Review of Aliens (1986) by Roscoey — 26 Jun 2011

There are some movies that have the perfect atmosphere, story, cast, and visuals. Aliens is that film, and on top of that it happens to be a sequel. Aliens is absolutely brilliant, its stunning at everything it does.

The film follows the unfortunate woman Ellen Ripely who finds herself confronted by the alien creature again, but this time she's not alone neither are the aliens, "this time its war". This film is everything a good sequel should be, it gives the main character new dimensions to work with in character terms.

The horror elements are still there but now they are combined with an action/thriller-esk genre vibe as well. This new action element is executed nicely and only helps drive the plot forward. The new characters that are introduced are excellent and believable too.

Each character is, for the most part given enough screen time, and depth, so that when they do die you actually care about them. The world that James Cameron creates for this movie is absolutely astounding.

Cameron builds on the already rich universe that Ridley Scott created for the first film and capitalizes on it greatly. Each scene in the movie feels necessary and tightly planned out, making each scene interesting and moving the action along quite nicely.

If you were only to watch one sci-fi movie in your entire life, Aliens would most certainly be the one.