the Alien/Hybrid gets sucked out of the ship through a tiny hole in the ship is especially gory. He has very little screen time so I didn't really see why they put him in it. This is not a suspenseful, horror movie like Alien and Alien 3. I have to compare this movie to Aliens due to the fact that there is more than one Alien again unlike Alien and Alien 3 but there is nowhere near as much action in this movie than there was in Aliens but at least there is some action with the mercenaries and the Aliens. I still prefer Aliens because it had a better plot but I really have to confess this: I think this is the 2nd best movie in the franchise, beating Alien by a fraction. I just thought it was a little bit more exciting and a lot more was happening to keep me entertained rather than just waiting for something to happen in Alien but do not think for one second that I don't like Alien because I do. Alien Resurrection's ending wasn't that good: Ripley has a standoff with the Alien/Human hybrid and then the Alien/Human hybrid gets sucked out of the spaceship through a tiny hole and then Ripley and Call land on Earth. The ending isn't as good as the previous Alien movies. Alien Resurrection was a satisfying movie to watch and tied up the Alien storyline nicely.… Expand

3 of 7 users found this helpful34

DirigiblePulp

Jul 28, 2017

A one-off goofy, campy, B-movie comic book throw-away Alien universe film. One last ride but knowing full well the Ripley saga was truly wrapped up in the last one. Again though, as is the case with this franchise, this film has its own personality, look, feel and genre to call its own.A one-off goofy, campy, B-movie comic book throw-away Alien universe film. One last ride but knowing full well the Ripley saga was truly wrapped up in the last one. Again though, as is the case with this franchise, this film has its own personality, look, feel and genre to call its own.

Ripley is a superhero now, and she's explained as emotionally autistic so as to not question why she's so benign the whole film (it's clear Whedon knew not to have her slinging quips the whole film, but he didn't know what else to do with her so he turned her into a superhero, surprise). Whedon apparently complained about the delivery of his lines in this film but I don't know. I think most of the actors are game and his dialogue is just OK.

The bigger problems are the lazy plotting (really, 200 years in the future the company still wants an Alien and they still weren't prepared for acid blood? or had a contingency plan in place...) and the lack of characterization of Ripley. There's nowhere else to take her. The only interesting thread involves Ripley kind of becoming an Alien queen at the end (there's mention of cross hybrid DNA) but this an end game play and it's interesting, it's just too bad it doesn't take up more room in the overall film.

Jeunet is not suspense generator, nightmare-maker, or an action stager. He has some pretty sets, and does well with the beautiful Alien special effects (not the CGI though, shudder). The only indelible image in the whole thing is the final shot of the new white Alien thing getting sucked out of a tiny hole. That looks painful, and it's harrowing to watch - notice that Ripley is almost crying seeing it. It's almost like the film made Ripley a mom again only to have her rip it away from herself, but I'm not entirely sure the film understood that, or knew what to do with it.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

grandpajoe6191

Sep 29, 2011

"Aliens: Resurrection" is a terrible movie filled with nothing but pessimism. Its a film that will make you grim and moody in a happy sunny day.

5 of 10 users found this helpful55

AlexR.

May 20, 2007

Alien & Aliens were outright classics. Alien 3 was pretty average. This is just plain bad... Which is a shame, because the first half hour is ace, as is the films highlight scene of the aliens underwater / ladder battle.

1 of 3 users found this helpful

imthenoob

May 11, 2020

It's certainly more tolerable than Alien 3 but equally as bad. I feel like the cast is slightly better this time around but the story is far freaking worst.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Lepstrung

Mar 19, 2016

Over all really boring movie only watched ot because its part of alien series. I think 3rd one was bad so I didnt expect anything from this. Movie has some major holes in plot and I just didnt get like half of it. Why did they have to dive in the water. Im sure there would be other ways itsOver all really boring movie only watched ot because its part of alien series. I think 3rd one was bad so I didnt expect anything from this. Movie has some major holes in plot and I just didnt get like half of it. Why did they have to dive in the water. Im sure there would be other ways its huge ship. Secondly why didnt they kill that one guy they knew he was going to die when he had alien inside him. Only good part of movie was the end because it ended. They could have made resurrection much better if they would have spent more time with it. Also that human/alien fusion think was horrible and ugly.… Expand

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

SEE ALL 88 REVIEWS

61	#61 Best Movie of 1997
5	#5 Most Discussed Movie of 1997
14	#14 Most Shared Movie of 1997