Alien Resurrection (1997) Review

Alien Resurrection is the fourth entry in the Alien franchise and is quite possibly among the most divisive films in it as well, you either love it or hate it. Most critics and reviewers seem to have mixed feelings about it. A few love it, while others find it disappointing but I don't think anyone would call it bad. It's the epitome of a late nineties action blockbuster, very different in tone and execution from the previous ones as culture had changed a lot since the release of Alien 3 in 1992.

Resurrection was written by the now controversial Joss Whedon, who at the time was probably a good choice because of the recent popularity and critical appraisal of his hit TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so bringing back the Alien franchise with the most popular female empowerment writer in the industry seemed like a good move. Imagine a world where Joss Whedon is the icon of female empowerment. Yikes! That was, and still is, the state of the industry, unfortunately.

For all of his faults, Whedon's writing was on point a good amount of the time, so his work here isn't faulty. Whedon wanted to bring back Newt, the little girl from Aliens (1986), as a clone and have her be the protagonist but the studio executives wanted Sigourney Weaver back and decided they wanted to change the Newt role to Ripley, so Whedon rewrote a good amount of the script to accommodate that change.

Because of his imaginative and extravagant visual style French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet was hired to direct, bringing along cinematographer Darius Khondji to give us a film that stands on par with the previous Alien movies in a visual sense. The production values were high and while the scope was limited to two spaceships and a few soundstages, the details and complexity of the sets made you feel like you were truly looking at a futuristic spaceship, just like in the first two movies. As immersive as ever.

Sigourney wasn't expecting to come back into the franchise and initially refused but since she liked the script and Fox gave her a great paycheck she decided to reprise her role as Ripley one last time. 

The film is set 200 years after the events of the last movie, Ripley is brought back by scientists aboard the military spaceship Auriga. This new Ripley 8 is a clone that shares DNA with the xenomorph Queen, giving her special new abilities and borderline superhuman powers (acid blood and a psychic link with the Xenomorphs among them).

A group of mercenaries arrives at the Auriga, delivering a shipment of humans that will be used in experiments at the labs. Among the group we have captain Elgyn, the brutish Johner, second-in-command Christie, the handicapped Vriess, assistant pilot Sabra Hillard (Kim Flowers) and female android Annalee Call (Winona Ryder). 

Call recognizes Ripley and becomes wary of the heroine, as her appearance could mean the return of the dreaded xenomorphs, a correct assumption. What follows is a battle for survival where our heroine will lead the mercenaries to salvation while fighting against the ferocious creatures. 

Resurrection has been largely treated as a generic sequel but I think it's incredibly entertaining and possibly one of the top 5 sci-fi movies from the nineties. It´s visuals are amazing, filled with detail and skillfully lit, the cinematography and sets shine all the way, really immersing you into the world (probably the closest it came to imitating the original two classics). The production values are also worthy of note, while the locations are somewhat limited they make great use of them and the constant change in scenario keeps things fresh as the film is always moving forward with a steady pace. 

The characters may be somewhat derivative as seeing Ripley trapped with a group of tough soldiers isn't something new but the actual performances, the small character details and the dynamics they have with each other are simple and well done enough that you find the group likable. 

Ripley is just as awesome as ever, her new abilities really enhance her role in the action sequences (which are greatly staged and blocked) and further cements her as a badass heroine, now being able to stand against the xenomorphs face to face. This change really shows the evolution of the character, who went from hiding and using her smarts to a more confrontational and outright warrior-like behavior. Some people may find this modification too exaggerated but this is Alien 4 we are talking about, there's really only one way to go and that is to increase the sci-fi factor to a higher degree.

Filled with practical effects and real sets, the film actually features some fantastic creature feature thrills and enjoyable monster-battling set-pieces that were certainly missing from Alien 3, even the fake CGI xenomorphs in this movie look better than the rear projected blue screen ones from part three. If Alien 3 was the original Alien done with less scares and mastery, then Alien Resurrection is Aliens done with less intensity but with just as much stimulation and with a modernized production design. 

Even if it doesn't stand in the exact same level as Aliens, and even if there´s nothing here truly different from the other films (aside from the fact that it adds more to the concepts), this fourth part is actually a rewarding experience. Total delight of superlative aesthetics and non stop excitement.

The film did very well at the box office and opened the door for more Alien movies in the future, as it proved to still be a profitable IP. As I said, reception was a bit mixed even by the people who made it. For Jeunet it was more of an interesting commercial project than anything else and Joss Whedon found it to be badly executed. However, H.R Giger said it was an excellent film and French auteur Jacques Rivette also praised it. 

