History YMMV / AlienResurrection

* TooCoolToLive: [[spoiler:The gravely-voiced head of the Betty crew Captain Elgyn is portrayed as a careless space pirate and ladies man. He's also the first of them to die in a rather sudden and painful death.]]

** Whether or not this film is better or worse than ''Film/Alien3''. The latter was reviled upon its release but has since found more fans as time went on, while this was met with a SoOkayItsAverage response. The whole argument is [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment contentious]].

** Whether or not this film is better or worse than ''{{Film/Alien 3}}''. The latter was reviled upon its release but has since found more fans as time went on, while this was met with a SoOkayItsAverage response. The whole argument is [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment contentious]].
** Also whether the film's set up counts as an IdiotPlot. Keeping the aliens in the same cages for one, and the military enforcers on board fleeing when they attack counts for some. On the other hand, neither the scientists nor the marines have worked with the aliens before. Them simply not thinking that the aliens would kill one of their own kind to escape, and the military not wanting to go trigger happy on creatures with acid for blood inside a spaceship is enough justification for some. [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment You might be picking up the impression that this film is divisive.]]

* InferredHolocaust: Ripley saves the day by crashing the xenomorph-filled ship into the Earth causing an impact blast hundreds of miles wide, most likely destroying the biosphere in the process. NiceJobBreakingItHero In the novelization (based on the original script) you learn that Earth was mostly screwed already, which is why one of the characters says, "Earth... what a shithole." The only people still on the planet are the ones that can't ''afford'' to leave for one of the colonies.

* SoBadItsGood: If you look at Alien: Resurrection as a horror film in the vein of the previous franchise entries, then it isn't very good. However, if you take it as a hilarious, over-the-top, comedy spoof send up of the Alien franchise, then it is a riot.

* NarmCharm: Purvis and his... um, shall we say "creative" way of [[spoiler:disposing of Wren by using the ChestBurster which starts ripping through his insides]]. It's [[SoBadItsGood stupid,]] [[NauseauFuel disgusting,]] and [[KarmicDeath very,]] ''[[KickTheSonOfABitch very]]'' [[AwesomeMoments satisfying.]]

** What about Purvis and his... um, shall we say "creative" way of [[spoiler:disposing of Wren by using the ChestBurster which starts ripping through his insides]]?

* RetroactiveRecognition: Leland Orser, who plays the hapless Purvis, is now much better known as Wilson Fisk's majordomo Wesley on ''Series/Daredevil2015''.

* SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames: The UsefulNotes/PlayStation FirstPersonShooter is considered a lot more enjoyable than the movie, let alone ''VideoGame/AliensColonialMarines''. The game was down right ''revolutionary'' in one aspect in that it was the first console FPS to make dual analog controls the default setting. Believe it or not, this control setup was so unheard for its time (the VideoGame/QuakeII [=PS1=] port had dual analog controls, but it was optional) that critics gave the game bad press for this reason alone. [[http://i.imgur.com/dQy45Js.png Look at this quote]] from the [=GameSpot=] review and try not to fall out of your chair laughing.

** Also whether the film's set up counts as an IdiotPlot. Keeping the aliens in the same cages for one, and the military enforcers on board fleeing when they attack counts for some. On the other hand, neither the scientists nor the marines have worked with the aliens before. Them simply not thinking that the aliens would kill one of their own kind to escape, and the military not wanting to go trigger happy on creatures with acid for blood inside a spaceship is enough justification for some. [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment You might be picking up the impression that this film is divisive]].

* HarsherInHindsight: [[spoiler:Call's]] angry denouncement of humanity for exterminating as many androids as they could find sometime between ''3'' and ''Resurrection'' becomes a lot more nuanced with the revelation from ''Film/AlienCovenant'' that [[spoiler:the entire xenomorph species was engineered ''by'' a mad android, who wanted to use them to exterminate all existing organic life so that he could play god by repopulating the universe with new lifeforms of his own design.]] With this in mind, maybe there was a good reason ''why'' humanity decided that androids were too dangerous...

** It's now quite easy to see the Betty crew as a dry run for ''Series/{{Firefly}}''. The latter may even be Whedon's attempt to show what he really wanted them to be like before the {{Executive Meddling}} he's complained so much about.

** As noted below, the Playstation game based on this movie introduced the (at the time) revolutionary idea of using dual analog controls as the default setting. [[https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/alien-resurrection-review/1900-2637344/ This Gamespot review]] is hilarious now for 2 reasons:

*** The second reason being that the review ends by suggesting that fans wait for ''VideoGame/AliensColonialMarines'', which at the time, had been recently announced for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2, saying that "While no concrete details have been announced for the game yet, this is one instance where the unknown is preferable to the devil you know." Said game wound up being delayed until February 12, 2013, released on the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3[[note]]as well as the UsefulNotes/Xbox360 and Windows; a port for the UsefulNotes/WiiU was planned but eventually cancelled[[/note]], and said game was critically panned...with Gamespot [[https://www.gamespot.com/aliens-colonial-marines/reviews/ giving it a lower score]] than ''Resurrection''[[note]]''Resurrection'' got a 4.7 from Gamespot; ''Colonial Marines'' got a 4.5[[/note]]!

