Sigourney Weaver Says Critics Don’t Understand Sci-Fi Movies

Sigourney Weaver thinks one of her movies has been unfairly judged. 

During a panel at New York Comic Con, the actress, 76, said that critics don’t understand science-fiction movies while talking about her 2015 dystopian film Chappie. 

“I had done a film with Neill Blomkamp, Chappie, which I think the critics totally misunderstood,” she said when moderator Josh Horowitz asked her about filmmakers she’s enjoyed working with. 

“They were still, and maybe they still are, evaluating science-fiction films based on their special effects, and Chappie’s just a real story about a robot who wants to be a real boy like Pinocchio. And so they completely misunderstood it and, I think, underestimated it,” Weaver added. 

The actress, who starred as Ellen Ripley in the first four Alien movies, then shared that Blomkamp pitched her an idea for the popular franchise. 

“Neil had pitched me his Alien film, which brought Newt back to life, and I was very excited about his designs and script, and everything else,” she said. “I won’t go into why it was stopped, but it was sort of about control.”

Chappie was directed and written by Blomkamp and follows an artificial intelligence law enforcement robot who is kidnapped by a gang. Joining Weaver in the cast were Sharlto Copley, Dev Patel and Hugh Jackman. 

The movie received a mixed reception and currently has a 32% approval rate on Rotten Tomatoes. 

Weaver also told the audience that she has considered returning to the Alien movie franchise to reprise her iconic hero introduced in the 1979 original, Alien. She went on to play the role in the sequels Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection. 

The franchise has continued over the years with new cast members. Additional movies include the two-part prequel series, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, and 2024’s Alien: Romulus. 

Weaver described reading the beginning of a potential script from series producer Walter Hill, saying, “You know, Walter Hill is a very good friend of mine and he wrote 50 pages of where Ripley would be now and they are quite extraordinary.”

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“So I don’t know if it’s going to happen, but I have had a meeting with Fox, Disney or whoever it is now,” she added. “I have never felt the need [to reprise the role]. I was always like, ‘Let her rest, let her recover.’ But what Walter has written seems so true to me. It’s very much about the society that would incarcerate someone who has tried to help mankind, but she’s a problem to them, so she’s sort of tucked away.”