As underwhelming as the third instalment of the Alien series was, you can at least understand why the temptation to make it was so great. The reasoning behind green-lighting this after-thought of a movie, on the other hand, is completely flummoxing.
After all, the key character Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) died at the end of the last one, along with any real avenue along which the franchise could credibly be kept alive. So, in order to bring Weaver into the story, were whisked 200 years on from Alien3, where scientists aboard a military spacecraft have successfully(ish) cloned Ripley using blood samples from one of her many scuffles.
The plan? To get the alien queen out of her body and use it to create a snarling pack of said beasties for their own non-specified but doubtlessly stupid motives. Needless to say, this creates a couple of problems. For one thing, the new Ripleys got a touch of alien DNA in her system which means that, as well as suddenly being incredibly good at basketball, shes gone a bit loopy. And not like in Aliens where the folks back on Earth just THOUGHT she was loopy. This time, she genuinely is as mad as a hatter.
An even bigger problem is that, inevitably, the aliens break loose, wreak havoc, and Ripleys left with only a gang of space mercenaries (among them Winona Ryder) to help her restore order. Cue the usual array of chase scenes, swearies, and frenzied shooting at nothing in particular.
Amelie director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (in case you couldnt guess from the name, hes French) adds little that hasnt already been covered to vastly superior effect in one of the previous outings. Except for sporadic instances of boredom, perhaps.
Weaver, meanwhile, seems wholly uncomfortable with some of the lines shes expected to deliver, especially as the new Ripley appears to have a little unexplained Schwarzenegger DNA hiding in there as well. At one point, after blasting one of the critters to Kingdom Come, she quips Was it everything youd hoped for?. Eh? Lets face it, that doesnt even make sense.