The Greatest Sci-Fi War Movie Ever

Rating: 10/10 (15 May 2017)

After the masterfully suspenseful horror/thriller of Alien, any sequel needed to do something different, and that was exactly what James Cameron came up with for Aliens. Where Alien is essentially a haunted house movie in space, Aliens is an all-out war movie in space.
The story fits PERFECTLY alongside Alien and there are no continuity lapses between the two. The characters are all totally believable, from the inexperienced and arrogant Gorman, through the cocky but cowardly (but ultimately heroic) Hudson, to the sleazy corporate "suit" of Burke. The cast do a fine job of bringing these characters to life, so much so that we can even accept Ripley's transformation into a kind of all-action female-Rambo by the end.
The effects are universally excellent with only a couple of fairly obvious rear-projection backdrops giving the game away nowadays. The practical Alien effects (and especially the Queen) are infinitely more scary and believable than the all-CGI-garbage that Alien:Covenant has recently foisted on the cinema-going public.
To be honest, the biggest "downer" of Aliens is how Alien 3 completely swipes away everything Ripley worked for in Aliens before the opening credits are done! But the fact that the biggest problem with Aliens is it's subsequent sequel should tell you all you need to know about it! It's an absolutely superb film which, along with The Empire Strikes Back and The Godfather Part II, has the rare accolade of being a sequel that more than holds it's own next to original.
Impossible to give this anything other than 10/10.