Review

Ripley has been adrift in space for fifty seven years following the loss of her crew and ship to an intergalactic hitchhiker. She is finally found by a deep salvage team, but unfortunately Ripley's trials and tribulations are only just beginning. The Company holds her responsible for the loss of the Nostromo and its cargo and doesn't believe her story about the alien infestation. When questioned, comittee member Van Leuwen tells Ripley there have been no reports of the alien creature from the Terraformers who have been working on LV-426 for the past twenty odd years.

Naturally the company loses contact with its colony on LV-426 and decides to send in the colonial marines to sort out the situation. Company representative Cater Burke want's Ripley along for the ride as a consultant on the Aliens in case there had been an outbreak. Initially Ripley is having nothing to do with the venture but decides to face her demons as long as they are mot going out there to bring back specimens, she want's the lifeform destroyed. Can a platoon of colonial marines overcome an Alien hive, and which species is the more deadly? One of the best ever Sci-Fi/Horror movies ever made ensues.

We quite regularly get comments about how we haven't covered the major movies in the dark genre here at ScaryMinds. Seems people are miffed that Se7en, Aliens, The Exorcist, etc are missing from our review section. Well sorry folks we can't cover them all straight up, besides we're still working through the backlog of Downunder movies so a little patience would be a good thing. Naturally since we now have an Aliens section on the site, one of my favourite franchises, the movies have been upgraded to the urgent pile. Hence I'm about to ramble on for a thousand or so words on Aliens, we'll get to the other movies when we get a chance.

Aliens, made back when Jimmy Cameron was knocking out decent movies, is pretty much non-stop action from first frame to last frame. Cameron is making an action movie and keeps things rocking along to a pretty frantic beat, while perhaps lowering the horror quota to a large degree. Whereas Alien was an out and out horror flick poising as a Sci-Fi outing, Aliens is pretty much a Sci-Fi flick with a few horror elements utilising the creatures from the first movie to provide the antagonists. Okay I'm cool with the action and all, catch the Director's cut to enjoy the full two hour plus descent of mayhem, but there's a slight feeling the Aliens are overplayed and far too much out in the open for their own good. Ridley Scott kept the creature up his sleeve till late in the movie while Cameron rolls them out pretty early in the piece and unfortunately shines a huge light on them. To be honest the Alien works as an ambush predator not as a member of a mob attacking their intended targets. On the bright side of the pulse rifle we do get a Queen Alien, which miraculously proves to be even more aggressive and fill of hate then the by now familiar drones. Guess Cameron just had this vision of alien drones storming the colonial marine beachs and headed down that path to get the action rocking.

Cameron delivers the second best movie in the franchise and isn't afraid to spill some acidic blood in doing so

Cameron doesn't waste much time getting us into some Alien action, after the obligatory money shot to get things rocking, we get a chest bursting, face huggers going down, and of course the main attraction, fully grown Alien drones by the bucket load. Aliens maintains the mythology created in the first movie while expanding on it with a fully-fledged Alien hive and associated egg producing Queen. So we now know the full life cycle I guess, though no doubt there will be additions in future movies. To ensure Alien fans are left in no confusion to this being an actual sequel one scene is re-introduced live and kicking from the first movie. We're talking someone unfortunate enough to be cocooned by the Aliens and impregnated who just wants to die, which of course harkens back to the eventuate fate of Captain Dallas in the extended Director's cut of Alien.

While Aliens is set fifty seven years after the events in Alien the same aesthetic exists on board the various vessels our voyagers to hell consign themselves to. Everything is utilitarian with a slightly used and grungy look. Guess mankind when voyaging to the stars has given the cleaning lady the night off. One of the things that I found problematic in Alien was the expansive space within the confines of the Nostromo. Sure the crew quarters, corridors, and working areas were cramped, but the ship really opened up in places to serve no apparent purpose other than individual scenes. The area where Brett meets his demise for example has all the hallmarks of a large gothic cathedral, surely there would be no wasted space in a deep space vehicle? The colonial marine ship, Sulaco a Conestoga-class starship, has so much spare space that it could be considered a good alternative to the current off shore processing options for illegal asylum seekers! Not entirely sure this aspect of the movies rings true, but guess we do get a worked in look and feel to the ships that is as far removed from the pristine conditions of Star Trek as one could possibly hope to get. The Alien franchise ships are closer to the reality of a space faring culture in my dystopian opinion than any number of pure Sci-Fi outings have sent our way.

