Alien Resurection

And there's another twist. The alien's have a bit of human, if not humanity in them.

The first Alien movie was slow and tremulous at times, counting successfully on suspense and tension to enthral us, nearly twenty years ago.

Who could forget that first baby alien crunching out of poor John Hurt's chest as he lay on that table in the mess hall. Or Ripley finally blasting that beast of a thing out of the survival capsule.

Or the terror or wondering where the damn things were. Seen again though Alien is a little ponderous.

Aliens, finished in 1986, is still the best of the four I think, although Alien Resurrection comes a close second.

Such important decisions demand more time to ponder than the day I've had since I first experienced Alien Resurrection, but although here were many moments when Alien Resurrection excelled, there were a few others where it lagged briefly.

Aliens on the other hand never lagged! Finding that little girl called Newt in amongst the carnage never lagged. Ripley's commandeering of the assault vehicle and the escape of some of them from the first nest was astounding.

The automatic sentry weapons, Lance Henrickson's android, and the systematic slaughter of the crew, not to mention those horrible creatures on the chase, made Aliens one of the best movies yet made.

Then came Alien3 in 1992 and this one was a bit of a disappointment. Each of the four Alien movies has had a different writer and director and the team in Alien3 tried to lighten the genre and were left with a limp fish, comedy alien movie! - except for one scene.

Remember when one of the Aliens corners Ripley, sniffs her and then moves away? Then we all knew that Ripley had one of the bastards within her. What a film moment!

And then later on Ripley destroys herself and the Alien within her.

So along comes Alien Resurrection. Ripley two hundred years on has been cloned from small fragments of DNA that have been found somewhere. But some of her is Alien and it turns out that a little of the Alien is in Ripley.

Ripley in Alien Resurrection is inhumanly strong and a bit weird. Sometimes she swings her head like an alien and the effect is remarkable. She sniffs and she doesn't care about much.

We don't know if she can be trusted. Alien Resurrection revolves around this transformation and Sigourney Weaver absolutely superbly produces the goods.

We see more of the Aliens in Alien Resurrection than we have ever seen before, which was probably also necessary because we weren't going to continue to be satisfied by the old blood through the steel plates and the double jaws trick

A large part of the team from Delicatessen and City Of Lost Children came on board for Alien Resurrection with their particular brand of brooding, claustrophobic, whacky sick humour.

Winona Ryder becomes part of the assault team and is as human and as appealing as Winona Ryder can be, but of the supporting actors Ron Perlman shines.

His scarred face and massiveness augments Ripley's strength and alien strangeness.