Aliens

Aliens; science-fiction action, USA, 1986; D: James Cameron, S: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, Carrie Henn, Bill Paxton, Paul Reiser, Jenette Goldstein

Ellen Ripley, the only survivor of the Nostromo crew, is rescued after 57 years of hibernation in space. But once back to conscious, she is shocked when she finds out humans started a colony on the planet where the deadly alien was found, so she proceeds to go there on a war spaceship with Colonial Marines. Once on the planet, Ripley discovers the only survivor of the colony station is a girl named Newt. The 12-team Marines go on to search for other people that survived in a nuclear processing station. They get cornered by the whole bunch of aliens, and in the chaos one of them kidnaps Newt. Ripley rescues her from an alien queen and escapes before the station explodes. But the queen sneaks in into the spaceship and tears android Bishop in half, before Ripley throws her out in space with the robot exosuit.

Among the sequels that top the original, "Aliens" take a special place in cinema: unlike the first film that was atmospheric, quiet and understated with only one alien, but at moments slightly grey, the second film lifts the story up a notch and presents a wild action spectacle with many aliens, yet unlike most Hollywood big budget sequels that offer more quantity than quality, "Aliens" actually offers more quantity and quality, remaining skillful and stylish, granting the main heroine an emotional dimension, noticeable in her motherly care for the girl Newt. While the screenplay is rather predictable and corny, it gave her character more depth, and thus Sigourney Weaver delivered a truly amazing performance as Ripley and was surprisingly (but for once rightfully) even nominated for several awards. Other characters, the Marines, are mostly extras that wait to be attacked by aliens, but Bill Paxton as Hudson and Jenette Goldstein as Vasquez steal the show with their charm. 

James Cameron brilliantly directed the film, with a wonderful aesthetic mood and sharp details, creating an achievement that is at the same time a fantastic action fun for the wide audience and intelligent drama-thriller for the ambitious audience at the same time: the first grown alien does not show up all until 70 minutes into the film, yet the suspense of anticipation is palpable throughout the story. Among the great sequences is the one where Ripley is driving an armoured military vehicle while an alien is on it, so she suddenly hits the breaks, the alien falls down on the ground and she hits the gas again and crashes with it with full force. In another one, that mimics the classic siege westerns, the heroes barricade themselves inside the station and program automatic sentry weapons to shoot at anything that moves outside: the suspense is created just by showing the heroes watching the screen, as the ammunition figure slowly drops from 500 to less than 20 rounds. The finale where the giant alien queen slices the android's body in half and has a duel with Ripley who is fighting her in a 10ft tall robot exosuit is one of those things that simply have to be seen to be believed, due to its unbelievable tone. The only disappointing thing is the ratio of people who ultimately survive from the colony planet vs. the number of all the people who died to save them, making it slightly anticlimactic and unworthy of the (negative) sacrifice. "Aliens" is a truly well made feminist war film in space, one of the best Sci-Fi films, thanks to passionate realization.

Grade:+++