My personal fave of the Alien films

Rating: 8/10 (20 February 2003)

Once a word that conjured up cinematic awe, it has now lost the sense of grandness it once had, through so-so sequels, merchandise, face offs against every super hero ever (even the green lantern).
So. Here goes my review for the last great entry into the Alien Universe.
Alien and Aliens. Two very different films by two very different directors. And all the better for it. Whereas the Tim Burton 'Batmans' were great, the total change in directorial style for the sequels killed the franchise dead and made it a laughing stock. Not so Aliens. Ridley Scotts and James Camerons entries into the Alien series couldn't be more different. But the one common factor is that they are both utterly superb (whereas Batman was brilliant and Batman forever sucked ass).
As a personal preference I prefer Aliens. Its my kind of film. Thats not to say I don't like Alien. I love it. And I can fully appreciate the view of people who think that it is the best film in the series. But I just love the balls out action of Camerons creation.
The film kicks off with Ripley coming out of hypersleep to discover shes spent 50 odd years in stasis. She is recovered and throughly grilled by 'the company' as to why she blew up a billion dollar spaceship. When she cant convince them that she did it to try and kill a crazy ass acid blooded alien they remove her flight license and have her shunting crates about. Then the call comes in that they have lost contact with a terraforming colony on the planet Ripley first encountered the Alien. She decides to go back to excorcise her ghosts. With a load of 'bad ass' marines.
The action in Aliens is, while retaining some of the suspense of the first one, superb. Its amazing to learn that there were only a grand total of 6 Alien suits used throughout the whole film!
The performances are uniformly good and the characters are all interesting, which is a testament to this not being a mindless action film.
The DVD version comes with a pretty flawless transfer and a fabulous 5.1 soundtrack. The extras are a little thin on the ground, but hey. Whatcha gonna do?