Aliens [M]

After 57 years of drifting in space, Ellen Ripley is found and rescued. But when she explains the horrors of what happened on the Nostromo, she is not believed and placed under psychiatric care. Worst still, the planet of her team’s initial terrifying discovery has been colonized during her hyper sleep and when all communication is suddenly lost, it falls to her to return with a team of Marines and face another horrific nightmare: not one alien this time, but hundreds including the Mother. 

Too give dues where dues are deserved, I didn’t find this film as boring as the first one. Having said that, I’m still not sold on Aliens. For me, these movies are nothing more than action, explosions, and suspense; by no means a bad thing, but you do get over it rather quickly. From the get go you know that oh yeah there’s going to be masses crawling around in the ceiling, or in a minute’s time something is going to suddenly scurry across the floor at them… It’s been done before and it’s been done over again, for me these movies are boring; I don’t get a thrill or adrenaline rush at all. Sorry and no offence to James Cameron and all Alien enthusiasts out there. 

After 57 years of drifting in space, Ellen Ripley is found and rescued. But when she explains the horrors of what happened on the Nostromo, she is not believed and placed under psychiatric care. Worst still, the planet of her team’s initial terrifying discovery has been colonized during her hyper sleep and when all communication is suddenly lost, it falls to her to return with a team of Marines and face another horrific nightmare: not one alien this time, but hundreds including the Mother. 

Rather than talk about why I just don’t find this movie thrilling, I’ll just talk about everything that is right with them because, to be fair, there actually are a lot of kick-arse elements that make this one of the best and most popular cinematic sequels. For a start the sets and the special effects, quite frankly, rock like a hurricane. The art design is what caught my attention in the first one, but here it was the strange and slightly gross sets that represented a gore and slime cased nest. The aliens en masse were pretty impressive; this time around we get a longer look at them rather than the sudden and intermittent bursts that we were indulged in in the first one. 

Cameron has suspense-establishment down to a science in this flick with silence dominating most of the movie rather than some crescendo-driven instrumental score to build tension and anxiety. That, coupled with the inordinate amounts of grime and sweat that cover the cast as well as the ever-increasing long walks of intense silence and gun-poising, create the suspense of the movie pretty damned well if I do say so myself. 

I was particularly fascinated by the maternal theme that sort of was a background theme in this flick. Ripley turns into a real mad badass as she gets hell-bent on protecting a resourceful little orphan named Newt, and the fact that the most of the action happens in a nest, well you can see where we’re headed… 

Starring Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein, William Hope, Mark Rolston, and Ricco Ross, Aliens is a actually a pretty cool movie and a very successful sequel. If you’re a science fiction enthusiast or just really love your action, I’d recommend it. Myself personally, I still find the Alien movies to be a bit boring. Don’t ask me why, I just do. 

"Get away from her, you bitch!"