Mike Forshaw

Many fans rate this one higher over Alien 3 but I certainly do not. Alien Resurrection is a jumbled mess of a movie where, for me, nothing works. I hated the concept of half human/half alien Ripley with her dumb one-liners and weird behaviour, the naff script by Joss Whedon is very jarring in tone compared to the previous 3 films; with comic-book action and feeble attempts at humour. It does have a unique 'look' about it and some good gore, but that stupid creature in the finale was the icing on the cake for me with this one. Dreadful...but not as bad as AVP Requiem.

This unfairly-derided sequel in the Alien franchise is excellent IMO. People expecting and wanting Aliens 2 were always gonna be disappointed. Indeed, it is dark and downbeat but it has fantastic performances, stunning set-pieces and sequences, great FX (mostly) and score, with an awesome directorial debut from Fincher. Better seen in the 2003-released 'assembly cut' version, which restores a huge chunk of plot in the middle act.