Alien 4: Resurrection

On the back of watching Alien 1,2 and 3 in the theater this summer as part of the excellent Paramount Summer Series and Alamo big screen Classics, I rented Alien 4 to round things out.

In this installment, we fast forward 200 years since the alien was disposed of by Ripley on Fiorina 161 in the classic (Terminator) jump into a pit of molten metal . The basic premise is similar in some sense to Aliens, in that man has (again) underestimated the alien, this time trying to tame it in a laboratory so it can be used as a military weapon. Ripley has been genetically re-engineered from blood on the prison planet from the previous installment. She is a hybrid human that given birth to the alien and then is inexplicably kept alive - (and ultimately will help to kill it off)

The ruff tuff group of mercanaries replace the marines of Aliens and the prison folk of Alien 3. The characters are the usual standard ones: the smart one, the pretty one, the harderened fighter, the mechanic (handicapped here) and the I dont care about anyone guy (my favourite). The one character I was not buying was Winona Ryder as the cyborg - she just didnt ring true as a female bishop. The usual stuff happens - alien escapes, kills everything in sight and starts to breed. The twist this time is that the ship gets pointed on a course for earth meaning tradgey if the alien makes it (we will have to watch alien 5 - the real tradgedy). Fortunately the mercanaries escape and destroy the ship and all the aliens although there are some twists and turns at the end. I think if you are a die hard fan you will like this, but to be honest things were nicely wrapped up after Alien 3 and we could have lived without a fourth installment.

I once said to Simon, has there ever been a series where #4 was just fantastic..Police Academy 4, jaws 4, Rambo 4 are all turds (although Rambo is a lot of fun). I had high hopes for Terminator Salvation, but was let down. Overall I am giving a 5/10 because there was nothing new here really.