Another glorious day in the Corps (Aliens (DVD))

Member Name: omarl

Product:	Aliens (DVD)
Date:	10/11/09 (13 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great action set pieces

Disadvantages: Some cliched characters

Aliens is a 1986 sequel to the acclaimed Alien, and is directed by James Cameron, starring Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn and a screenplay by Cameron.

Picking up from the events of the first film, we find Ripley (and Jonesy the cat!) is suspended animation. She is finally awoken and learns that she's been floating in space for 57 years. Gaining the first name of Ellen, and a backstory telling us Ripley had a daughter, she also finds out that said daughter has passed away in the intervening years. Meeting with a representative of the company Weyland Yutani named Carter Burke (Paul Reiser) Ripley is horrified when she is told that colonists were dispatched to the planet where the crew of the Nostromo first encountered the alien lifeform and that there had been no contact with them for some time. Eventually agreeing to travel to the planet, she is accompanied by a platoon of heavily armed colonial marines who are confident about their chances of dealing with any threat there might be. They don't bargain on the number of aliens they will encounter or the creature producing all the eggs.

Eschewing the slow burning horror employed by Ridley Scott in the original James Cameron instead goes for all out action here and is widely regarded as a sequel which is as good as the original. I'm not sure I agree with that though, because although it is a very good film there are a number of niggling points for me.

First though the positives - even now, after all these years, it's a thrilling film with some great special effects. Cameron provides some great setpieces, I particularly like the alien attack where we see things through the cameras attached to the marines' helmets. Some people I know don't like the use of back projection for the sequence involving a dropship crash (a sequence employed by Cameron during the battle scenes in The Terminator) as they think it looks terrible but I disagree, I still think it stands up well. He also employs miniatures to good effect and the design and realisation of the alien queen (created by long time Cameron collaborator Stand Winston) is still brilliant to look at now. Another of Cameron's strengths, highlighted here, is that he writes some very good dialogue. The fact that the line "game over man, game over" is now an every day expression says it all, but most lines are quotable, particularly the gung ho lines spouted by the marines. The fact that Sgt Apone is so memorable given such a short amount of screentime is a testament to Cameron's writing.

The negatives - although he created some quotable dialogue, sometimes the characterization by Cameron is lazy, with Burke practically having "weasel" written on his forehead, and Lt Gorman being the commanding officer lacking any battle experience being quite cliched - and the scene where Vasquez offers him begrudging respect is puzzling as there's little interaction between them beforehand. Writing into the backstory that Ripley had had a daughter was also a little hokey, since saving Newt didn't require her to have lost a child in order to have a maternal instinct. Speaking of Newt.....I know child acting can be hit and miss, but the actress playing her, Carrie Henn, is terrible - I cringe at the "they mewstly come out at night, mewstly" line.

Aside from that, Weaver provides a strong performance as the more empowered Ripley, Biehn does the heroic thing quite well, Bill Paxton is intentionally annoying and funny as Hudson and Lance Henriksen provides an understated but likeable performance as Bishop.

A yardstick then for providing thrilling cinema and undoubtedly a classic of the action genre but there are enough niggles to prevent this being one of my favourite films.

Summary: If you like action films, why haven't you watched this yet?!?