Aliens

Director: James Cameron

Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Bill Paxton, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn

Genre: Sci-fi, action

Year: 1986

Coming directly after Ridley Scott's revolutionary film 'Alien', Cameron manages to successfully maintain the brilliant concept, while increasing the scale of the franchise.



When Ridley Scott initially created 'Alien' it defined the sci-fi horror genre, subverting the family element of science fiction films seen in movies like 'Star Wars', while also introducing the horror genre to a different idea. James Cameron was put into the difficult job of following this phenomenal film with 'Aliens' and he does this with massive success.
The story picks up 57 years after the end of 'Alien' with Ripley (Weaver) still in hyper sleep and has been discovered by some people. She tries to explain what happened to her crew but nobody believes her. She is told that on the planet in which the xenomorph was discovered by her crew has colonists living on it. This horrifies her, even more so when they lose connection with the colonists. Ripley joins a group of soldiers to go and investigate the colony to see what has happened to these people who have disappeared. Along the way, they meet Newt (Henn), a little girl who has lost her family and has been hiding within the colony ship. Ripley befriends Newt and keeps the girl safe, while the other soldiers go to investigate the ship. The military are launched into pandemonium when they unintentionally find hundreds of xenomorphs, breeding off the colonists who begin hunting the entire crew Ripley is part of.

The great thing about 'Aliens' is that Cameron multiplies everything from the original film- there are thousands of Aliens attacking the crew with more encounters with Face-huggers, this time in an incredibly tense and frightening scene where Ripley and Newt are locked in a room with two ravenous Face-huggers. This improves on the first film in ways because it means that there is a much bigger threat and it feels like it explores in greater depth the xenomorph species. This is definitely in the finale with the Queen and how the eggs are produced.
The abilities of the Aliens are explored more with the acidic blood and the use of their tail (shown in a very graphic encounter at the end). It feels all the more terrifying with the fact that there is supreme strength in numbers for the xenomorphs; however, this is almost balanced out by how vulnerable they are to fire, bullets and explosions. The xenomorph model is very impressive again, with Cameron taking into consideration all the different elements of the Alien. Even with the hundreds of creatures, all of them look plausible and frightening. The Queen is a grand spectacle, with body parts which make her look superior to the others. In comparison, she is gigantic and an overwhelming opponent for Ripley to handle.

The action of this film is amazing. After a slightly slow paced first act, the speed of the film definitely picks up, with the constant feeling of an imminent threat from the Alien. There are scenes which are heavy with dialogue, yet any exposition is handled very well. Ripley is told about how long she has been asleep through a traumatic dream sequence, where she imagines she is birthing a Chest-burster. Cameron does this so that very few scenes feel wasted or boring and ultimately keep the pace of the film consistent.
There is a definite feel like this is an action film, with the film escalating the size of the threat, along with the many firearms accessible for the team. The acting is exceptional, with key performances from Carrie Henn as Newt, Bill Paxton as the petrified Hudson and the hilariously fierce Sergeant Apone (portrayed by Al Matthews). Sigourney Weaver is great again as the veteran survivor of the initial Alien attack and feels somewhat superior over the rest of the crew who seem oblivious to the threat their mission holds.
This film holds lots of quotable dialogue, some which have made movie history such as 'Get away from her, you bitch!' or Hudson's wimpish cry of 'Game over man! Game Over!'.

Ultimately this film accomplishes a lot, and is a worthy successor of the original classic. It is a must watch again, as is the first one.

Verdict: 9/10