Alien+Resurrection

Alien Resurrection is about a crew that is trapped on a ship containing a dozen lab bred aliens. Among the crew is Ripley, who was cloned after her death 200 years ago in order to grow the alien queen which was inside her at her time of death. However, when things go south and the aliens escape, the crew has to find a way to survive and to stop the aliens before the ship returns to Earth. While on the surface this may just seem like any other alien movie, there are actually many themes that govern the principals of the characters. One theme which I found quite whimsical yet utterly true was that evidenced by the character dialogue “No human being is that humane,” referring to the loss of the locus of our identity and the decreasing moral values of man. Another evident and powerful theme was that of the importance of family, which is expressed in the scene I chose.

Towards the end of the film, after the crew get off the main ship and onto the civilian vessel, they find out that the new humanoid alien managed to get aboard the vessel. The newborn humanoid alien thinks Ripley is it’s mother because, in a way, that is true. Therefore, when it sees a soldier it kills him instantly, but when he spots Ripley, they embrace and cuddle, showing that even between alien and human species, the importance of family does not falter.

The mis-en-scene in this scene was abundantly clear. The lighting was bright and high-key, the colors were warm, and the cinematography and sound was effective in achieving the desired effect. Jean Jeunet managed to pull off an emotionally rich and powerful scene in context of a deadly alien trying to kill people.

Lighting in this scene was very high key. In the rest of the movie, the lighting was low-key, and scenes with the aliens tended to be in dim lighting without much visibility for the most part. However, this last scene took place in a brightly lit, sepia toned room, exposing the alien entirely to light. This low key lighting paired with warm colors helps bring across the theme of the importance of family, as when the same alien was killing people earlier on, the lighting was extremely high key and was set in a cold, dark place.

The sound in this scene was emotionally powerful; a combination of orchestral music and the loud wails of the dying alien. This allowed the scene to be successful, as when I muted the wails and sad orchestral music, the intensity of Ripley’s emotional pain and the alien’s both physical and emotional seemed to decrease, although not entirely due to the other elements’ helping to bring the theme across.

The editing was effective in cutting between Ripley and the alien in succession to show the emotions of both, that Ripley has feelings for her “creation” and the alien for its “mother”. Each cut was also closer and closer, which brought out the emotion even more. The editing was most effective in showing the mother-son relationship while also showing the context of the scene. Cutting between the window, Call, Ripley, and the alien allowed both plot and theme to be conveyed.

Cinematography was very different also to the rest of the film. Usually in scenes in which the aliens appear, the shots tend to show very little of the alien with some exceptions. However, in this last scene the cinematography was utterly different, with an abundance of close up shots between the alien and Ripley, highlighting the mother-son relationship. Also, the alien was brought into light, which shows some goodness in it, goodness resembled by it’s care for family. Also, when the alien was trapped by the window and about to die, the camera slowly pushes in on Ripley’s face while the alien’s wails grow louder, which is significant of Ripley’s pain as she watches her own creation get sucked into oblivion, literally.

Look at that sad face :( 