Highly entertaining sequel!

Rating: 8/10 (5 October 2003)

Almost sixty years after destroying her mining ship and the alien invader, Lt. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is discovered in hyper-sleep by a deep space salvage team. Her account of the events leading to the destruction of the alien and the Nostromo are ridiculed by Company executives, partly for the reason that the planet where Ripley claimed to have encountered the parasitic face-huggers has been inhabited for over twenty years. However, when contact is lost with the colonists, Carter Burke (Paul Reiser) enlists the help of Ripley and a platoon of space marines to investigate the planet.
James Cameron directed this first sequel to Ridley Scott's Alien' (1979) and it could easily be argued that Aliens' is on-par with the original. Whereas Scott's Alien' was more of a sci-fi/horror movie built on extremely tense and unnerving sequences, Cameron's addition to the series is a high-octane and thrilling sci-fi/action movie featuring hundreds of the alien creatures. Due to hordes of aliens being shown Aliens' as a movie loses any horror aspect, with the exception of the scenes in which the marines first enter the colonists compound. Surprisingly Aliens' is able to limit the appearance of the alien lifeforms for a long time without the movie becoming any less entertaining. Cameron ingeniously re-uses plot elements that made the original so successful and proceeds to attach more of a storyline. The tough chick character of Ripley is given a more maternal side which is shown by her willingness to protect a young girl named Newt (Carrie Henn) no matter what the danger to herself. This element adds to the character of Ripley and makes for some exhilarating scenes, especially towards the end.
Due to some intelligent storytelling Aliens' is given an atmosphere very similar to its predecessor. The despair and darkness is shown so well and once again, sympathy is felt for some of the characters. While certain characters displayed dislikeable traits early on, their sudden realisation of the hopeless situation they are now in results in somewhat of a kinship developing between the characters and the viewers. Some superb performances from Michael Biehn (of The Terminator' fame) as Cpl. Hicks, Jenette Goldstein as the arrogant but loyal Vasquez and Paul Reiser as the deceitful Carter Burke all help add to the atmosphere and make Aliens' a gripping action/thriller! Sigourney Weaver, of course, stole the show in Aliens' as she had previously done in Alien'. While Alien' hinted at Ripley's more sensitive side the movie concentrated mainly on Ripley as a tough chick. Aliens' gives Weaver a little more to work with and allows her to parade her remarkable acting ability far more than before.
In Aliens' we have a superbly written (credit to James Cameron, Walter Hill and David Giler), directed and acted movie. Cameron sustains a constant air of foreboding doom throughout the movie due to some clever camera work and lighting. The ever present darkness of Aliens' is only eclipsed by the exceptionally directed action sequences. Aliens' also benefits from some outstanding special effects and first-rate work on the alien creature which remains as terrifying and realistic as it appeared to be in the original movie. I highly recommend Aliens' to movie fans and especially those fans of the original movie - it's a different style of movie but still tremendously entertaining. My rating for Aliens'  9/10.