A drooling, acid-bleeding thrill-ride with an exoskeleton!

Rating: Null/10 (22 February 2003)

One of the best films of the "hypersalivating monster attacks you in outer space" genre, "Aliens" is a tightly constructed festival of gore and terror. Some scenes have a palpable intensity: you can really feel the menace of the aliens as they creep, heard but not seen, towards the characters. If these scenes were any more atmospheric, you could smell and taste them as well.
That said, this movie doesn't quite live up to the standard set by "Alien." While Ripley is a little more rounded in this film (we find out that she had a daughter, has nightmares, has a first name, etc.), the secondary characters sometimes seem like stock military and corporate types. Bill Paxton's character in particular is irritating because of his overacted macho behavior and panicking. Kudos, though, to the little girl, who is thoroughly convincing in her traumatized-child role. She has been so terrified by seeing so much grisly death that she won't even respond to her rescuers at first. Of course, Sigourney Weaver turns in a bravura performance, as she always has done.
Also, sharp-eared nerds like myself will notice that the music in the opening scene, where Ripley's escape pod drifts through space, was also used in "2001: A Space Odyssey". It's part of a ballet score by Armenian-Soviet composer Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978). I think it's a very appropriate tribute to Kubrick.