What was it like back then?

[Pvt. Hicks]

When Alien Resurrection was coming out, for the people that were old enough to read up on it and stuff, what was everyone's reactions and thoughts? Reactions to the director Fox chose? What did you guys think of the cast? The story?

[SM]

Being a fan of City Of Lost Children, I was extremely pleased they got Jeunet.  When I heard they were going to bring back Ripley via cloning I was pleasantly intrigued.  Noni was a bit of a worry.  I thought it was going to be one of those 'torch passing' things and while I have nothing against her, I didn't really want her to be the next Ripley.  After seeing the film, I thought she was miscast and continued to think so for a long time, but in recent years I've warmed to the character and performance.

I was also familiar with Perlman and Pinon and was looking forward to their performances.

What pissed me off though in the lead up was Fox blabbing to everyone the Call was an android.  Or at least making no effort to hide it.  This was meant to be a major revelation in the film - but if you'd paid any attention to the pre-publicity - you already knew it was coming.

As I've said elsewhere the packed sci-fi geek audience I saw it with laughed and cheered loudly in all the right spots and generally really dug it.

[Xhan]

It smelled wrong from the trailer, and I should have stuck with my instincts, particularly on the "newtype Aliens" (as they were called in the japanese ads). Way too much roaring and the design looked off. For the first time ever instead of simply recording the promos and interviews and making of shows, I watched them, and felt more and more uneasy, particularly about the bullshit cloning. If they were willing to f**k that up, when it was the crux of the getting the plot together, it didn't bode well for the rest. I cringed every time Woodruff called the Aliens "wasps". When I got to the theater, I was pleasantly surprised by the direction of most of the movie, and simply ignored the glaring DNA thing and the goofy French AAAAH LE MONSTRE'  attitude as much as possible. Everything was a-ok until the last half hour of the movie, which fully realized every Dark Horse fan's wet dream and made me remember why I hate Chris Claremont so much. The last half hour was crap.

[BauhausConcept]

Well I was quite young at the time that Alien Resurrection came out (8 years-old). I throughly remember being quite excited because it was a an action-packed return to the greatest sci-fi film franchise in history. Even though the movie was a critical disaster, my 8 year-old self thoroughly enjoyed the appearance of aliens on a spaceship with a badass team of spacers to combat them. In particular the scene where Johner drops upside down to shoot the onslaught of aliens coming out of the flooded area of the Auriga really excited me (in my opinion, an excellent action sequence in sci-fi movie history to this day). When I watch Alien Resurrection today I can't seem to enjoy it as well as I did when I was younger mainly because my taste in movies has changed and I now desire something more deep that just pure carnage. So to answer your question, I did enjoy Alien Resurrection in 1997 but today, my feelings are a somewhat different to the movie (not saying that I still don't enjoy it, just not as much as I used to).

[agentdc7]

Well I was quite young at the time that Alien Resurrection came out (8 years-old). I throughly remember being quite excited because it was a an action-packed return to the greatest sci-fi film franchise in history. Even though the movie was a critical disaster, my 8 year-old self thoroughly enjoyed the appearance of aliens on a spaceship with a badass team of spacers to combat them. In particular the scene where Johner drops upside down to shoot the onslaught of aliens coming out of the flooded area of the Auriga really excited me (in my opinion, an excellent action sequence in sci-fi movie history to this day). When I watch Alien Resurrection today I can't seem to enjoy it as well as I did when I was younger mainly because my taste in movies has changed and I now desire something more deep that just pure carnage. So to answer your question, I did enjoy Alien Resurrection in 1997 but today, my feelings are a somewhat different to the movie (not saying that I still don't enjoy it, just not as much as I used to).

Totally agreed.  I was glad the guns and action was back and there was more than one alien, but it looks bland now to me.  Back then it was easier to watch a R rated movie without being carded. 

[Salt The Fries]

I was eleven and a half when I saw Alien Resurrection in theater ( ), and I remember reading about the movie in the press in various sources, and I also was intrigued by the cloning idea. There was a fair amount of publicity in the polish press. I also remember seeing the trailer which got me pumped back then. I actually heard of Jean-Pierre Jeunet at that time, I heard of City of Lost Children and I really wanted to see Delicatessen, it was to be aired in the TV like half of year before Alien Resurrection release date, I was on holiday at my grandma's house, and I wanted to watch it so bad, but I overslept (because it was supposed to be on air in the late night hour), so I wasn't familiar with Jeunet organoleptically speaking. I was familiar with Perlman by that time, though.

My reaction to the movie was overwhelmingly positive, it wasn't my favourite Alien movie back then (I think I adored Aliens the most at that time, but that would be the close second), but it had its impact on me, to such extent that after some time when I got a hold of it on VHS, I was watching it a couple of times a week, or everytime I got bored.

My only complaint at that time, just a minor one, was that I'd like to have a little bit more of stricte action sequences, that would build up the tension and made it more memorable.

After some years, my feelings started to detract, and I considered it the worst of the franchise, and sub-par compared to others, but some time ago I began to re-appreciate it, to some extent.

And I loved the video game on PlayStation.

