This time it's not just war, it's a kick a**e follow on to an all time classic!

Rating: 9/10 (14 February 2005)

How often does a sequel live up to, or even surpass its predecessor. The answer is quite simply, rare and Aliens is one of those rarities.
Set 57 years after Ripley's original encounter with cinema's most notorious intergalactic beastie, she is awoken from hyper-sleep to do battle with not just one, but an entire horde of intergalactic beasties. This time she is sent with a bunch of marines to the planet where she first unwittingly picked up the original alien as contact with a colonial crew based there has been lost. When they arrive, there appears to be no one there so they have to search the entire complex. They eventually come across a little girl called Newt (Carrie Henn). After a while they locate some of the crew. This then sets the ball rolling as they discover that there are not alone.
Aliens is a completely different film from Ridley Scott's original. It is essentially a war film with humans invading the aliens home turf as it were and they are fighting back. It has the elements of sci-fi and horror too. Scott's film is essentially a haunted house in space and focuses more on the horror aspects. It would be unfair to say which one is better as both directors have different visions and these two films are totally different from each other. It's down to personal preference as to which one is someone's favourite as both Scott and James Cameron have their own fan base.
Aliens is best seen in its special edition form as it elaborates more on the relationship between Ripley and Newt. It gives more of a back story to the two characters as well.
This film is definitely well worth an inclusion in any film buffs catalogue of great films.