Review of Aliens (1986) by Neo010390 — 25 May 2011

"In space no one can hear you scream". This was the tagline for the 1979 cult classic movie Alien. Well now its new tagline is, "This time it's war". When I first saw Alien, I was blown away completely by its intense story, great special effects and superb acting, and I thought there is no way they can top this, but I was wrong.

Its sequel, Aliens, is as terrifying and exiting, with twice the amount of action. The story takes place 57 years after the events of the first film, where Ripley escaped in the pod and ejected the alien into deep space.

Having drifted into space for so long, she is rescued by a bunch of space crew members. Although trying to convince to the executives from her employer the events that occurred, even explaining how her crew got killed, they refuse to believe her and as a result terminate her space flight license.

Ripley also discovers that the planet, where her former crew first found the alien, is now home to a colony of co workers, with women and children. Later Ripley is visited by one of the executive staff named Burke and a Lieutenant, who informs her that they have lost contact with the colony on the planet.

They plan to send a number of marines, led by the Lieutenant, to investigate what is going on, and they would like Ripley to be their consultant. Hesitant at first, Ripley and Burke come to a deal that as long as they don't bring any unknown creature back to the ship and her space flight license is restored, she will accompany them.

Once they land and investigate the colony, the marines discover that the co workers have all been killed by some horrific creature, Ripley suspects with no surprise at all, that this was done by the aliens.

They then encounter a survivor, a little girl called Newt who informs them that everyone else is dead. At first in shock and trauma - even refusing to speak to anyone, finally starts talking, but only to Ripley as she somewhat feels more protected around her.

Then all hell breaks loose, as the aliens surround the marines, as they attempt to fight them off with their pulse rifles. This film retains its special effects from the first film; there are great shots in out of space (even though we only see bits of them for a few seconds in the first 30 minutes), and of course those fabulous designs of the aliens.

They look somewhat a little different, and in my opinion better, than the design for the first alien. The performance from the cast is once superb, especially from Sigourney Weaver; she has really upped her game from the last time.

In the first film she was like an outsider from the rest of the crew, but in this one she is really the main star. She's like a female Bruce Willis in the Die Hard movies, because she is more fearless then ever when it comes to facing the aliens, especially the final battle which I will not reveal.

Besides Sigourney Weaver, the little girl who plays Newt is bright and delightful; she really does a terrific performance when it comes to those traumatic moments. The bond between Ripley and Newt develops into a Mother and Daughter relationship, and we really care about them more than we do of the others.

As well as action and thriller, there's also a real heart to this film. Also the sound effects are brilliant; I love the sound that comes out from those pulse rifles. Usually when it comes to sequels, all they do is copy all the ideas from the first film and rip themselves off the next time.

At the time it came to the conclusion that sequels could never be as good, or better, and Aliens could have easily fallen into the same trap, but for once it didn't. James Cameron, remembered from making the brilliant Sci-fi 1984 movie Terminator, has not only directed, but also written an unbelievable script.

I gave full credit to him for coming up with the idea of this incredible new story, I really think it's that good to be up there on one of those top 10 best Sci-fi action movies of all time. This is defiantly one of the best I have seen in all movies that I have watched in my time.