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There are Alien movies that scare you.
There are Alien movies that make you tense.
And then there is Alien: Resurrection, a movie that sometimes makes you wonder what exactly is happening—and then somehow makes you enjoy the ride anyway.
Released in 1997 and directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Alien: Resurrection takes the franchise in a wildly different direction. Two hundred years after Ripley’s death, scientists clone her to recover the Alien Queen that once lived inside her. The result is a new Ripley, new Xenomorphs, and one very strange sequel.
So, is it an underrated sequel or simply the franchise’s strangest experiment?
Ripley 8 Is the Movie's Best Idea
Sigourney Weaver clearly isn’t trying to recreate the Ripley from the first three films.
Ripley 8 is colder, more confident and occasionally downright creepy.
She knows she’s different, and Weaver has fun playing that uncertainty. The famous basketball scene is a perfect example. It’s funny, but it also quietly tells us that this Ripley isn’t completely human anymore.
Weaver’s performance is probably the strongest reason to revisit the movie.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet Makes It Look Completely Different
This is where Resurrection becomes impossible to confuse with its predecessors.
Ridley Scott gave Alien a grimy industrial nightmare. James Cameron turned Aliens into military action-horror. David Fincher pushed Alien 3 toward bleak prison horror.
Jeunet brings something much more eccentric.
The sets are strange, the characters are exaggerated, and the movie has an almost comic-book quality. Rotten Tomatoes similarly describes the fourth entry as going “cartoony” compared with the earlier films.
For some viewers, that’s refreshing.
For others, it completely breaks the mood.
The Supporting Crew Is Surprisingly Fun
The group of mercenaries aboard the Auriga gives the movie personality.
Ron Perlman’s Johner is aggressive and funny. Dominique Pinon’s Vriess is memorable despite having less screen time. Winona Ryder’s Call brings another mystery into the story.
They don’t have the emotional depth of Ripley’s relationships with Newt or Hicks, but they make the movie entertaining.
The Xenomorphs Are Still Great
The creatures remain one of the movie’s strongest elements.
The laboratory scenes show Xenomorphs being deliberately bred and studied, which gives the franchise’s familiar “humans trying to control the Alien” idea another disturbing twist.
The scene where the creatures work together to escape their containment is particularly memorable.
They’re not just monsters running around randomly.
They’re learning.
Then Comes the Newborn
And this is where the movie completely loses some viewers.
The Newborn is one of the strangest creatures in the entire franchise.
It’s part human, part Alien, and visually unlike anything that came before it.
Some fans see it as bold body horror.
Others see it as a creature design that simply goes too far.
Personally, I think the idea is more interesting than the execution. The Newborn fits the movie’s obsession with hybrids and identity, but its appearance can still feel bizarre rather than terrifying.
The Biggest Problem: The Tone
This is where Alien: Resurrection struggles.
One minute you’re watching disturbing body horror.
The next you’re watching a sarcastic joke.
Then there’s an action sequence.
Then something genuinely creepy happens.
The movie constantly shifts gears.
That makes it energetic, but it also makes it harder to feel the oppressive dread that defined the original Alien.
The result is a movie that sometimes feels like an Alien movie wearing a Jean-Pierre Jeunet costume.
Is It Actually Underrated?
There’s a reasonable argument for giving Resurrection another chance.
It has a committed performance from Weaver, memorable supporting characters, impressive creature work and a genuinely unusual visual identity.
But calling it an overlooked masterpiece would ignore its problems.
The screenplay can be clumsy, the humor doesn’t always land, and some of the character decisions feel more convenient than convincing.
Its current Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 55% reflects how divided the film remains, rather than suggesting a broad critical consensus that it has been completely rediscovered.
Final Verdict
Alien: Resurrection is both underrated and bizarre—but those two descriptions don’t carry equal weight for every viewer.
Its biggest strength is also its biggest weakness: it refuses to behave like the previous Alien movies.
If you want another Alien that feels like Ridley Scott or James Cameron, this probably isn’t it.
But if you’re willing to watch a strange late-’90s sci-fi horror movie about cloning, identity, genetic experiments and Xenomorphs, there’s plenty here to enjoy.
It may not be the sequel everyone wanted.
But it is certainly one nobody could mistake for another movie.
Rating: ⭐ 3.5/5
FAQs
1. Is Alien: Resurrection worth watching?
Yes, especially if you’re interested in Ripley 8, unusual Xenomorph lore and a very different visual style. It’s more eccentric than the first three films.
2. Why is Alien: Resurrection so different?
Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet brought a distinctive visual and tonal style to the franchise, mixing science-fiction horror with dark humor, exaggerated characters and bizarre creature designs.
3. Is Ripley 8 the same Ripley from the original movies?
No. Ripley 8 is a clone created 200 years after the original Ripley’s death, with Alien DNA incorporated into her biology.
4. Is the Newborn supposed to be scary?
The Newborn is intended as a disturbing human-Alien hybrid, but its unusual appearance and behavior have made it one of the most divisive creatures in the franchise.
5. Why do fans dislike Alien: Resurrection?
Common criticisms include its inconsistent tone, humor, screenplay, Newborn design and distance from the atmosphere of the earlier films. On the other hand, Weaver’s performance, the visual style and supporting cast are often cited as reasons to revisit it.