Overrated Movie, Overrated Director

Rating: 5/10 (13 January 2010)

Unlike Ridley Scott's beautifully directed original, Aliens suffers from the classic James Cameron heavy handedness. Cameron, like Lucas, clearly is a believer that more is more. Where one Alien was enough for the original, a hundred are now necessary. Ridley Scott created an original where the viewer felt for the main character, she was lonely and scared and up against a terrible lurking creature that was terrifying because it was unknown and mysterious. The tag line was even "in space no one can hear you scream," which really captures the essence of what made the original work. So for the sequel James Cameron brought us a group of unprofessional marines with comically impractical uniforms and equipment and plenty of ammunition and set them up against wave after wave of aliens. How could it possibly be functional to have so much equipment hanging off of you and sticking out all over the place to get snagged on anything you walk past? The fear factor of the alien is diminished with numbers, Cameron transformed the story line from horror to standard shoot em up, arcade style action. Aliens pop up just to get shot down just like in a video game. The dialog is terrible, Bill Paxton gave his worst acting job of his career (which is saying something cause he's no Laurence Olivier). I feel that James Cameron and George Lucas fall into the same vein, they are so obsessed with what they can do they don't think about what the should do. They show absolutely no restraint because what drives the medium for them is special effects not story. Ridley Scott showed restraint, and his reward is that he directed one of the best sci-fi films of all time. Cameron on the other hand created an artistically devoid film with terrible acting, terrible dialog, where we don't care when characters die, and aliens are just popping out of the walls and ceiling to get shot down.