- In one, and probably only one, respect it must have been easy to construct a sequel to Alien. There was but a single character left standing at the end of the first film, and only one place we knew of to get more aliens. Bring Officer Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) back to the crashed alien ship, and you've got yourself a sequel. In every other respect, however, creating Aliens must have seemed like a nearly insurmountable challenge. No director could reasonably hope to top the visual style and atmosphere of the first film, quite possibly the best sci-fi/horror combination ever made, and the odds would only be worse for someone who wasn't Ridley Scott. Furthermore, it wasn't obvious that the formula of the first film could be reapplied indefinitely without some seriously diminished returns. Enter James Cameron.
- Cameron's solution was simple: Add lots more aliens and lots more action. It sounds like a recipe for disaster, or at the very least disappointment, but somehow it works. Aliens is admittedly not as good as its predecessor, but it is probably the best sequel one could have hoped for. Set 57 years after the first installment, Aliens begins with the long-delayed discovery of Ripley's cryogenic escape pod. Despite her tales of the horrendous alien menace that killed her crew, most of the people she encounters, including slippery company man Carter Burke (Paul Reiser), are skeptical. Why? Well, colonists have been terraforming that planet where Ripley and company first encountered the alien and haven't reported any problems. That is, until communications from the colony abruptly end. Now it's time to send Ripley in with a squadron of fully-armed, well-trained space marines. Those crummy aliens don't stand a chance.
- The space marines are a stereotypical bunch of hardasses who could have been ripped straight from the pages of Starship Troopers. Led by the inexperienced Lt. Gorman (William Hope) and the rugged, cigar-chomping Sgt. Apone (Al Matthews), grunts like the redoubtable Hicks (Michael Biehn), the tough-as-nails Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein), and the unjustifiably cocky Hudson (Bill Paxton) are disappointed that this mission is shaping up to be just another "bughunt." When they land, however, the troop is surprised to discover that there is no remaining trace of the colonists, with the exception of a disheveled young girl named Newt (Carrie Henn). Ripley tries to comfort the obviously traumatized girl, explaining that "these people are here to protect you. They're soldiers." "It won't make any difference," replies Newt. I'd say their first encounter with the aliens proves her right.
- The battle scenes in Aliens are incredibly effective mostly as the result of two inventions. The first is the "helmet-cam" shot, which surely must have been pioneered for this film. Showing static-ridden, poorly lit, first-person perspectives is a terrifying yet mostly bloodless way to depict what one imagines to be absolute slaughter. The second invention, borrowed from the first film, is that magical "proximity sensor" that detects motion through vibrations in the air. This leads to plenty of "that's inside the room!" and "you're not reading it right!" just before the Marines realize what's really going on. The film's other impressive contrivances mostly revolve around the details of the alien life cycle. In addition to discovering the absolutely horrifying reason that aliens take live prisoners, we finally meet that egg-laying beastie that the ever-reliable android Bishop (Lance Henrikson) describes as "something we haven't seen yet." The creature effects for the Queen are sufficently creative and convincing that I tend to agree.
- While most aspects of this film owe a lot to its predecessor, Aliens does improve upon the original in one key regard. During the course of the film, the character of Ripley evolves into one of the first fully fleshed-out female action heroes in the entire history of cinema. I honestly can't think of a single female character before Ripley who was tough without also being somehow sexually fetishized. Even the first film is guilty of that particular transgression in its final scenes when Ripley makes a final stand against the alien wearing only her underwear (miniaturization apparently being the way of the future). In contrast, the Ripley of this film can operate cargo lifters, drive troop transports, and fire some pretty mean-looking weapons, not to mention her obvious penchant for kicking some serious alien butt. She's come a long way in only 57 years.
- Al Matthews was a real Marine, and it shows.
- Bishop has the most thankless job imaginable.
- I chose not to mention the scenes that were part of the "Extended Edition" that I watched. A few of them seriously disrupt the pace of the film, and most of the others are extraneous. One possible exception is the auto-turrets, which are an effective way of implying just how many aliens there must be.
