Alien vs Aliens

Rating: 6/10 (21 January 2001)

Having been a fan of the Alien films for many years, I have recently been finding myself drawing comparisons between the first two films in the series, and not liking what I was thinking. I like both films a great deal, but find Alien a superior film in my books.
The overall plot of Alien is about a small group of people in isolated conditions. A dangerous alien gets loose amongst them. Everyone bar one person and a cat is killed. The lead goes back to rescue the cat. The survivors manage to barely escape at the last moment from a large mining ship going thermonuclear. Unbeknownst to the survivors, the alien sneaks on board, and after a brief struggle, it is blown out of an airlock into space, courtesy of Ripley. The survivors go into hypersleep, and the credits roll.
Aliens is about a larger group of people in isolated conditions. Many dangerous aliens gets loose amongst them. Everyone bar three plus an andriod are killed. The lead goes back to rescue a child. The survivors manage to barely escape at the last moment from a large mining colony going thermonuclear. Unbeknownst to the survivors, the big alien sneaks on board, and after a struggle, it is blown out of an airlock into space, courtesy of Ripley. The survivors go into hypersleep, and the credits roll.
More than just a few similarities here. The second one is basically a rehash of the first, on a larger scale (more people, more aliens, more noise, more explosions). The basic plot is not only the same, there are specific point of plot detail that are the same.
I also find the story for Alien a lot more edgy, a true psychological horror / drama, where the alien was secondary in the story to the interaction between the crew of the Nostromo. Aliens is more of an action / horror film. This is of course a personal preference. However, I am finding myself getting increasingly annoyed with modern movies concentrating on loud noise, fast action, and great effects, while neglecting the story. And from what I can see, Cameron took the original story, and added loud noise and fast action. I feel the effects on the first were actually superior. Bigger is not necessarily better.
Set / decoration / costume wise, both movies have aged very well. I do however get a little annoyed in Aliens when I continually see the video screens in the movie being standard 4:3 tv's, actually blackened down to 1.85:1 to make them look like a futuristic widescreen sets I guess. Pretty ironic, when I think about it, given how Cameron makes films (matted 1.66:1 Super 35). If he made Aliens now, he'd probably matt the tubes down to 2.35:1...
And on a light-hearted note, I like cats. Anyone who'd risk their life to save their cat is true hero in my books. Add to this the fact that I don't like children, and Alien definitely gets my vote in this area too...