Finally saw the last Alien film, Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Alien Resurrection (Alien 4) with Sigourney Weaver and Winona Ryder. I didn't know Joss Whedon wrote the screenplay (interesting..). Throughout the movie there was a child-like, animal-like inhuman quality in all the characters, with their bubbling energy encased by a strange sort of nihilistic smile (brought me back to the days when I enjoyed watching Whedon's Buffy the Vampire series), their long talon-like, intelligent arms indistinguishable between alien and human.
In a way all the characters made a sort of homogeneous pyramid with Ellen Ripley on top, without much uniqueness in character, though their actions differed from each other. That is except for Call, which was one of the best concepts in the movie. In Alien 2, Cameron brought the message to the viewer with a preachy "see, the robots are more human than humans" plot line which only came across as annoying. With an all too visible suspense built with the "will he or will he not betray us", the humans, it became a forced point of view where the director's ideas (bringing forth a us and them mentality which makes me think he is trying to convince himself rather than the viewers) are pushed down the viewer's throat, rather than letting some of us experience it through a movie. I felt that Call pulled off the message much better, in a more subtle way, even if the messages' lines were sometimes repeated too often. Her death came as a surprise, and I was even more surprised when we found out she was a robot. I was completely absorbed into the movie at that point. Ripley's carelessness (I like how they even described her as emotionally autistic, ha!) with almost a youthful vigor, and Call's little identity crisis (how adorable is that? So that is why they cast Ryder, I thought) made the movie much more enjoyable for a person like me.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet and his staff made a wonderful, unique mood throughout the movie. Everyone felt real (not realistic), like a living thing, including the Aliens. The scenes and characters looked and felt beautiful (especially the underwater scene), the colors and the way the people's faces were captured - you almost feel the love for people through the director's eyes. Everything felt warm and loving, yet accepting of death, and accepting of the fear of death. Even the gore shots felt beautiful and kind, as though - as an agnostic this is a strange feeling - as though a kindly god (masculine) is watching over everything.
The Underwater Scene
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| Okay, too many underwater scene captures! I couldn't resist! |
Perhaps this otherworldly yet extremely 'local' feeling was captured because Ripley has finally finished her bouts of feminism and anxious feelings of motherhood, and came to accept what she is. She indeed did feel like something other than human.
I wonder if this subtle yet delicious mood was achieved because the director was not American. The US unfortunately has a culture that is too focused on gender roles and political loyalty even though individualism is sprawled on the surface.
Anyway, even though this is vastly different, it felt closest to the original Alien out of all the successors - a beautiful human heart was visible.
~ FIN ~
And one last comment. The number of times Ripley put her hand in Call's 'hole' were too many, monsieur Jeunet! ;)
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