* InferredHolocaust: Ripley saves the day by crashing the xenomorph-filled ship into the Earth causing an impact blast hundreds of miles wide, most likely destroying the biosphere in the process. NiceJobBreakingItHero. In the novelization (based on the original script) you learn that Earth was mostly screwed already, which is why one of the characters says, "Earth... what a shithole." The only people still on the planet are the ones that can't ''afford'' to leave for one of the colonies.
** averted in the Special Edition, which adds dialogue that makes clear Call chose an unhabited area of the Earth to crash the Auriga.

** The Newborn's death scene is so ludicrously over the top in how disgusting it is, that you'd half expect the film to stop mid frame for the creature to [[BreakingTheFourthWall mug to the camera]] and say [[WesternAnimation/BugsBunnyGetsTheBoid "Gruesome, isn't it?"]] [[SpecialEffectsFailure The mediocre special effects don't help, either.]]

* SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames: The UsefulNotes/PlayStation FirstPersonShooter is considered a lot more enjoyable than the movie, let alone ''VideoGame/AliensColonialMarines''. The game was down right ''revolutionary'' in one aspect in that it was the first console FPS to make dual analog controls the default setting. Believe it or not, this control setup was so unheard for its time (the QuakeII [=PS1=] port had dual analog controls, but it was optional) that critics gave the game bad press for this reason alone. [[http://i.imgur.com/dQy45Js.png Look at this quote]] from the [=GameSpot=] review and try not to fall out of your chair laughing.

* SpecialEffectsFailure: The special effects quality takes a major nosedive from the previous three films (the third film already having taken its own nosedive), mostly due to the film's whole-hearted embrace of CGI for nearly all the special effects outside of the individual Xenomorphs. The actual Xenomorph effects ''are'' at least decent for the most part, until the Newborn shows up (granted, most of the problems with that thing were with its very concept. But the execution didn't really help at all). The kicker is the ConspicuousCGI hand grenade that rolls down into an escape pod. Dodgy CGI on complex extraterrestrials is one thing, having a close-up on a poorly-rendered rolling grenade is another. Not helping its case are the ships, which look like obvious miniatures, or the Newborn's death scene.

** The human-hybrid Queen actually ''coos'' at her newborn... but the newborn [[spoiler:rejects and kills her after he's born, because he identifies more with Ripley-8 than his biological mother. It's strangely sad to realize that the Queen actually loved her child and tried to bond with it, only to get killed.]] Possibly a case of UnintentionallySympathetic?

* CompleteMonster: [[MadScientist Dr. Mason Wren]] is the head scientist of the covert military operation on the starship USS Auriga, performing illegal experiments to bring back the Xenomorphs. He clones the deceased Ellen Ripley multiple times to extract the Queen hibernating in her. Most of the clones are born mutated and die agonizing deaths, which he stores for further study. He keeps the second-to-last one [[FateWorseThanDeath alive in constant pain and agony]]. He persuades General Perez to hire a bunch of space pirates to kidnap deep space travelers while they are still sleeping inside their stasis pods, and then implants them with facehuggers while looking on with smug satisfaction. He is ready to [[BadBoss execute all of the pirates on the mere suspicion that one of them might be an infiltrator]]. When the Xenomorphs escape and they all try to get off the ship, [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder he betrays the others and leaves everyone else to be killed by the Xenomorphs so he can pilot the ship back to Earth himself]]. He later takes Call hostage and threatens to kill her in a last attempt to win.

* CompleteMonster: [[MadScientist Dr. Mason Wren]] is the head scientist of the covert military operation on the starship the USS Auriga, performing illegal experiments to bring back the Xenomorphs. He clones the deceased Ellen Ripley multiple times to extract the Queen hibernating in her. Most of the clones are born mutated and die agonizing deaths, which he stores for further study. He keeps the second-to-last one [[FateWorseThanDeath alive in constant pain and agony]]. He persuades General Perez to hire a bunch of space pirates to kidnap deep space travelers while they are still sleeping inside their stasis pods, and then implants them with facehuggers while looking on with smug satisfaction. He is ready to execute all of the pirates on the mere suspicion that one of them might be an infiltrator. When the Xenomorphs escape and they all try to get off the ship, [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder he betrays the others and murders Call as soon as he gets a weapon]] and leaves everyone else to be killed by the Xenomorphs so he can pilot the ship back to Earth himself. He later takes a hostage whom he threatens to kill in a last attempt to win.

