The mother of all aliens in a monster of a movie!

Rating: 10/10 (2 October 2008)

Alien is a genuine landmark of SF cinema. Ridley Scott revolutionised the genre forever by taking a horror film and staging it within a science-fictional setting. The result was one of the most suspenseful, frightening horror shows ever seen on a cinema screen. It would be seven years before 20th Century Fox greenlit a sequel to the 1979 classic.
Considering the amount of time taken in the interim, that shows how badly 20th Century Fox wanted to get Aliens right, and avoid the trap of most sequels. Not to make it a rehash of the original. The director chosen to helm Aliens was James Cameron, just hot off the success of The Terminator. Filmed on a minute 7 million dollar budget, Cameron got an incredibly suspenseful action film out of it. His intense, muscular direction elevated The Terminator above B-movie territory and into classic status.
But with Aliens, Cameron makes the leap to big budget film-making with complete confidence. It may be mounted more as a straight up action film, but its every bit as scary as Alien. In fact its that all too rare example of a superior sequel. One where it takes the original film, and uses it as a framework to build upon. It manages to find a whole new spin on events. As all good sequels should do.
Where the original film only presented us with one alien, Cameron has broadened the horizons and given us a whole army of them. He's traded in the bio-mechanical world of the Nostromo for a more realist setting, a colony based on the same planet where they discovered the alien. And instead of a crew of blue-collar workers is a team of kick-ass Marines who get in way over their heads.
Of course it wouldn't be an Alien picture without Ellen Ripley, and sure enough Sigourney Weaver returns, after a 57 year journey through space, to combat the alien that shattered her life. Sigourney Weaver has polished her act considerably in the time that's passed, and gives us a deeper, more emotionally fragile Ripley. One who has nightmares every single night about the Alien, and will stop at nothing to eradicate it from the galaxy forever.
Most of the regulars who work with James Cameron are present too. The underrated Michael Biehn adds a steady anchor as Corporal Hicks, who forms a platonic relationship with Ripley. The always reliable Bill Paxton makes an early impression as the wisecracking Private Hudson. Lance Henrikson's emotionally detached style of acting is well suited to Bishop, the resident android. He brings some interesting ambiguities to Bishop. We're never really sure of him right up until the very end. And Jenette Goldstein is perfectly tough as Private Vasquez, one of the many resilient female characters Cameron likes to have in his films.
One of the more interesting touches Cameron brings to Aliens is the whole inclusion of a mother/daughter theme, between Ripley and Newt, the only survivor of the decimated colony. Only a little girl, Newt finds a kindred spirit in Ripley. Both sole survivors of the Alien, and both have been left emotionally shattered by it. The scenes between Sigourney Weaver and Carrie Henn are well written by Cameron (and given greater development in the Directors Cut), as each finds a new family in one another. And they're an interesting parallel with the Alien Queen, mothering and protecting her children.
Of course Aliens' greatest success is in its action scenes. And they're just as ferocious and intense as you'd expect from James Cameron. But he uses them sparingly. Much like Ridley Scott, Cameron takes his time with the movie. He allows for a subtle buildup which generates some fine suspense, and then erupts like a powerhouse in the action scenes. The Alien attacks towards the end really gets the adrenaline pumping. Watching them break through doors, ceilings, and airshafts, they recapture something of the claustrophobia of Alien.
But even better is a much quieter scene where Ripley and Newt are trapped in a sound-proofed room with two face-huggers. Its the one scene in the whole film where Cameron gets the terrible suspense of Alien down pat, and integrates it into his movie perfectly. He draws it out with such dexterity that you feel just as vulnerable as the characters.
Cameron also takes the opportunity to answer a few of the questions left dangling by Alien. Like who lays the eggs? The Alien Queen is a masterful creation straight out of a nightmare. To describe her is an impossible task. But she's a product of some stupendous work from the late and great Stan Winston. She's one of his finest creations. Our first sight of her is one of SF cinema's most heart-stopping moments.
James Cameron is not above reusing some of the same plot points of the first film. Again we get Ripley making a mad dash through a close to exploding reactor. But in this case, its to rescue Newt, and not a cat. And the added spin of the Alien Queen becomes a fresh twist on the same story. That in of itself would have been a great ending, only Cameron has more in store. The fight between Ripley and The Queen, in an exo-skeletal loader on the edge of an open airlock is a superb finale.
Aliens is a magnificent sequel. Cameron does the original justice, by having so much respect for it. The Directors Cut is even better. Unlike Alien, the DC improves upon the film, and doesn't take anything away from it. It fleshes out the characters and ups the tension. Alien didn't need a DC. It was flawless to begin with, but Aliens: The Directors Cut is a masterpiece.