If its one complaint I hear all to often about Alien Resurrection is that it never does take itself "Seriously" enough. There are a lot of laughable moments in this movie but there's a very big reason for that and that's because the French Director of the film Jean-Pierre Jeunet makes the comic relief aspect a part of the film itself.
Dont forget that this Director was known before Alien Resurrection as a Director that knew how to make "out of this world" visuals and cheeky comic humor like in his comedy film "Amelie". And unlike the previous 3 Alien films Resurrection has "The Best" Comic relief and humor out of all 5 films. It takes dark twisted turns along the way that haunt you like the aborted clone scene but always end it with a dash of humor. Like when Johner (Ron Pearlman's) Character mentions after Ripley burns all the clones with the flamethrower, "Whats the big deal man. F'ing waste of ammo....must be a chick thing."
Alien Resurrection embodies a sense of darkness, awe, comedy, visuals and drama. Its constantly put down for its far removed differences from its predecessors and is highly criticized for "re-birthing" Ripley who was killed off in Alien 3. But taking it as it is, its actually a pretty enjoyable film nonetheless even if we never really knew how the scientists found Ripleys blood on Fury 161.
Out of the two cuts I found the 2003 Special Edition done by Jean-Pierre Jeunet to be the more superior cut. I found the 10 minutes of deleted footage very beneficial for Ripley's character. In the 1997 Theatrical Cut Ripley was merely just a human/alien hybrid that really didn't know anything about herself besides dieing and facing the xenomorphs. In the 2003 Special Edition version Ripley illustrates in some key deleted scenes of remembering Newt from Aliens. Ripley is more interesting in this cut in my opinion.
Unlike many I actually found this alternate intro to be more enjoyable because it fits the cheeky comic humor that Jeunet was trying to achieve in the film and it fits because most of the film itself is a dark comedy. Also I like the intro because I like the slow pull back shot of the USM Augria and the extended score as we see this guy above in a little tiny capsule amongst this colossal vessel. Then out in the distance we see Fury 161 which was a pretty beautiful shot. I know the shot was also in the Theatrical release but It was far more short and never featured the beautiful, long panning shots of the Auriga and the planet Fury 161. I like this intro far more.
Also I found this extended scene with Ripley's surgery quite humorous and funny. As Ripley wakes up from surgery she twists one of the scientists arms nearly breaking it and no offense but the scientist sounds like a little b**tch and it always makes me laugh everytime I watch it.
One of the best deleted scenes from Alien Resurrection was this Medical Examination scene when Ripley discovers a sketch card that resembles Newt. Ripley is seen with the expression of happiness remembering this girl who's name she doesn't remember (Newt) and than sadness as she remembers Newts death. I thought this was super effective for her character and connecting her to the previous films. Its shame it was taken out of the released version.
The deleted Vriess joke was also a nice little scene for the establishment of the humor in the film which was again taken out do to budget constraints. I also like this scene because Johner, Vriess and Call have a slightly extended dialouge in this scene. Such as Call asserting herself and Johner (Ron Pearlman) just "Wooo"'ing her sarcastically. Like Johner was going to take any of Call's shit and I like that.
Another one of my favorite extended scenes in this film is this scene between Elgyn (Michael Wincott) and General Perez (Dan Hedaya). I thought this extended scene added more to Elgyn's character. Made him a little more interesting and devious. The Theatrical version has this cut down so much. Its effective but Elgyn doesn't get enough time to shine in the Theatrical release. I just felt like the pacing was better.
One of the other really good deleted scenes was this scene in The Chapel with Ripley and Call. Here Call goes on to say, "I couldn't watch them do it. I couldn't let them annihilate themselves. Do you understand that?" Ripley thinks about it a little and looks off into the distance, "I did once...I tried to save people...it didn't work out...there was this girl...she had bad dreams...I tried to help her..she died and now I can't even remember her name." Than there's a nice long shot of the chapel in the Special Edition release that I like and than Ripley asks Call, "Do you dream?" Call says, "Yes, we probably have neuro processors but yes we dream." Ripley looks back at her, "When I sleep I dream about them....it....every night...all around me...in me...I used to be afraid to dream but I'm not anymore." "Why?" "Because no matter how bad the dreams get when I wake up its always worse." I thought this scene was REALLY effective for Ripley's character and the memories of herself before she was cloned. It felt like Ripley a little again. This was another scene they should of NEVER took out.
Another one of my favorite characters in the movie is this guy right here, Purvis (Leland Orser) and like Local Trouble said earlier, "Leland Orser isnt Leland Orser if he's not panicking." This guy was the only character in the film that actually made me feel afraid of what was going on in Alien Resurrection. This guy was truly like "what the f**k is going on here?!" We got deformed clones, Aliens and all this F'ed up shit here and look at my crew members beside me all of their chests are burst open. Like I felt like he was a real character with real emotion. besides that I think this little extended scene with him was nice. Johner yells at Call "When were you in Goddamn charge?!" "When you were born without balls!!" lol.
Lastly I thought the alternate ending was way more interesting than the ending in the Theatrical Cut. In this version we actually get to see Earth and the destruction that happend there as Ripley and Call look off into the distance they see Paris left in ruins. I thought this was just really cool and left a lot of things wide open to explore. Like Aliens coming to Earth and all that. Too bad AVP ruined it.
