It's a two and a half hour long fan-edit of both of Ridley Scott's disappointments: 'Prometheus' and 'Covenant'. The first one tapped into the 'Ancient Aliens' hype as peddled by the History Channel and the second doubled down on this cringe, driving a stake through the Aliens franchise altogether.
The fan-edit is a more clinical/documentary style adaptation of the available footage (including bonus material). It follows the synthetic 'David' and explores his motivations and character arc more fully. It removes much of the cringe, but does not manage to excise all the Hollywoke stupidity. E.g. the study of micro-organisms was apparently never developed in this universe, explaining the complete and absolute stupidity of the characters in removing their protective suits in a xeno-biological environment or never bothering to put them on in the first place (as is the case in the second movie).
It was definitely a good attempt and it even gave off vibes of the original 'Alien' movie, but it also had a lot of smaller narrative plot holes. But all things considered, it was still better than the original.
Alien 4 had too many problems. It had bullets going through the outer hull of a ship that looks like a space fortress. Earth has no defensive capabilities. A goofy human-alien hybrid that tried too hard to be bad-arse but just looked like a failure in every regard. Same applied to that ragtag group of misfits. Not impressing anyone. They were also playing hoops in space. ;)
You are 100% correct about Alien 4, it is the 'goofy' Alien film. That comes from the directors, who tend to insert really surreal and black humor into their work.
I recommend you check out Delicatessen and City of Lost Children, their two masterpieces. Both are pitch black as far as comedy and theme goes, they throw in a ton of dali-esque surreal sci fi stuff. Delicatessen makes some incredibly fucked up themes really funny and strange...it is just how they handle sci fi.
That's why most people hate it, and I don't blame them for it. You really have to appreciate the unique approach Jeunet takes in his films and he refused to change for a major film. It ends up with a bizarre mix of horror and sci fi.
Seriously check those two films out though they are both bangers. Subtitled, don't do the dubs they are awful.
I'll check them out at some point.
The coolest thing in Aliens Resurrection is Sigourney making that basket on the first take.
I don't think that's ever been the official claim. I think the official claim, which may also be fabrication for cool points for all I know, is she sunk it on the last shot; i.e. the director gave her one more chance to manage it, and she got it. It took her many, many tries to manage it.
Okay, you got me.
According to Sigourny and her journal, she got it on the third take.
But she had been practicing for weeks wit a basketball pro player as a coach.
It's Hollywood. They lie about everything. ;)