My God..... ALIEN 4 (Resurrection?) BLEW! (1 Viewer)

[mike martin]

I had some fond memories of Alien Res but had only seen it once. In generall I'm a fan of the whole series; but catching bit of Alien Res on the tv last night made me rething the whole thing. Parts were unbearable and I had to turn it off. I hadn't realized that the whole cast to City of Lost Children was in it
(yeah, and I do know why)

 

[Eric Bass]

I used to hate 3, but grew to like it over time. I don't think that'll ever happen with 4. Alien3 was different, but it was still an alien movie. Alien Resurrection is just a gross-out cheese action flic in my book. Lots of fancy shooting, underwater stunts, and a funky new alien...zero suspense. Alien3 at least has some suspense to it. It's a much better movie with the cutscenes restored, if you've ever had the opportunity to see it that way. Shame there is no plan for a dvd of that because I'd love to see it that way again. My biggest problem with alien3 would have to be the piss-poor effects.

By the way, I'm of the opinion that you need to chop the endings off of both aliens and alien3 to really respect them. I know it's kind of a trademark of the series to have a big ending after the movie seems to have aleady ended, but they get worse every time I swear.

 

[Paul_D]

Joss Whedon has publicly stated that this is not the film he wrote, and pretty much disowned it

Yeah, I read that he cried at an early screening!
Warranted dismay IMO.

 

[Norm]

I agree this movie sucks! I hate the whole cloned Alien/Human idea.

 

[Eric Bass]

I was never able to figure out exactly how DNA from Ripley would contain alien DNA. I figured it just inserted a little alien who used human DNA and biomass to complete itself and grow. Why would the host organism's be mixed with that of the parasite. That's like saying if you close someone who has a leech on them you will get both the person and the leech.

 

[Howard Williams]

I liked all four Alien movies and Judge Dredd. I anxiously anticipation sequels for either or both. I did hate Alien 3 at first but it grew on me too over time. I agree that 3 & 4 are unfairly maligned.

 

[Paul Mason]

In case anyone is interested, I don't have the original script but here are some comments by Joss Whedon on the experience of working on Alien 4 -

The worst thing about these things is that, when the actors say it wrong, it makes the writer look stupid. People assume that the line... I listened to half the dialogue in Alien 4, and I'm like, "That's idiotic," because of the way it was said. And nobody knows that. Nobody ever gets that. They say, "That was a stupid script," which is the worst pain in the world. I have a great long boring story about that, but I can tell you the very short version. In Alien 4, the director changed something so that it didn't make any sense. He wanted someone to go and get a gun and get killed by the alien, so I wrote that in and tried to make it work, but he directed it in a way that it made no sense whatsoever. And I was sitting there in the editing room, trying to come up with looplines to explain what's going on, to make the scene make sense, and I asked the director, "Can you just explain to me why he's doing this? Why is he going for this gun?" And the editor, who was French, turned to me and said, with a little leer on his face, [adopts gravelly, smarmy, French-accented voice] "Because eet's een the screept." And I actually went and dented the bathroom stall with my puddly little fist. I have never been angrier. But it's the classic, "When something goes wrong, you assume the writer's a dork." And that's painful.

Full interview is here http://www.theonionavclub.com/avclub...ture_3731.html
He also talks about the original Buffy movie, X-Men, Waterworld and various other things he's worked on - but mainly the TV series of Buffy.

 

[Paul Mason]

'nother Joss quote -

IMDB says I directed a very special episode of Boy Meets World, and I laughed so hard. I've never seen the show, but apparently it's on the Internet that I directed one. Boy has never met world. Let me put it this way. The episode of Boy Meets World that I never made, I'm still prouder of than Alien: Resurrection.

