Movie Review #47: Aliens (1986)

I could review both Alien and Aliens but I haven't seen Alien in a while and the only thing I remember from it were the nightmares it gave me. But I just watched Aliens for the first time today and I need to write about it. Now.

Aliens takes place 57 years after Alien and Ripley's ship is recovered while she was in cryogenic stasis. She later learns that the planet from the first film, LV-426, became colonized during her sleep with no one but her knowing of the Aliens. After communications with the colony is lost, it is up to her and a group of marines to see if there are either survivors or Aliens.

I liked Alien when I saw it for the first time. It was well-made, well acted and consistently terrifying but it was really slow. That is the biggest and only flaw I had with the film. It's a personal critique but it's what I feel. With Aliens, the first 45 minutes are fairly slow but after that it is a full-blown, adrenaline-pumpin', slam-bang, pulpy, guns-a-blazing alien shoot-em up if there ever was one.

I'm not going to downgrade the film because the first 45 minutes were slow because they used that time for character development. During this time they gave us insight into the personalities of the characters. Dwayne Hicks is the love interest for Ripley, Carter Burke is the wimpy guy from high up in the companies rank. Bishop is the android and Hudson acts all tough but he completely breaks down when he's scared. Which brings me to my next point that Bill Paxton's character Hudson is the best and funniest supporting character. He delivers a couple really funny lines during some very tense moments that really lighten the mood. The character of Ripley is a very revolutionary character in cinema because before Alien, there had never been a strong, tough female action star before Ripley and Sigourney Weaver killed the role!

After the 45 minutes of character development, the action begins and the action does not stop until the final credits appear. It's great, scary and incredibly well made. This was made before the age of CGI, and all of the set pieces were built and it looks stunning. James Cameron really captured the atmosphere of the planet. It looked moist, humid, pulpy and very fitting. James Horner's score is also great. The Aliens looked phenomenal. They looked so ridiculously lifelike that I'm amazed that they weren't CGI. The production value and set pieces are flawless and this movie almost is too!

Final Report: It is all a matter of opinion on which Alien film you believe is the best, but for me Aliens is far superior. This sequel falls into Empire Strikes Back territory as a sequel. Yeah, it's that good.