Later joked about in the season 3 Angel episode "Fredless".

Fred's mom: "I mean, Rog's always had a thing for those disgusting "Alien" movies, all the slime and teeth. Ugh, he just can't get enough of them. Except for that last one they made - I think he dozed off."

DaveW | March 01, 00:42 CET

I prefered the "Ripley beats the crap out of everyone in the mess hall" scene in the final version.

Is that heresy here?

I'll get my coat.....

zz9 | March 01, 01:02 CET

Alien Resurrection was the only film I ever walked out on. Watched it on DVD about a year wasn't that bad after all but the Playstation game was far better.

Simon | March 01, 01:27 CET

I only enjoy the first two Alien movies. I think Sigourney should never have agreed to be in 3 and 4. Of course, maybe the fourth movie's script was too juicy to turn down.



(whimpers and tears) “When I heard that Angel was cancelled, I was having fruit punch, and I thought well Spike and Angel and those other vampires will NEVER HAVE anymore fruit punch that looks like blood EVER!!! It’s stupid. It’s mortal and stupid, and no one will explain to me WHY!?!?!?” (turns evil and all-powerful and causes computer equipment to overload)

G Thing | March 01, 03:24 CET

Simon, I take it you didn't see The Fifth Element in the theaters then.

jack knight | March 01, 03:34 CET

I thought I was the only one who couldn't stand The Fifth Element. I wanted to walk out but couldn't, because I was with a friend who loved it to death. Go figure.

phlebotinin | March 01, 03:35 CET

G Thing, that sig you are using is a bit confusing - I keep thinking it's part of your post, start to read it and then get really annoyed because I've obviously read it before.

We don't really do sigs, avatars etc. here on the site like they do on forums, sorry! We explicitly ask people not to sign their posts (as your nick/name appears below every post you make anyway), and sigs are a part of that rule.

Caroline | March 01, 03:40 CET

I remember reading this about a year before the movie actually came out...and then being sorely disappointed in the actual product. Didn't even know much about Joss at that point.

friarfunk | March 01, 04:18 CET

The Fifth Element is one of my favorite movies! I don't get how anyone could not like it, especially a Joss fan. I actually find Luc Besson's writing to be very similar to Joss Whedon's.

Invisible Green | March 01, 04:41 CET

I'm starting to think I'm the only person in the entire world who hasn't seen The Fith Element or any of the Alien installments.

That said, I'm trying to read the script and it's all going completely over my head. Some basic knowledge of the films is probably required to understand it, or simply common sense, and I'm evidently lacking both. For some reason the insect scene at the beginning reminds me of Jasmine, but that may be the coffee talking.

Faith | March 01, 05:25 CET

I haven't seen any of the alien movies either (except for 20 or so minutes of the middle of Ressurection when it was on FX the other day). I did see the Fifth Element and thought it was decent, not great by any stretch of the imagination, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Tycho | March 01, 05:28 CET

+Faith+: I haven't seen any of the Alien movies or The Fifth Element either. My lack of movie-watching is legendary among my friends.

janeway216 | March 01, 06:57 CET

"Call, not especially dead"
Oh Joss. How I love the parlance.
This is better than the movie.
So that makes Buffy, X-Men, and not Alien:Resurrection all movies in which actors and directors failed to deliver well Joss' writing.

Chirp | March 01, 08:46 CET

Okay I just finished the script. It's pretty rough, but it is obvious this is vastly superior to the story in the film, which I am watching RIGHT NOW. The story ENDS ON EARTH. Ripley fighting the Newborn (for whom she feels no maternal bond). That is emotional profundity, and a direct approach to the intent of the whole Alien series-- stopping these things from killing us all. Most importantly, Ripley has a character arc. She accepts her humanity after the clone/freak show scene. Thus, she's not left chewing scenery.
I think this movie was probably WAY TOO EXPENSIVE too shoot. I understand why it got changed, though I wish it hadn't.

Chirp | March 01, 09:39 CET

It's also vastly superior because the newborn was originally a massive alien made of white bone, not a weird Michael Jackson-looking Creature from the Black Lagoon reject. Shudder.

friarfunk | March 01, 10:16 CET

Michael Jackson looking creature, LOL!

Half way through the script myself, but it's clear it got butchered in the moviemaking. Many basic things are stil there but they're altered in such a way, that what was good about them or what point they had, is taken out. It's also been considerably toned down in darkness, violence and language. Gotta appeal to the families when making sf/horror about fighting and killing horrid alien monsters ya know.

And yes, matter of fact, they did run out of budget. Joss once said he had to rewrite the end about 3 times. They had no money for any of it.

As for the 'newborn', it was just a bad design. I never understood why it was so zombie-like. So skeletal, like it was decaying already. The absence of a nose, like a rotting corpse, was made even more silly when they made him sniff things. And the eyes in the sockets.....he looked dead and decaying. And why did he have tiny little pathetic teeth?? And those boobs! Horrid.

Also felt Wynona was miscast and reading the script that feeling doubles. Call was clearly intended to be tougher and more determined than doe-eyed and whiny Wynona.

I still say I'd love a voice-over commentary by Joss over this movie, saying exactly what he felt was done wrong everywhere, hehe.

EdDantes | March 01, 13:07 CET

i would love to hear a voice over commentary from Joss :) that would be amazing - but i'm guessing unlikely to occur :(

I actually, must be one of the few people who enjoyed the film. I loved all of the movies (yes, even the third).

There are aspects of the original script that i'd wish they'd kept in, but overall the movie floated my boat :)

Although the newborn was a little disappointing, i liked the symmetry ... the fact that Ripley had a part of the alien in her and the alien queen had a part of ripley in her. i just wished the design AND look of the newborn had been better. i actually liked the fact that the monster felt a motherly feeling towards ripley and killed its own mother, some aspect of it was searching for its humanity: by killing his alien queen mother he rejected the 'monster' and sought out its humanity by viewing ripley as his mother. MY interpretation of the film (like the second one especially, and the others too some respect) ... the theme of the film was looking at humanity, what is humanity? who is human? what makes us human? and what makes us monsters? where is the line between monster and human drawn? Are some humans more monstrous than these monstrous looking aliens?

DarkchildeUK | March 01, 17:05 CET

Despite my vehement hatred of the newborn design, I still also like the movie. It's a guilty pleasure of mine; it's not up to the standards of the first two movies or even the expanded cut of the third, but it's the sort of cheesy fun you can only get when your director doesn't speak English and your cast doesn't speak French. And hey, Brad Dourif!

friarfunk | March 01, 20:01 CET