It's been over 200 years since the events of Alien 3. Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), despite dying in the final scene of Alien 3, lives on by way of a clone that some scientists have created as part of experiments they're performing that are connected directly to the Xenomorphs. Ripley herself, despite carrying her strictly humanoid appearance, is now partially Xenomorph herself, getting incredible reflexes thanks to this genetic meld. A group of space ruffians, which include Annalee (Winona Ryder) and Johner (Ron Perlman), drop off cargo for the scientists that created Ripley and stick around for a little while.
During their stay, they not only meet Ripley but also become entangled in a fight for survival once the Xenomorphs escape their confines and start wrecking havoc. Blood gets spilled and it isn't long before all sorts of gruesome carnage emerge, all courtesy of the Xenomorphs. Ripley and that group of space ruffians will have to work together if they want to get out of here alive. Yep, another fight for survival movie wherein Ripley has to team up with a large cast of human beings who have a proclivity for engaging in brutal violence. Did none of the people behind these later Alien sequels realize the very Alien movie they were emulating so much, Aliens, worked so well because it was so different from what had come before it???
Refusing to take major narrative chances is just one of the ways Alien: Resurrection fails to be a really entertaining movie. It's also got very little idea of what to do with Ellen Ripley despite her having Xenomorph DNA in her body now. She's got a few cool action moments to her name but otherwise, the character is listless and Weaver's performance is probably her most one-note in the entire series, with her constantly vacant stare and poor attempts at action movie one-liners being laughably poor attempts to convey a sense of intimidation in the character. Sigourney Weaver is quite the talented actor and there surely could have been more they gave the character of Ellen Ripley to properly utilize her talents.
To be fair though, the supporting cast of space crooks is more distinctive and memorable than the various prisoners in Alien 3, mainly because you've got folks like Ron Perlman giving 110% in their performances. Even this rag-tag group has some bland as oatmeal characters, such as a romantically entangled couple with no distinctive personality traits to their name that are obviously being set up as go-to targets of the Xenomorphs. These characters are all supposedly brought to life by credited screenwriter Joss Whedon, though apparently the finished product doesn't resemble his script. That wouldn't surprise me since Whedon has a lot of screenplay credits from this era for movies whose final cut he didn't have much input in while Alien: Resurrection really doesn't resemble anything else in his filmography aside from a moment where the space station the feature takes place in is referred to as a boat.
Following in the footsteps of Ridley Scott, James Cameron and David Fincher in the halls of Alien Movie Directors is Jean-Pierre Jeunet, a guy who apparently loves going for the grisly deaths but doesn't bring a lot of distinctive flair to the project otherwise. Darius Khondji brings a little more of his distinctive traits to the cinematography of the feature (an initial birds-eye-view shot of Ellen Ripley in her cell really gets across the size of her chamber well) but even he seems to struggle to turn in anything too noteworthy in a movie this paint-by-numbers. Aside from some offhand weird moments (like Winona Ryder having boxing gloves that she throws at the camera in one scene for unexplained reasons) and two cool graphic death scenes in the climax, Alien: Resurrection is forgettable sci-fi fare that represents the current nadir of this series.
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