Joss Whedon has never made his intense dislike for Aliens' Newt being resurrected, but during development, the studio requested it focus on a Ripley clone instead.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet soon came on as director, with Alien Resurrection arriving in 1997. The fourth outing is regarded as something of a dud thanks to its goofy tone and over-the-top action sequences. While it's not a fan favorite, Resurrection still has its defenders. Weaver is having a lot of fun as Ripley's clone, the film is littered with stylish, inventive visuals and it's more lighthearted than the rest of the Ripley movies. One person who decidedly wasn't impressed with Alien Resurrection was Whedon, who rarely missed an opportunity to take jabs at the film in later years.
Why Joss Whedon Hated Alien Resurrection So Much
Whedon's issues with Alien Resurrection weren't so much that it ignored his script or messed with his dialogue, but it's how it was executed. Per an interview with Bullz-Eye in 2005, he claimed "They said the lines...mostly...but they said them all wrong. And they cast it wrong." He goes on to state that everything from the score to the visual design with Resurrection was off, and it "... wasn’t so much that they’d changed the script; it’s that they just executed it in such a ghastly fashion as to render it almost unwatchable."
Whedon expanded on his feelings in a 2013 conversation with Resurrection role written for Bill Murray) that element of surprise was gone. It's clear Whedon was excited to be part of Resurrection and even had plans to pen a fifth Alien, but the film's critical and commercial response left him bruised.
Whedon's Resurrection Complaints Point The Blame Elsewhere
Alien Resurrection is the most prominent example of Whedon pointing the blame for a film's issues everywhere but himself. He has claimed the original Buffy The Vampire Slayer movie didn't work because of the director and the way it was executed, while X-Men's infamous "Exploding Toad" one-liner didn't work because Halle Berry fumbled the delivery. However, many of his Resurrection complaints don't hold water. His aforementioned casting issues, for one, don't work since both characters are already framed as morally bankrupt scientists seeking to clone the Xenomorphs.
The "reveal" they're bad guys has no bearing or impact on Alien Resurrection's story either. Whedon often complains about the casting, but considering the ensemble consists of Winona Ryder, Ron Perlman, Michael Wincott, Leland Orser, and many other talented performers, it seems the problem lies less with the acting than the dialogue. In Whedon's defense, the sequel does miss the mark with some of the funnier lines, but it's not like it was a great screenplay to start with. As a writer, Whedon is more than entitled to have issues with the end product, but his lack of willingness to assign any blame to himself for its problems is notable.
