ALIEN RESURRECTION

ALIEN: RESURRECTION (vt Alien 4). Jean-Pierre Jeunet, dir. USA: Brandywine (prod.) / 20th Century Fox (prod. and dist.), 1997. Joss Whedon, script. Bill Badalato (I) et al., prod. Nigel Phelps, prod. design. Bob Ringwood, costume design. Sigourney Weaver, co-prod., star. Featured players: Winona Ryder, Dominique Pinon, Ron Perlman, Gary Dourdan, Michael Wincott, Kim Flowers, Dan Hedaya, J.E. Freeman, Brad Dourif, Raymond Cruz, Leland Orser, and Steven Gilborn as the Voice of "Father."

Sequel to ALIEN (film) (1979) and ALIENS (film) (1986) and Alien 3 (1992). Of interest for the mise en scène and the highly organic, moderately humanoid, and explicitly sexual nature of a number of the monsters. Given the very heavy metal of the heavy-metal, cyberpunk ship—"Father" this time, not "Mother" as in ALIEN—there is strong imagery of the organic interposing itself into, as well as having superimposed upon it, the metallic, mechanical, electronic. Note frequency of octagonal and hexagonal shapes on the ship, possibly stressing the ship's as, as well as being transformed into, a mechanical/electronic and vaguely cybernetic hive. Ryder's character is a robot designed by robots, capable of loyalty, emotion, free will, religious faith, and a humanity Ripley thinks should have given her away as a synthetic: too humane for a human. (RDE, 02/12/97, 16/03/04)