Verdict
Summary
Aliens is easily my favourite of the series and despite a slow first half, the build up is worth it and it’s equally a classic in the same league as the first movie.
Plot: The planet from Alien has been colonized, but contact is lost. This time, the rescue team has impressive firepower, but will it be enough?
Review: Sigourney Waver returns as Ellen Ripley in arguably the best entry of the Alien franchise. Where the first movie was all about tension and horror, this movie is tension, gore and ass-kicking action.
Ripley in this movie has done a bit of a Sarah Connor where she has transformed into a warrior woman who isn’t afraid to stand up for herself, especially when “The Company” want to hold her accountable for destroying the Nostromo.
In the Special Edition of Aliens, we get a bit more back-story to Ripley; we find out that she had a daughter who has now died because Ripley has been in hyper-sleep for over 50 years. Luckily a replacement daughter is on the way in the form of Newt, a brave young girl whose family has been wiped out by the face-hugging lovelies. The two instantly bond and a maternal relationship begins. I kinda hate how Newt didn’t make it for Alien 3 as it would have been interesting to see how she developed… but that was the least of that movie’s problems.
There are so many classic moments and one-liners in this movie; it has the most likeable asshole of all time in the form of Hudson, played by Bill Paxton. “Game over, man!” and other such classics make him practically steal the movie. I love how his character is all talk at the beginning; he acts like he’ll take on all of the xenomorphs single-handedly and when he first encounters them and the marines get their asses kicked, he immediately becomes a whiny coward.
You’ve also got the great Lance Henriksen as Bishop; an android who may or not be evil like Ash from the first movie. Of course, he ends up being a complete hero, even at the very end after being ripped in two.
Let’s not forget the greatness of Michael Biehn who used to star in all of James Cameron’s movies, including Terminator and The Abyss. It’s a shame he wasn’t in Avatar as he could have been a great bad guy.
Like the first movie, the first half of Aliens is all build up and tension. It does take a while to get going though and a few scenes could maybe have been cut, purely for pacing reasons. Although fascinating to see all of this other footage, it’s understandable why some of it was cut.
The best Special Edition moment is the mounted guns guarding the entrance to the doors, which are pretty awesome but also provide more of a feeling of desperation. They will only hold off the monsters for so long and then the group are in serious trouble.
Yes, the first half is a little slow but when the action does start though, it’s pretty fantastic.
The aliens are the scariest they’ve ever been and the Alien Queen is probably the most terrifying creature of all time. All of the effects still look great and James Horner provides the finest score of his career which is all militaristic and industrial sounding. It works perfectly during the action scenes but also during the quieter scenes too.
This is James Cameron so obviously the action will all look spectacular and Ripley’s climactic battle with the alien queen is now the stuff of legend. Ripley’s “Get away from her, you bitch!” is recognisable to anyone who knows anything about movies.
Overall, Aliens is easily my favourite of the series and despite a slow first half, the build up is worth it and it’s equally a classic in the same league as the first movie.