Aliens (A+)
STARS...
Sigourney Weaver,
Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn, Paul
Reiser, Lance Henriksen, Jenette
Goldstein, and Bill Paxton.
PLOT SUMMARY...
Ripley decides to go back to the Alien world, with space Marines,
to fight the monsters once again, in order to quell her personal nightmares.
QUICK SCAN...
This film could be compared to "Alien". ALIENS features
action, action, action, and FX. The scenes of humans battling multiple
aliens are terrific, and are some of the film's highlights. A subplot
involving Ripley played by Sigourney Weaver (Working Girl) and a young
orphan girl is touching.
DIRECTOR: James Cameron
YEAR & RATING: 1986 (R)
Ripley, the only human survivor of "Alien", is picked up after drifting in space for almost sixty years, in a state of suspended animation. When the colonists on Acheron, the alien's world, drop out of contact, Ripley decides to join a group of space marines sent to investigate.
When they arrive at Acheron, they find that all the colonists are missing, except for a young girl named Newt. She triggers Ripley's mothering instincts, and Ripley promises to protect her.
Although the space marines are tough, many of them die in battles with multiple aliens. Ripley ultimately destroys the huge mother alien, saving Newt's life in the process.
Review:
Director James Cameron's ALIENS is one of those rare films: the sequel
that is better than the original film.
When Sigourney Weaver ("Working Girl", "Dave"),
who went into suspended animation with her cat at the end of "Alien",
is found and revived, 57 years have passed. Acheron, the planet where
Weaver and her fellow crew members picked up the alien, has been colonized.
Although she tells the people on the space station of the battle with
the deadly Alien, they don't take her seriously.
One of the hat tricks that Director Cameron pulls off is getting the
audience to believe that Weaver's character Ripley would ever return
to the hideous alien's planet. Through the use of scary nightmare sequences,
and Paul Reiser's ("Mad About You") persuasive performance
as an oily company man, Cameron is able to convince the viewer that
Weaver has to return to Acheron in order to confront her worst fears
and get on with her life.
When contact is lost with the colonists on Acheron, Weaver, Reiser,
and some gung-ho space marines are sent to investigate. The trip to
Acheron gives the audience a chance to get to know the marines. Since
its hard to care about characters you don't know, it's wise that Cameron
takes the time to lets us hang out with them before he plunges them
into battle.
Of the actors, Michael Biehn ("The Abyss"), who was effective
as the good guy in "Terminator, " plays one of the more rational
of the space marines. He's a good actor, who only seems to show up in
James Cameron movies, which is surprising.
The battle scenes between the space marines and Ripley and hordes of
Aliens are filled with slam bam excitement. Although obviously not as
fresh as the scenes of Alien contact in "Alien", they are
staged with the noise, and grit, and chaos that smacks of real combat,
Vietnam-style.
My favorite scene is where Ripley (Weaver) confronts the giant mother
Alien, calling it "...you bitch!". Its great to watch Ripley,
her maternal instincts at full bloom because little Newt's in jeopardy,
fearlessly challenge the hideous Alien.
If you like your Sci-Fi tough, and violent, and breathless, and don't
mind a futuristic pro-feminist sub-text, ALIENS should be entertaining
viewing for most viewers. Male Chauvinist Pigs, however, may want to
skip ALIENS, and rent "Galaxina" instead!
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