I certainly hope more people warm up to this movie in future years as it is a perfect movie to redeem after all this time of doubt.

Blue Seed Beyond (1996-1998) [Blue Seed 2] Review

Let’s continue with the Blue Seed anniversary retrospective.

Blue Seed 2 is a three episode OVA that serves as a direct sequel to the first show. It was originally given a more typical treatment for this kind of direct to video product, but it was then released in the American market as a 100 minute movie titled Blue Seed Beyond by ADV films. 

Two years after the end of the original series the Aragami have returned. This time, the creatures try to destroy San Francisco and the old team is called back into action in order to stop them. What they don't know is that these Aragami have been created in a lab. Momiji's relationship with Kusanagi is a bit rocky but it only gets worse when another half-Aragami girl, Valencia, arrives. Will this Valencia girl be a threat to Momiji? Who is behind these new Aragami attacks? Watch to find out.

This one is often considered to be an underwhelming sequel. Several of its aspects are criticized, like the inconsistent characterizations, the downgraded look and the disappointing storyline. I do agree that these are major flaws but I still think it's somewhat fun and memorable on its own. Not a perfect sequel but one that can scratch the itch of more Blue Seed content.

The redesigns don't really convince me overall, they aren't as memorable and they seem very jarring when comparing them to the ones we got used to in the original series. They have a plastic and slick and clean look, far from the oddly beautiful yet simple and rough designs from the original show. The animation is another aspect that isn't as impressive this time around. I might be wrong, but the animation feels less polished and elaborate than the one seen in the TV series, which kind of goes to show how talented the animators working on Blue Seed were. That's not to say that Beyond looks awful but visually it leaves a lot to be desired and is also hurt by being a sequel to a great work. It has the makings of a generic anime at its worst moments, which isn't that bad anyway. Far from inept but not top notch material. 

The character writing is not as consistent either, some characters look and sound like they did in the first series but the story itself never allows them to show off their personality like before. I think a lot of characters retain some traits but lose their more natural core characteristics that dictate their reaction to certain events. For example, Koume is just fine on paper, being a tough character and all, but her dialogue and responses to certain scenarios feels lacking and too soft compared to her previous appearances in the manga and the anime. It's still coherent with it's superficial aspects but the writing itself isnt really character driven, I think that's what's missing here, leaving them mostly as shells of what they used to be.

There's also little time for psychological exploration as the show needs to be faster and more oriented towards action scenes. Because of this, some of the characters come off as interchangeable at times, something that never happened in the original show. These issues don't make it horrible but you end up missing some of the nuance given to the story and its characters.

Oddly enough, Episode 3 is actually my favorite. It's a secluded bottle episode that takes place in some hot springs and involves a terrorist planting a bomb in the place. It's a bit tense, it's captivating because of the premise, it's not as sleazy as it could have been and we got some more characterization as well. I will say that it's more reminiscent of an episode of Burn Up, Dirty Pair or You Are Under Arrest! than Blue Seed, but a decent one at that. 

The only problem is that it has nothing to do with the storyline of the first two episodes, making the show feel very disjointed. It's also strange seeing a Blue Seed episode that has nothing to do with the Aragami monsters. Perhaps the creators planned to expand the show’s potential and go for a full refreshing new series and touch upon more concepts but only got to do three random episodes instead. I can only imagine watching it thinking of it as a movie, that makes it even more messy. 

Trapped between not having the time of a full TV show in order to delve deeper into its characters and not being concise enough to be a solidly plotted and tight feature film or mini-series. It's in the midpoint, not amounting to much. This is all surprising because a lot of the same crew that worked on the original series worked on Beyond as well.  

Honestly, it's enjoyable, even the emotional moments worked on me, as crude and sudden as they are, simply because of how honestly they were delivered. I can only see hardcore fans of the first series liking it. It's faulty (mostly because of the short runtime) but slightly fun if you know what you are getting into. I still think that given the proper time to develop and more episodes to play around with, Blue Seed Beyond could have been a good continuation series and maybe even successfully extended the series into other genres and territories. 

Because of its popularity, we can find other Blue Seed animated media out there, like Blue Seed 1.5, which retells the story of the show in a condensed manner and with two different points of view. There's also Blue Seed Omake, which are short subjects that were added to the video releases of the original series. They are funny and quick but not relevant. Next week we will talk about the manga everything spawned from.