Movie Review: "Critters 4" (1992)

The last time we saw the 'Crites', as they are called, they seized a tiny apartment building with only a few measly people living in it (including Leonardo DiCaprio; I guess it was a better predicament than being stranded on a sinking ocean liner in the middle of the Atlantic ocean). "Critters 4" picks up right where "Critters 3" left off, with Charlie placing the last two eggs in the preservation capsule. Then, he accidentally gets trapped inside with the eggs.

Fast forward decades later to the year 2045. The setting is a futuristic space station and crew of five people: The mean-spirited captain (Rick), the hot Ripley clone (Fran), the young guy (Ethan), the older and intelligent guy (Albert), and the guy with the ponytail (Bernie). They're on their way back to Earth when they stumble across the preservation capsule containg Charlie and the two eggs.

They report this back to their superiors, one of whom happens to be Ug himself (apparently, he's been promoted since "Critters 3"). They are instructed to obtain and deliver the capsule to them without releasing its contents. However, Rick the douchebag is upset because this is going to offset their course home and that the pay for this job isn't what he expected. So he disobeys orders and opens the capsule, letting Charlie out and the two critters.

What we get as a result is a strange combination of "Critters" meets "Alien". There's many resemblances to the 'Alien' films here, from the characters to the setting and right down to the evil corporation who wants to contain the species as opposed to exterminating them. "Critters 4" is not as bad as "Critters 3", it's a guilty pleasure film at heart (kind of like "Maximum Overdrive"), but it still has its own share of flaws.

The information that we gather from "Critters 4" is that the Intergalactic Space Council had sent the time capsule to Charlie in "Critters 3" in order to preserve the last two eggs or else the critters species would go extinct. Okay, that's understandable, but if that's the case, then why did the council permit the hunting down of the critters during the first, second, and third movies?

Why didn't they just preserve a couple of eggs from the get-go if they wanted them? Furthermore, what exactly was Ug and the council going to do with these two preserved eggs in the future? Apparently, there was no point in killing these things from the first movie if they were just going to preserve them to begin with.

• "Critters 4" is set during the mid-21st century yet almost everyone in this movie is wearing 90's clothing? Talk about production effort.
• When Charlie is awoken from suspended animation, he shows zero side-effects after having been asleep for about fifty or so years. Well, shouldn't he a little dizzy or disoriented or something?
• So, during the long time gap between "Critters 3" and "Critters 4", Ug had no way of detecting Charlie's time capsule (along with the eggs) floating around in space? In the last scene of "Critters 3", Ug made it seem very urgent and top priority that those eggs be placed in the time capsule.
• Why is Charlie shooting a gun at a critter while he is on a spaceship? Shouldn't he be worried about putting a hole in the ship's hull?
• At one point, the characters run into some more eggs as they make their way through the ship and Angela Bassett starts stomping on them with her space boots. Then suddenly, everyone else is like "Stop, don't do it!". But why? Haven't these things established themselves as a clear threat to you guys by this point?