Another masterpiece that we can all enjoy forever

Rating: 10/10 (19 April 2009)

After the ending of "Alien", Ripley is finally rescued by a salvage team after drifting out in space for 57 years in hypersleep. Then she tries to explain what really happened all those years ago to the "Company" board, but they instantly turn the story down, much to her disbelief. However on the same planet where her previous crew found the Alien egg, she finds out that now a colony of families have moved there and they could be in serious danger and her fears are proved correct when And one of the main reasons why this is a sequel that works so well is because it's aware that its a sequel and its a real continuation of the first movie. And this and Terminator 2: Judgement Day are living proof of why James Cameron is the one and only guy to be making sequels and he can make his sequels just as good as, if not better than, the first movie.
Because that its a true sequel, you would expect Ripley to be even further developed, and she is. In "Aliens" you get to find out so many things about her that you didn't realize in "Alien", such as the fact that she had a daughter who died while Ripley was in hypersleep, wow what a shame, because of this she tries to make up for her mistake by bonding with Newt, whose family was killed by the Alien attack. And we even find out her first name towards the end And her development is actually continued from the first movie rather than her developments being abrupt and coming out of nowhere. And while Sigourney Weaver was nominated for an Oscar and she should've won obviously, because part of the reason why Ellen Ripley is an iconic character is not because of how she was written but how she was acted.
The supporting cast was among the best I've ever seen in any movie and it possibly rivals the one in "Predator" as the all-time greatest. The characters can remembered on the back of anyone's hand; Hicks, Vasquez, Hudson, Bishop, Burke and Apone and they all have their own thing for us to remember them by.
Hicks is blended in by the fantastic Michael Biehn as the silent, intelligent leader ("I like to keep this handy, for close encounters"). Vasquez is the totally bad@$$ woman pumped in sheer masculinity and toughness, ("I only need to know one thing, where....they....are). Bill Paxton is at his prime as Hudson, who acts tough all the time but is actually a timid little child inside ("How do I get out of this chicken$h!t outfit?"). And Bishop, the android with the big heart, plays an important role in Ripley's development through the movie, in "Alien" the android named "Ash" went berserk and made the crew expendable to get the alien organism since the start. And Ripley had an extreme distrust of Bishop even though Bishop is clearly gentle the minute you first see him. At the end they both make peace and sort it out when Ripley learns he ain't as bad and messed up as Ash was. And also, Paul Reiser is perfect as the slimy corporate guy who only wants to make a profit above other people's lives, and when he gets killed you're gonna stand up and cheer, I assure you. And Apone is the awesome sergeant who frequently belittles Hudson ("You secure that $h!t, Hudson!, "Hudson, get over here, over here!" in the film's funniest sequence).
The action is totally relentless and packs a heck of a wallop. But during the first hour you won't be seeing any of the aliens or the gunfights so we can focus on the characters and get to know them first. But the action has everything, big machine guns, flamethrowers, grenade launchers, you name it. And the final stand-off between Ripley on the loader and the alien queen ("Get away from her, you bi**h!") is among one the greatest ever filmed and it might be the fact that it was really a girl on girl fight which makes it more unique. And that's also why it works as a sequel, because the overall tone is different compared to "Alien", and the worst thing that Cameron would've done was to make it a rehash of the original, but he avoided doing that at all costs.
And this isn't considered one of the best ever action movies because of the action itself, but because it depicts a once innocent woman who lost nearly everything by a hostile species and will do anything to avenge herself and also try to rebuild what she lost. Awesome, awesome movie, this gets a perfect score from me.