March 07 2011
Alien Resurrection - the unproduced script that shaped Joss' career.
Time for another reevaluation?
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filops | March 07, 13:41 CET
Some of the points also seem to me to be more aspects of creating fiction, part of drama rather than unique to Joss (or at least not in the way mentioned).
The point about season 6 ending with a warning about magic out of control is fair enough BUT it points out "...just like the magic that resurrected Buffy, or the genetic experiments that cloned Ripley. The resurrection took away something of both characters’ essence and personality.". Except, the resurrection issue with Buffy was nothing to do with the perils of using magic, it was about being resurrected at all - she was suffering because she was in "heaven" and was then pulled out, it was the ultimate come down, the mechanism is irrelevant (not to Willow of course but then resurrection's irrelevant to Willow - except as another step down her dark path - so it's one or the other, not both).
I also don't really buy the point about facing backwards and facing forwards or 'Alien 3' being more overtly religious than 'The Gift' (in Western media, if you have a person sacrificing themselves while making a cruciform then it has religious connotations, that's unavoidable). Buffy and Ripley both sacrificed themselves, both made active choices to do so, both made a cruciform in the process (because of the obvious visual shorthand for selfless sacrifice). And Buffy's death may look more like an "act of struggle" because she took a running jump and she's buffeted on her way down but to me that's a difference in style rather than theme (also, if Ripley's sacrifice is supposedly more religious because she goes passively, accepting her fate it may be worth remembering that Jesus doesn't, not in all accounts anyway).
(and as the article notes, these quite similar scenes are between BtVS and 'Alien 3' i.e. one Joss didn't write)
Well worth a read though, the stuff about Dawn and Call was nicely observed for instance and even if you disagree with it, it's saying something worth disagreeing with.
Saje | March 07, 15:07 CET
barboo | March 07, 15:54 CET
Tumnus | March 07, 16:02 CET
(particularly if you're a 'Firefly' fan, you can see a lot of the elements in prototype form)
Saje | March 07, 16:08 CET
Kaan | March 07, 16:09 CET
BlueSkies | March 07, 16:25 CET
Tonya J | March 07, 16:36 CET
Canis_Latrans | March 07, 18:19 CET
Only movie I have ever walked out of. I revisited it on DVD a couple of years back and it was better than I remembered. Put it this way, it's preferable to Aliens vs Predators.
Simon | March 07, 23:29 CET
nyrk | March 07, 23:49 CET
Neither Joss nor Jeunet has very many good things to say about Resurrection. As a fan of both, I love it. It has enough stylistic elements of both creators, while maintaining a lot of the feel of the series (Brad Dourif's character leaps to mind...not just because he's one of my favorite actors). That said, it doesn't *entirely* feel like the earlier movies; there's a lot of weird humor that the previous movies are much lighter on. And as was said by Saje, there's definitely a "proto-firefly" thing going on!
Also, having read the script, I think the ending is better than the script ending. I also think the movie is better than if Jeunet had written it. That said, if you just want to watch it because you are a Whedon fan, well, you might not be what you were expecting.
narse | March 08, 05:22 CET
SpendTheNightAlone | March 08, 06:56 CET