Ellen Ripley, one of the first real action heroines

Rating: 10/10 (7 July 2002)

Aliens is easily one of my Top 5 favorite movies. The intense mix of claustrophobic action, drama, and science fiction pulls me in and never lets go until the movie ends. It's a psychologically draining pulse-pounding film, but don't let that stop you from seeing it. Just don't forget to breathe! And, yes, it is much better than Ridley Scott's excellent original Alien.
Everyone else has mentioned most of the strong points of this film. However, the one thing that really struck me about it back in 1986 was that for one of the first times ever, we were watching a strong, intelligent action heroINE. James Cameron wrote a wonderfully strong Ripley. While we always suspected she could be tough in Alien, we find out just how tough in Aliens. In fact, I'd argue that Cameron films almost always have very strong female lead characters. Sarah Conner in Terminator 2 and Rose DeWitt Bukater in Titanic are other examples. But what he did with Ripley was simply outstanding for the time. While other action hero women in film have come along since, Cameron's Ripley is still the best. She is no macho woman without depth, but is written as a very feminine heroine who is simply put in a position where she has to defend her surrogate "daughter" and herself against an unspeakable enemy.
If you haven't seen this movie, you don't know what you're missing. It's an entertaining action thriller that just happens to be a bit of a ground breaker, too. 10/10