25 REASONS TO 1080 IT: DAY TWENTY FIVE

posted on
12.27.2010

Director: Jean Pierre Jeunet
Cast:
Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Ron Perlman, Dan Hedaya, Brad Dourif,
Michael Wincott, Dominique Pinon, and Leland Orser as That Guy He
Always Plays.

On the
flipside of Alien 3, this would be the primary “Why Didn’t It Rank
Higher” target. Resurrection‘s a sore thumb in this set. It’s an
excremental film. Despite being the most recent film in the set, it’s
also the ugliest in terms of A/V quality. It’s got the least
interesting production tales to be told. And it’s the one that’s the
biggest waste of time. Fact is, Resurrection shouldn’t have happened,
full stop, especially not with Sigourney Weaver, though I give Joss
Whedon some due props for going out of his way to let Ellen Ripley as
we know her stay dead.

What
Resurrection is is a studio franchise checklist come to life. They
didn’t know what made the first two work, and hated everything about
Alien 3, so they split the difference, going with an arthouse director
in Jeunet, a more action packed setting, a young, hungry screenwriter,
and kept every single one of these things on a short fucking leash. The
result’s a glorious mess. Jeunet is so ridiculously out of his
element, being forced to swallow every one of his instincts that make
his films a joy to watch, but his modicum of influence throws the film
off-kilter in a way that at least keeps it interesting. There’s tiny
moments where his quirks and sense of humor shine through that almost
redeem the film wholesale. Whedon’s script, despite his protests to the
contrary, is weak, basically just throwing characters and setpieces at
the wall and seeing what stuck, and what stuck is not a whole hell of a
lot. However, they did end up inspiring Whedon to refine these
character types into what eventually became Firefly. Sigourney Weaver
didn’t need to be here whatsoever, however, she, along with Ron Perlman
and Brad Dourif, is one of a select few who persevere in this film
against all odds, playing Clone #8 as, essentially, an autistic child
for the first half of the film. She becomes a generic heroine later,
but she plays that heroine with that autistic child in mind, like she’s
picking up one-liners as she goes along and doesn’t quite know how or
why she needs to deliver them. It’s a rather fascinating performance.
It’s too bad the rest of the film isn’t supporting her in any way.

In every
other respect, Resurrection is a master class in bad decisions, in how a
studio will act when they have no real ideas. But even a bad film can
be sorta captivating when you get to see how these kinds of decisions
happen (see also: the bonus disc for Batman and Robin), and to their
credit, the bonuses and commentaries for this film do exactly that:
it’s a view to a clusterfuck. Jeunet smirks around the documentary for
the film, stating over and over he had little idea what he was shooting
per se, but at least tried to put some sort of personal stamp on the
proceedings. The vibe on set is actually a fun, laid back one, captured
and remembered rather sweetly here despite the spite everyone involved
has for the studio and its process at the time, The chapter in the doc
about Sigourney making the behind the back shot is more entertaining
than the film itself. Whedon gets his say, trying to put some distance
between him and the film, and it’s just not happening. However, the
documentary, I’d say, is a more fascinating look at the workings of a
bad sequel than a bad sequel really deserves. It’s like Best Worst
Movie. The final product is almost a supplement in this case.