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Movie sequels come and go, and when you have an amazing work of film that inspires one,
you generally get one that is low budget, poorly written and naught but
a cheap money grab on a recogniseable name. Aliens holds true as not
only a grand exception to this expectation, but an example of how taking risks with a
series can be highly rewarding.
Sigorney Weaver returns as Ripley, as the movie picks up right where she left off in
the first. Anyone in their right mind would never just walk back into
a situation like she had experienced, and the opening does a very
good job depicting that. By the
time she decides to go, you understand completely why she would. And then comes
the twist in the movie's direction - This is not so much a horror, as an action movie.
All of the movie posters and trailers proudly displayed the tagline "This time, it's war."
making no secret of the fact that while the original was suspenseful
horror at it's finest, if you are interested in rocket launchers
gunfire and explosions, this IS where you're going to find it. Aliens still maintains an
intelligent, realistic look despite it's direction. While the characters
don't seem quite as deep this time around, that could just be
because there are quite a few more than in the first.
One noteable character is Hudson - he starts off a complete braggart and annoying as hell.
After actually encountering the aliens he's still annoying,
but completely terrified and convinced of the futility of the
situation. In this sense, he's very similar to Lambert from the first movie - but he is
a deeper character overall and provides some of the most memorable
lines
of the film.
The most memorable character is definately Newt, who sort of embodies Ripley's character
from the first Alien. She's scared, vulnerable - and strong willed.
Although she does make a pseudo daughter for Ripleyto care about, I
personally think the character's unique traits are what make her stand out in the film.
The technology this time around is much expanded - the marines bring out all the weapons that
are now classics in the Alien franchise. These weapons are
in fact so iconic, there hasn't been a single Alien video game I can
think of that hasn't incorporated the guns from this movie.
The Alien is also more fleshed out - after all, the first movie had but one and now there's
a ton of the buggers crawling around. It breaks the rules set in
the deleted scenes from the first, but back then there weren't any
DVDs and.. well, to put it bluntly deleted scenes don't count. The look of the nest is
another one of those beautifully horrifying things that make the
species stand out as one of the most unique creatures in cinema. And
of course, the reproductive cycle of the xenomorph is completed for the first time with the introduction
of the big momma - the queen alien.
A lot of the scenes move a little slow for action, but even for an action movie it still
maintains a hefty amount of horror elements, especially early on. It's
funny in a way, that the less marines there are still breathing the
more balls-to-the-wall the movie gets. Even Hudson stops whining long enough to kick some
***. This point in the movie feels strangely empowering, after you've
faced the horrors of the Xenomorph you're treated to some good old
wild shooting and bug killing. The aliens are still scary enough though from being just
what they are, the battles don't dissapoint fans of the series. Except
maybe when said battle takes place completely outside view - that
honestly felt kinda cheap. I mean, they couldn't show anything at all?
Overall, Aliens is a rollercoaster ride through hell - and that's my kind of ride. It's about
time I wrap up this review with a rating. I officially give Aliens
two facehuggers out of five. Well, for horror anyway. As action it
gets a smooth four pulse rifles out of five. Take your genre preferences and calculate
your own rating from there, after all you're the only one who truly knows
what kind of movies you like, right?
Well, it's time to leave all armaments behind for the next review - Alien 3.