** The film in general is an odd mishmash of Whedon's witty postmodern script and Jeunet's French arthouse direction, resulting in a film that's written with too much cheeky camp to be enjoyed seriously, yet directed with too much portentious seriousness to be enjoyed as camp.

* BadassDecay: Chestbursters. In the original film, the chestburster had its victim incapacitated by convulsions so violent that he nearly bit off his own tongue. In this film, apparently the effects have become so mild that you can engage in a fist fight and then stranglehold someone long enough for their skull to also be broken by the creature's emergence.
** On the other hand, this shows that a chestburster is strong enough to smash through a grown man's sternum and a grown man's skull ''at the same time!''

* RetroactiveRecognition: Leland Orser, who plays the hapless Purvis, is now much better known as Wilson Fisk's majordomo Wesley on Series/''Daredevil2015''.

** If you follow Ripley's story across the four movies, and take ''Film/{{Alien3}}'' and this movie as canon, it's pretty sad that Ripley not only lost her friends and coworkers, her love interest, her surrogate daughter, and her life to prevent the Company from getting their hands on the Queen alien inside of her, but that her whole identity is basically absorbed into the xenomorph species itself in her Ripley-8 incarnation. Though she does do the right thing by killing off the newborn alien to keep it from reaching Earth, it clearly pains her to do so.
** The human-hybrid Queen actually ''coos'' at her newborn... but the newborn rejects and kills her after he's born, because he identifies more with Ripley-8 than his biological mother. It's strangely sad to realize that the Queen actually loved her child and tried to bond with it, only to get killed. Possibly a case of UnintentionallySympathetic?

* NoYay: The film features a scene where an Alien is holding Ripley in its arms and carrying her to the Queen's lair. She's not afraid of it, and embraces the creature. The sequence is shot and framed [[InterspeciesRomance as if it were a love scene]]. Now remember that the Aliens are an AlwaysChaoticEvil race of utterly inhuman alien monsters that [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong face-rape people]] and have killed almost everyone that Ripley ever knew or loved.

* HoYay: Ripley and Call. After spending the previous three movies interacting exclusively with males and a surrogate child, Ripley wastes no time in becoming very chummy and touchy ''very'' quickly with the cute little [[spoiler:android]] girl whom she first meets when Call attempts to kill her, while Call goes from wanting her as dead as the rest of the aliens to letting Ripley stick her fingers inside of her (not like ''that'', perverts) and confiding her deepest feelings and fears [[spoiler:about not being human.]]There's also some Ho Yay between Johner and Vriess, which goes from subtext to text when Johner kisses Vriess at the end of the film because they both lived through all of it.

*** The second reason being that the review ends by suggesting that fans wait for ''VideoGame/AliensColonialMarines'', which at the time, had been recently announced for the PlayStation2, saying that "While no concrete details have been announced for the game yet, this is one instance where the unknown is preferable to the devil you know." Said game wound up being delayed until February 12, 2013, released on the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3[[note]]as well as the UsefulNotes/Xbox360 and Windows; a port for the UsefulNotes/WiiU was planned but eventually cancelled[[/note]], and said game was critically panned...with Gamespot [[https://www.gamespot.com/aliens-colonial-marines/reviews/ giving it a lower score]] than ''Resurrection''[[note]]''Resurrection'' got a 4.7 from Gamespot; ''Colonial Marines'' got a 4.5[[/note]]!

*** The second reason being that the review ends by suggesting that fans wait for ''VideoGame/AliensColonialMarines'', which at the time, had been recently announced for the PlayStation2, saying that "While no concrete details have been announced for the game yet, this is one instance where the unknown is preferable to the devil you know." Said game wound up being delayed until February 12, 2013, released on the PlayStation3[[note]]as well as the Xbox360 and Windows; a port for the WiiU was planned but eventually cancelled[[/note]], and said game was critically panned...with Gamespot [[https://www.gamespot.com/aliens-colonial-marines/reviews/ giving it a lower score]] than ''Resurrection''[[note]]''Resurrection'' got a 4.7 from Gamespot; ''Colonial Marines'' got a 4.5[[/note]]!

*** The second reason being that the review ends by suggesting that fans wait for ''VideoGame/AliensColonialMarines'', which at the time, had been recently announced for the PlayStation2, saying that "While no concrete details have been announced for the game yet, this is one instance where the unknown is preferable to the devil you know." Said game wound up being delayed until February 12, 2013, released on the PlayStation3[[note]]as well as the Xbox360 and Windows; a port for the NintendoWiiU was planned but eventually cancelled[[/note]], and said game was critically panned...with Gamespot [[https://www.gamespot.com/aliens-colonial-marines/reviews/ giving it a lower score]] than ''Resurrection''[[note]]''Resurrection'' got a 4.7 from Gamespot; ''Colonial Marines'' got a 4.5[[/note]]!

** Earlier in the film there's Gediman mirroring the alien's movements as he studies it in the cell. ItMakesSenseInContext but it looks as if Gediman wants to make out with it.