| Aliens (1986) | |
|---|---|
 |
Rating: 8.4/10 (759,707 votes) Director: James Cameron Writer: James Cameron, David Giler, Walter Hill Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn Runtime: 137 min Rated: R Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi Released: 18 Jul 1986 |
| Plot: Decades after surviving the Nostromo incident, Ellen Ripley is sent out to re-establish contact with a terraforming colony but finds herself battling the Alien Queen and her offspring. | |
Whilst Ridley Scott worked on the basis that less is sometimes more, James Cameron goes for more being more, and so delivered this extended cut of his sequel.
Aliens is a perfect example of how to make a sequel. Building on the story, but not repeating it, it is totally a very different animal to the first film, whilst also being the perfect companion piece. Weaver returns as Ripley, and this time she is sent back to the planet where the wreck was found. A colony had been established there, and all contact has been lost with them. A squad of Colonial Marines are sent to investigate, and discover the colonists gone, and the complex damaged. Then they discover what happened to the colony, and encounter a hive of aliens.
Whereas the first film was a claustrophobia fuelled tale of one alien against a whole crew, this is a war film, and Cameron’s fetishist nature for hardware shows through. Every piece of military hardware being used seems to be described in detail by proud marines, and the action that results as a use of it all is loud, brutal, and testosterone fuelled. But the film has a heart too, with Ripley taking care of the only survivor of the colony, a young girl named Newt. This simple relationship that builds over the film prevents it from being just another action fest. That’s not all either, as we get some themes from the first film explored again, with a corporate representative (Burke) wanting to profit from the creature, an android (Bishop) whom Ripley has a distrust of due to her encounter with Ash, and the life cycle of the alien is expanded out, with the inclusion of a queen.
I can’t help feel that the extra scenes in this film slightly weaken aspects of the story. Ripley is now given a daughter who has grown old and died, and this to me takes away somewhat from the relationship with Newt – she is just latching onto her as a replacement for her own daughter. It kind of makes her concern for Newt more selfish than it was when we believed she did it as genuine concern for a young child. In addition, the pointless addition of the auto-gun scenes weakens the alien itself. By throwing themselves at the weapons over and over it turns them into mindless drones, rather than the cunning solitary creature we saw previously. Also, I feel that by showing us early scenes at the colony, the reveal of the events when the marines arrive is lessened.
However, these two concerns don’t take too much away from the end product, and whilst not as good a film as the first, this is a staggeringly effective sequel, and a thrill to re-watch.
