Aliens Special Edition - what's so special? (Aliens (DVD))

Member Name: The Duke

Product:	Aliens (DVD)
Date:	17/08/00 (36 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Top notch action/sci-fi hybrid, good acting, brilliant story, decent music, nice atmposhere

Disadvantages: Added scenes only on DVD

I thought the first Alien movie was a masterpiece - a bit of science fiction at the start to lull you into a false sense of security, then, after the splendid John Hurt death scene, more horror than you can shake a pointy stick at. (Yes, I do consider Alien to be essentially a horror movie)

James Cameron came along, after his excellent Terminator movie (anyone ever heard of it? :P) and took it to the next step: More aliens, people expecting the alien(s), lots of big guns. Cameron keeps Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) as the main character, which was good enough for a second go (I am of the opinion that the Aliens were the stars of the shows, and perhaps pitting them against other adversaries, human, of course, would have made the later movies better) with good support from Michael Beihn as Hicks, Bill Paxton as Hudson and Lance Henriksen as Bishop. These actors have all gone on to become solid stars in their own right.

Even in the original incarnation, I thought this was fantastic movie, but the Special Edition, with its' added scenes (17 mins worth!) make the story more complete - explaining why Ripley bonds with the child, Newt, for example. It also shows what the base looked like before the aliens "arrived", as well as other minor points that fill out some holes.

The basic story (trying not to give anything away) is thus: Ripley is rescued from her escape capsule, and briught up on charges by "The Company" (now given a name - Weyland Yutani) for destroying their spaceship, and it's fossil fuel cargo. She tells the committee about the aliens in order to expklain her actions, but no-one believes her, except for a junior executive called Burke. Ripley is charged, and stripped of Civilian rank. The head of the committee tells her that a human colony has lived on the same planet as the "supposed" alien encounter for years without any trouble. She is forced to take a menial job to support herself, while attendi
ng counselling for her recurring nightmares of the aliens from her previous encounter. One day, Burke and a military officer visit Ripley, and tell her that they have lost contact with the colony, but do not know why. They ask her to go along as an advisor, just in case. Eventually, after another nightmare, she says yes...

While I considered Alien to be a horror movie, rather than a sci-fi movie, then I consider this to be an action movie rather than a sci-fi movie. While both films are set in the future, and involve space flight, that is the extent to which the science fiction affects the movies.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, and would heartily recommend it to anyone who likes action movies, or sci-fi movies. This is also the case for anyone who enjoys any of James Camerons work.

Two hints: If you read the books by Alan Dean Foster of the first 2 Alien movies, then you are in for a treat because the novelisations include the missing scenes of both movies. I'm led to believe that the DVD of Alien is not a Directors Cut, it just had added scenes as a feature, and that the Aliens Special edition is no longer available on video, just DVD, which is a shame because it is so much better than the (admittedly excellent) original version.

The second hint is: At the very end of Aliens, after the credits have rolled, listen very carefully. It leads on to Alien3 quite well...

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