Review of Aliens (1986) by Dillinger P — 17 Jun 2014

7 years after the original reinvented a genre, the xenomorph is back, only this time its not just one of them, its an entire colony. In the 70's Alien created a monster that would essentially rape its victim in order to impregnate it, causing the host to work as a womb for the fully formed creatures that were extremely deadly.

Alien was and still is to this day one of the greatest films ever made, look up any top 100 list and not only will you most likely find it in there, but a whole host of films it inspired. Fox knew it had a winner on its hands and it was only a matter of time before someone attempted a sequel.

A young James Cameron stepped up to the challenge, writing and directing after his hit the terminator, which had released a few years earlier. Cameron managed to take what was outstanding about the first and ramp the thrills up too 100, this essentially makes for what some believe to be the better film and others to blaspheme its existance as such a wild departure from the source.

Aliens takes place 57 years after the original, Ripley has been frozen in space for this time, eventually picked up by a salvage crew. Once back to normality she not only finds out that everyone thinks shes stark raving mad but that a colony was built upon the destination of her first encounter with the Alien.

She soon finds herself joining a host of marines as contact is lost with the colony and her worst fears are confirmed, there is an army of these things. As I said this film ramps it right up, to its credit it spends a good hour of exposition prior to any guns blazing.

Creating solid characters and setting up the roller coaster which is about to commence. The cast are all superb and of their time with exceptional performances from Weaver, Henrickson, Pullman, Rieser, Carrie Ann Henne and Beihn.

They completely envelop their characters and make the entire experience so much more enjoyable. Stan Winston makes his mark too creating a plethora of eggs, face huggers, chest busters, drones and most notably the queen, which to this day is still jaw dropping to witness and downright terrifying to look at.

However Cameron decided to change the look of the alien slightly by making it more armored, its not crippling but when compared with the other films in the collection these xenomorphs stand out like a sore thumb.

The sets are all built and look stunning and its nice to watch an action film that not only has a bit of brain behind it but doesnt need to throw explosions and gunfire every 2 seconds to get its kicks.

Where this film falters slightly is its dialogue. Cameron has never been known for his earth shattering dialogue, give the man some paper and he will create a visual masterpiece with bombast but its common knowledge that his connection to the human language can be slightly stilted.

Yet again, it doesnt hurt the film, in fact it gives it a comic edge from a modern day viewing. There are some ropey shots here and there, shots jilting out of focus or effects that havent dated quite so well but its short comings as a film are massively outweighted by its triumphs.

Now to wrap up on what I opened this review with, some fans hail it a masterpiece others slam it. For a stand alone film its bloody brilliant, slap it in the franchise and it adds to the mythos, buillding upon aspects, you have to give Cameron credit for being so ballsy to create a completely different experience.

However for my money this film starts to take alien down what would essentially be a more brainless and combat heavy route and it would force future directors of the obvious threequal into much more of the same.

... had David Fincher not got a hold of the 3rd but that my friends is for another review. So regardless of its departure from the source Aliens builds upon the source and delivers a healthy, thrilling, long and fun ride.

Plenty of scares, plenty of gore and plenty of extra terrerstrial slaughter than anyone could hope for. Its not quite the master stroke of genius the original was but who cares, this is a balls out, well made sequel and one im proud to own.