Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that even with the built-in kid/video game appeal, this monster movie has very harsh elements of bloody killing and cynical inhumanity, as well as explicit swearing and sex talk. Even Ellen Ripley, moral anchor of this series, has here turned into a violent bad-girl parahuman mutant. Human beings in general are vile and treacherous, and when one refers to the Earth of tomorrow as a "s--thole" you don't disbelieve that people like this have made it that way. When one especially monstrous alien mutation dies in a slow, ghastly way, Ripley (and you) feel sorry for it -- rather more so than for the people.
Families can talk about the different tones of the various Alien movies, and which ones work for kid viewers, and why. Do you think this clone Ripley makes an effective and complex heroine, on the level of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Do you think the movie makes people seem even worse than the hideous aliens?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Charles Cassady, Jr.
In the nightmarish Alien3, the story seemed over. But ALIEN RESURRECTION opens with the test-tube-rebirth of career alien-fighter Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver). Military scientists still hoping to exploit the aliens as weapons surgically remove an infant alien and -- rather half-heartedly -- let the clone Ripley live on. She's a different Ripley now, with super strength and a psychic bond with the vicious aliens. When aliens escape and overwhelm the soldiers, Ripley and a ragtag bunch of smugglers try to escape the alien bloodbath. But one of the civilians, a girl called Call (Winona Ryder), belongs to an anti-alien underground, and questions which side Ripley is really on.
Critics and viewers who mostly disliked this movie upon its release probably would have changed their tunes if it had come along a few years later, when the scriptwriting credit of Joss Whedon would have stood out more. Whedon, a hotshot scriptwriter for comics, movies, and TV, became a brand name by making Buffy the Vampire Slayer a small-screen classic. His works lean toward strong, super-powered female characters fighting the forces of overwhelming darkness. Buffy fans might find this juicy territory indeed, if they can stomach Alien Resurrection's grotesque visuals, carnage, toilet talk, and pessimistic themes. That's a big "if."
Weaver has fun exploring the newfound dark side of her character, and overall the Alien series wouldn't have been half as good without her (check out Alien Vs. Predator, for example). But even with the outsized stunt gun-battles, borrowed Buffy vibe, and comic-book heroics, this is a dark spectacle that seems to conclude that no matter how downright demonic the aliens seem, humans are inherently worse.
Better alien movies for teens:
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
X-Files: The Movie
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Signs
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Sexual ContentBrief shots of nude Ripley clones, in undeveloped or mutated states, with bare breasts, no genitalia visible. Lascivious remarks by crew members. |
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ViolenceHuman characters are clawed bloody by the savage aliens, get torn apart, shot, cremated, or have embryo aliens burst out of them. Much gunfire and explosions, and the aliens themselves are dismembered. |
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LanguageOverwhelming use of "f--k," "s--t," "hell," "a--hole." |
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Message |
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Social BehaviorThe aliens are starting to look good by comparison -- which might be the movie's point. While Sigourney Weaver has been an audience anchor through this series, her cloned heroine is more threatening and violent. Other characters are punkish, profane space criminals, inhumane scientists, or despotic and evil military men. Cast is multicultural, and there's one tough paraplegic with survival skills. |
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Commercialism |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoSocial drinking. |
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