Made for $70 million and earning more than $160 million in worldwide receipts, Alien: Resurrection earned a profit for 20th Century Fox, but nevertheless proved the least successful addition to the franchise at that point. Subsequent efforts on Weaver’s part to develop a fifth entry featuring Ripley, with the original’s director Ridley Scott at the helm, disappeared after the studio had lost interest. The Alien series would become the stuff of videogames and action figures, and the days of artistic credibility had long since passed. In some ways, Jeunet and Whedon made a worse movie than the abysmal Alien vs. Predator movies to follow, because at least those movies’ creative ambitions were low, making the outcome decidedly less offensive. Alien: Resurrection has lofty objectives and achieves none of them with its lack of nuance, substance, and restraint. For devoted fans, it’s an abomination that, like its central monster, deserves to be sucked out into space from a tiny opening and forgotten for all time.

This is a series whose inspiration has come, gone, and been forgotten. I'm aliened out. The fourth movie, depends on a frayed shoestring of a plot, barely enough to give them something to talk about between the action scenes.... What impact will "Alien Resurrection" have on the careers of Weaver and Ryder? Financially, it will help: Weaver remains the only woman who can open an action picture. Artistically, the film will have no impact at all. It's a nine days' wonder, a geek show designed to win a weekend or two at the box office and then fade from memory. Try this test: It's been five months since "Jurassic Park: The Lost World" opened. How often do you think about it?