Ellen Ripley is considered a standout character in science fiction cinema because her story feels so complete and authentic. In the first Alien film, she’s a company employee who barely survives an attack that kills everyone she works with. Aliens shows her using that experience to assist a military rescue team, but also highlights her growing into a mother figure for Newt – and extended scenes reveal she’s a mother herself, having lost a child. Alien 3 puts her in another impossible situation, this time on a prison planet with dangerous inmates, where she’s again the only one who understands the threat. Ultimately, she makes a selfless sacrifice in the film’s climax.
Ripley’s story should have concluded there, but the film Alien: Resurrection happened nonetheless. Even if it had successfully delivered on its grand ideas, that might have been acceptable, but unfortunately, it fell short.
What Was Alien: Resurrection Going for and Why Did It Fail?
Alien: Resurrection explores some compelling ideas, focusing on Annalee Call (Winona Ryder), an advanced synthetic being. Like previous synthetics Ash and Bishop, she’s artificial, but more sophisticated. After the Autons—a group of synthetics—rebelled against their human creators, synthetics were banned. To survive, Call disguised herself as a human and stowed away on the ship, the Betty.
The movie presents an intriguing idea about the synthetic characters, but doesn’t fully explore it. It prioritizes bringing Ripley back to life – understandably, since Sigourney Weaver is the lead – but in doing so, it overlooks the more compelling aspects of another character.
It’s never fully explained why Call is so determined to kill Ripley. We know she’s programmed to stop the Xenomorph Queen from hatching, but her relentless pursuit of this goal feels at odds with what makes her character compelling. Call exists in a fascinating space between being a purely task-driven android like Ash and Bishop, and a fully independent human being. This conflict isn’t explored as much as it could be.
While the new character, Call, isn’t fully developed, the biggest issue with the film is how it handles the ethical questions surrounding cloning. There’s a heartfelt moment where Ripley destroys previous cloning attempts, but that’s the extent of the exploration. The film brought Sigourney Weaver back, but not the Ripley we remember. Weaver intentionally portrays the character as detached, with only brief moments of curiosity, which makes her feel unengaging – a significant problem for the lead role.
The film’s final act focuses on the newborn creature, similar to the one in Alien: Romulus. While disturbing, its sudden appearance feels jarring and doesn’t quite fit with the rest of the movie. The ending is particularly bleak, made worse by the creature resembling a human baby – making it deeply unsettling to watch its insides being pulled out as it’s dragged towards a hole in the ship.
As a huge movie fan, one thing that always struck me about Alien 3 was the Newborn. The idea behind it – mixing Xenomorph and human DNA – was technically achieved by the company in the film, but honestly, it felt like a mistake from the start. They clearly tried to make it terrifying, but that strangely human face just didn’t work. Even after it does something truly gruesome to poor Brad Dourif’s character, it just wasn’t as scary or intimidating as the classic Xenomorph design. It just didn’t hit the same way.
While Alien: Resurrection deserves credit for trying something different, it often feels more like a generic action movie than a true Alien film. The creatures could even be swapped out for something similar without anyone noticing it belonged to the Alien series. Despite its criticisms, Alien 3 is actually a stronger movie than Resurrection.
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2025-11-26 22:11