One of these things is *not* like the others! 
See, Jeunet had a pretty difficult task when he took on the 4th Alien film. I would imagine the pitch was something like:
“Hey, you want to do this film? We”ll give you a lot of money! But, um, two things – first, there was this cool Mother/Daughter maternal instinct thing that was really popular in the second film that we pissed all over in the third one, and we”d like you to make that happen again. And second, we also killed off the main character in the third film, sooo, um, we need you to fix that too. Also convince an actor who’d rather shit hot coals than do another Alien film to do this one.”
“Oui! Groovy, I’m In!”
And, somehow, a guy known for his quirky, circus-like low-budget French films made it work. All the high-tension shootey/escape-the-monster horror you expect from an Alien film, plus the “Ripley back alive and all maternal” bits of the assignment, but done the way a quirky French art film director would do it. Heck, Ripley’s even more badass than before – she bleeds acid and smells the aliens, and, well prolly ought not say too much about the maternal thing. And yes, she actually did that “over the shoulder, all net sink from halfway down the court” shot that’s in the film. First try, with her back turned to the hoop and walking away. That’s the kind of Ripley we’re dealing with now.
Heck, it’s even got the “blow the Alien out the airlock” ending that all of the *good* Alien films have, but quite a bit, ummm.. Juicier… and somehow heartbreaking(?). Yeah, You could say Jeunet takes you some pretty weird places in this film and you kinda gotta go with the flow to get it. Weird, yes – but not pretentious and soulless like some of the later entries in the series. To grok it, you gotta know the director’s work.
So yeah, to fully appreciate the genius of “Alien Resurrection” you really have to at least watch “City of Lost Children” first, because that’s the film that got Jeunet hired.
Then, after a nice soak in the Alien universe, just remember that Jeunet went right back to the quirky French art films, releasing “Amelie” not long after his stint in the Alien Franchise, and you can’t get less “Alien” and more wholesome and bright than that! :D 