It's no secret, but if you've never seen the end of Alien鲁, look away now because here comes the spoiler - Ripley dies at the end of it. You can almost see her muttering "Thank God" under her breath as she falls back into a molten lead sea. But! Using her DNA, she's cloned and brought back to life, now with some rather scary alien attributes. Stick her in a ship full of aliens and off we run once again. While this may be one of the weaker films of the series, somehow this two-disc DVD release (available as part of the Alien Quadrilogy box set) has still been packed full of interesting extra features.
"Very Happy And Proud"
The above is how Jean-Pierre Jeunet introduces the optional special edition cut of the movie which you can watch instead of the theatrical version. Jeunet explains that he is happy with what was released in the first place but has selected some more stuff for us to watch anyway! The new cut is only seven minutes longer but does add a little needed depth to the storyline and a rather Gallic alternate ending. Both versions are beautiful, high definition transfers and come with Dolby and DTS 5.1 mixes which really excel in atmospheric effect. The audio commentary is the dullest of all the Qaudrilogy discs, but does provide good detail on how the film was shot.
It turns out that we weren't the only people surprised to hear that Ripley would be back. In the featurette From The Aisles, Sigourney Weaver admits that she especially thought it a little silly that she was always waking up on a spaceship to find all alien hell breaking loose. Still, she liked the concept enough to come back. Interestingly, we do get some real candour with producer David Giler admitting that he was opposed to the film. It makes the featurette French Twist all the more interesting as Jeunet reveals just how much freedom he got to make the movie, which is quite something after all the studio involvement in Alien鲁.
Production
After watching featurettes about the war on set in Aliens and the disastrous production of Alien鲁, the material on offer here just doesn't have the same bite. It's still interesting, though, especially in the featurette Death From Below, which is all about the filming of the underwater sequence, which should terrify anyone who isn't good at holding their breath. Scarier still is the amount of goo used on the movie, and to that end, fans of icky effects should get a kick out of the comprehensive creature effects documentary.
Post-Production
Alien: Resurrection was made just before CGI effects became good enough to do what Jeunet wanted. All the spaceships were therefore old-fashioned miniatures, and there's a good documentary on how Jeunet tried to put his own visual stamp on the Alien series. Fans of the series will want to make an appointment with A Critical Juncture featurette, where ideas for a possible fifth movie are discussed.
EXTRA FEATURES
This DVD was reviewed on a JVC XV-N5 DVD player.