Funnily, I was watching Resurrection last night, been watching the whole Quadrilogy lately. As I watched it, I came to feel that both story and effects took the Alien lore of 1, 2 and even 3, and just turned it into some random sci-fi film. Yes, Ripley was not herself in it, but at the same time, I think that's one of the flaws in movie. What made Ripley the character we came to love was the personality Weaver defined over the first 3 films, and as Dave said, her story should have ended with her death. The worst part of it is the albino, womb born Alien. The design alone conveys a lack of love for the Alien story and takes the path of just making any old sci-fi creature to push the envelop, and even if that were a good thing the design sucked. Cameron created the Queen to push the envelope a bit, but at the same time, it also served to fill in the story gaps, as pointed out by Ripley, "who's laying all the eggs?" There was a need to explain more about the Alien species, but resurrection just perverts it and ruins it. The only positives I found in Resurrection were the ability to see the anatomy of the warriors (I appreciate not seeing it in the other films for effect, but for pre-internet times, it was the first chance to see the Giger-ish appearance) and seeing what they'd be like in water, but that's it. Ron Pearlman was himself, and that's entertaining, but his persona and all of the characters in the film felt very departed from the type of characters presented in the first 3 films. For me, it'll always be, Alien the great thriller/horror picture, and Aliens the great action film, both having great story arcs.