Ripley may be facing her worse nightmare but this time round she's packing plenty of hardware to do a bit of death dealing herself. Cameron and team ensure the marines are going in with a full weapons load as the requirement of this movie is a lot of action, violence, and acidic blood being spray around, in amongst the marines going down at a steady rate of course. As Private Hudson says, "Check it out! Independently targeting particle beam phalanx. Vwap! Fry half a city with this puppy. We got tactical smart missiles, phase-plasma pulse rifles, RPGs, we got sonic electronic ball breakers! We got nukes, we got knives, sharp sticks...". As stated Cameron is making more of an action movie with Aliens hence the humans thrown in the way of an alien nest need to be at least on equal terms when it comes to death dealing. The fact that the alien horde are pretty remorseless, and come in improbable numbers given the former total population of Hadley's hope, is the deciding factor here. It's like the U.S nightmare of limited troops facing the endless wave of communist conscripts in various scenarios from the cold war.

Naturally Cameron isn't going to leave it to the aliens to be the only danger Ripley and team are going to face. Carter Burke the local representative of the Weyland-Yutani company proves to be a more insidious danger than the almost single purpose insectoids. Burke spends the majority of the movie trying to work out how to get a biological specimen back through customs to the weapons research division of his company, only taking time out of his busy schedule to vote not to destroy company property regardless of the situation. The dude is certainly goal driven, unfortunately the goals Burke has in mind involve personal advancement at the cost of those around him. Once again the parallel with standard zombie tropes is fairly obvious, there's always a greater danger to the survivors than the one trying to breakdown the barricades.

One of the questions that arises after anyone first views Aliens is invariably how intelligent are they? In Alien the xenomorph is apparently following instinct, there's no concept of intelligence in the mix, in fact it takes science office Ash's intervention in order for the creature to avoid being blown out an airlock. However there are definite signs of intelligence in Aliens. The Drones cut the lights, one of the human's few advantages, indicating they have some smarts about them, and for sure the Queen Alien perceives the dangers of Ripley's armaments during Ripley's rescue of Newt. I'm not about to define the intelligence here, how exactly are the creatures seeing once again when they have no discernible eyes? - but they can certainly work out strategy and danger. Guess we'll have to delve deeper into the franchise for the answer.

Once again Sigourney Weaver (Ripley) knocks it out of the ballpark with her portrayal of a touch resourceful heroine, who also doesn't allow her femineity to be trampled under alien feet. No wonder the Fembots hate this character, she's a true role model for young women who doesn't rally against the male autocracy or whatever it's called currently. Backing up Weaver is a cast who know what they are about. Carrie Henn (Newt), who has gone on to do nothing really, is endearing as the survivor who is fatalistic about the situation, Henn more than holds her own against the adults. Michael Biehn (Corporal Hicks) plays it laconic just off the farm and throws on a memorable character. You are going to love to hate Paul Reiser's Carter Burke. Lance Henrikson (Bishop) is always on for mine in a dark genre outing. And Bill Paxton offers the well needed comic relief with the increasingly desperate Private Hudson. I can't find one crack in the armour when it comes to the cast, even the minor members are taking names and kicking arse.

James Horner delivers a score that at first is channelling the original from Alien before going martial with a drum beat as the marines get it on before finally hitting the all-out action requirements with a good strong dose of eerie menace added in. Horner enhances the visuals here, I was rocking out folks.

One question I guess remains, what happen to the beacon aboard the derelict alien spaceship, how come the Terraformers never noted it? I believe Director Cameron has answered the issue in interviews, something about volcanic activities, but it's never explained in the actual movie leading to a perceived continuity issue.

T&A is low on the threshold, gurls get plenty of manly men showing off the gym work, dudes get Ms Weaver down to her undies once again. It's a non-starter for ten, but then the movie doesn't need it. Likewise the gore is kept to a minimum, some acid burns, and exploding aliens is your lot.

So I rocked out to Aliens once again, don't know how many times I've watch this movie but it never ceases to entertain. I watched the Director's cut for this review, which adds a bunch of excellent scenes to the theatre release, and the two hours or so viewing time seemed too evaporated at a rapid rate of knots. Cameron kept me entertained, bushy tailed, and fired up like a tween on a sugar binge to continue exploring the franchise. One of the great modern action movies, dial in folks, this time its war and you'll want to be on the front line.

Aliens is available as a stand-alone or part of various franchise boxed sets, so knock yourself out there. The Director's cut is certainly worth dialling into as the movie flows slightly more fluidly than the theatre cut. The two disc DVD release has more extras than you can point a pulse rifle at, also worth exploring. Make your own mind up kids, but remember well worth the investment as this is one movie you are going to treasure.