[echobbase79]

I enjoyed the movie the first time I saw it but the second time it was a horrible experience because I really noticed the flaws of the movie. It starts off great but when the aliens break loose the movie looses something. In the end it all felt very rushed, gory, and campy.

And I can't stand the Newborn (may its name forever be cursed )

As far as reviews go the mainstream press really loved and applauded Weaver. But the fanbase went all to pieces. I think Resurrection created more of a stir than Requiem as far as pissing the fans off. It's a close call on that one but it got pretty ugly from what I could remember.

[maledoro]

After I had read about it, it became the first movie to involve my beloved aliens that I didn't look forward to seeing. I only went out of morbid curiosity.

Out of all of the films, only the first three had given me a positive cinematic experience.

[wmmvrrvrrmm]

at the time of the movie, I was interested in the space ship designs, reading about Jeunet and Khondji's visual ideas, and a lot of people who I knew who like Jeunet's work also looked with wonder about what he might do with an actress such as Winona Ryder because she was known to be very pretty back then. I also read about Sylvain Despretz , Marc Caro's and also Chris Cunningham's concept designs for the movie too. I liked the idea that Jeunet was making the film into a something slightly inspired by the idea of a spaghetti western by Sergio Leone even if that didn't get so thoroughly to the surface

I loved the fact that Helmut Newton had visited the set and had taken photos of Sigourney Weaver dressed as Ripley 8. I also was probably the first member of the public to realise which of Giger's paintings the viper's nest scene was based on.

I thought the movie was quite wonderful in a hallucinary way, as if Khondji's story was more important in a painterly way that the script story, there was something almost transcendental going on there. I took notice of Lars Von Triers influence in a few shots. I didn't like the alien warrior suits. I was impressed by the size of the Newborn and I loved the designs for the deformed Ripley clones in their tubes and indeed the opening shot with the Ripley clone faces that had merged into one another. There were many scenes that were clearly Jeunet's humour that inspired me through my first viewing of the movie The dialogue wasn't interesting at all, the aliens were that interesting and the story was dull.

I am hoping to get the French dubbed version with English subtitles from Amazon.fr as soon as possible to see if it makes any more sense that way. I don't expect anything so different, but just something to get rid of Winona's whiny voice when she calls Dr Wren an "ass-hole" . I think that maybe Giler and Hill's contribution to the movie  contributed to a certain form of substructure and well it was missing in the movie but Khondji's ideas saved it for me as something to think about after and so it was an interesting movie but not specifically as an Alien movie

[SM]

I think that maybe Giler and Hill's contribution to the movie  contributed to a certain form of substructure and well it was missing

That would follow since Giler and Hill contributed nothing to this movie.

[wmmvrrvrrmm]

I think that maybe Giler and Hill's contribution to the movie  contributed to a certain form of substructure and well it was missing

That would follow since Giler and Hill contributed nothing to this movie.

well, gosh, in my chewed up words there there was a word missing after "movie" that should have been "movie series", thanks for pointing it out amd the second "to" there ought to be chucked out. I'm probably just too worn out from the airflight. I must have cut out a line and then lost the structure of my own words. so rewrite that whole sentence as "I think that maybe in Giler and Hill's contribution to the movie  series. they contributed to a certain form of substructure and well it was missing"

[frenchpred]

I was 17, and when i heard Jeunet was the director i was wondering why Fox made the big mistake of a french director, french are dicks in sci-fi, i know, you know it, the world know it...Well i paid the ticket because it's a principe, i was disgusted because the only good thing for me was Joner, and Hillard's ass (pants on-don't ask).

I was upset too because all the alien fans will bash France for killing this great franchise.

Later i bought the quadrilogy box and saw the extra feature, and this douche put a broken Eiffel Tower and Paris in ruin in the ending when 8 and his pals land to earth...It's so out of place.

Unforgivable.

[rycher]

When Alien Resurrection was coming out, for the people that were old enough to read up on it and stuff, what was everyone's reactions and thoughts? Reactions to the director Fox chose? What did you guys think of the cast? The story?

back then... for me it wasnt that long ago,,, I remember seeing Alien in the theatre.  I hope im not getting old....   hahahaha.

I thought it was cool at the time, I saw the poster in the theatre and thought holy sh#t a new alien!  then when I saw it, it was so-so.  Not good not bad.

[wmmvrrvrrmm]

I was upset too because all the alien fans will bash France for killing this great franchise.

I like Jeunet's work when he's in control of his movies in full. There are some scifi movies that are French that I love very much, but they haven't made much in that area. As soon as it came to the surface that Joss Whedon was scripting Alien Resurrection, I thought that the Franchise was dead and buried. When they wanted Danny Boyle to direct it, I thought that there would be no way to dig it back up again.

Anyway, without the old early Metal Hurlant comic books as inspiration, Alien might not have been the kind of movie that caught people's attention so much

[Killswitch]

i was too young to actually care to start bitching about the choice of director. I was just happy that i was going to get another installment of my favorite movie franchise. Back then i just watched a movie and appreciated what i saw. I wish i could return to that phase. I despise haters who cut something to pieces before its even been presented too them. makes me sad