 

[Tom-G]

Whedon is given credit for writing and the writing was less than stellar to put it mildly. I loved the visuals in Alien: Resurrection, bu the story left a lot to be desired as it failed to elaborate on the other three films. The ending was an atrocity and the dialogue was banal. It's too bad that the talents of Jeunet were wasted. He's a talented director.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

I read an early draft of Alien 4 on http://www.script-o-rama.com I think that was like a 3rd or 4th draft
Do you know how many uncredited people touch your average script? For example, in the original version they kill the baby alien on the surface, after they land, instead of it getting sucked out a bitty hole, that's the only huge thing I remember.
I think Lord Whedon's quotes speak for themselves.

 

[Chad R]

I read the shootig script for "Alien:Resurrection" (draft before numerous rewrites) and it read like "Aliens." That was the style Joss was trying to harken back to. A suspense heavy action movie.

Unfortunately the brass at FOX wanted to harken back to the original, a stylish movie with an emphasis on design, which is why they hired Jeunet.

What resulted was a complete mismatch of a movie where the director clashed with the writer. That's not to say that either man did a poor job, just that Jeunet was the wrong director for that script, or Whedon was the wrong writer for the movie. It depends on how you look at it.

Personally, I'd rather have seen a return to "Aliens."

 

[Chad Ferguson]

I was told that over 40 minutes of footage was taken out of the original cut, anyone else here this? While the film sure didn't live up to the Alien Legacy it still was alright execpt for the new Alien thing IMO. I would love to see the cut footage. One thing I would like to state though is the director, who has also made Amelie isn't a complete idiot so I wouldn't totally trust what a disgruntled writer has to say. Can anyone argue the fact that that the film looked damn right awesome.

 

[Josh_Hill]

I thought Alien 4 was a damn good flick. Good action a lots of gore, just the way I like it.

 

[Ron-P]

I thought it was better than 3, but not as good as 1 or 2.
Peace Out~

 

[Neil Joseph]

I give it a 1/2 out of 5.

 

[Iain Lambert]

Thats always been the problem with handing out blame for Alien Resurrection for me. The suspects are all very talented people:

1) The Script - Well, thats Lord Whedon. Creator of Buffy (clearly the best program currently on TV), and writer of Toy Story (possibly my favorite animated film).

2) The Direction - Jeunet has yet to make a French film that isn't a masterpiece, so thats not an easy target to blame.

3) That Newborn everyone else hates - Chris Cunningham directed Bjork's "All Is Full Of Love" along with Aphex Twin's "Come To Daddy" and "Windowlicker", three of the greatest music videos of all time. He also did creature design for Alien3 and the beautiful shiny black ones in Resurrection, along with those mutations that make the best scene work so well. No easy target there either.

So I think its fair to say Chad is right here; while these guys do great work on their own, it just didn't gel at all there.

 

[DaveF]

...Lord Whedon... writer of Toy Story

How much of the writing did he do? He's listed as the fifth of eight in the Toy Story writing credits at IMDb (Link Removed).
Just curious.

 

[Paul Mason]

Dave,

To be fair - the first 4 writer credits are for story and Joss is the first of the remaining 4 writing credits.

My guess would be he wrote a lot of the jokes. It's a cliche amongst Buffy fans but if you pick your favourite joke in a Buffy episode and chances are Joss wrote it.

 

[Iain Lambert]

Whether or not he was the main writer and the first four Pixar guys developing the gist of the story before getting an external writer in, or if he got that billing through the strange process the Writers Guild uses I don't know. "You Are A TOY!!!" - "You are a sad, strange little man" does sound like Joss though. It certainly fits my 'Whedon joke test' method however; 'does it sound like its been delivered by Xander?'

I suppose all that matters for the point of the thread though is that I think the guy is a talented writer.

 

[PhilipG]

...Buffy (clearly the best program currently on TV)...

Unless you count The West Wing, Frasier, The Sopranos, Family Guy or Farscape, which are not quite so trite, and have consistently good episodes. Buffy is very variable at the moment; the best ep is still 'Hush'. All IMHO, of course...
I guess I'm the only one who liked the Newborn in Alien Resurrection (not that I want to see that evolution return in any future Alien film of course).
[Kleist-proof flamesuit on]As for "Lord" Whedon, he just seems to me to be a youngster's version of David E Kelly.[Kleist-proof flamesuit off]