If Alien scared you out of your seats, Aliens goes one better and blows you out of your seats.

Rating: 9/10 (6 March 2016)

Aliens was an excellent sequel to a brilliant movie that has certainly gone one better, awesome non-stop edge-of your-seat action, a great cast, and a quality director. What more could you ask for in a movie? Ridley's Scott's Alien (1979) is still a timeless atmospheric science fiction-horror classic and while Alien scared you out of your seat, Aliens blew you out of your seat. Instead of rehashing the original storyline, James Cameron brilliantly and intelligently expands on the original storyline and adds more of the titular Aliens, more firepower, explosions, grunt, testosterone, and establishing Sigourney Weaver's Ripley as one of the finest female heroines in cinematic history.
Set 57 years after the original, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver)is found after drifting through space after sleeping in cryogenic stasis following her ordeal on the ship Nostromo in which she was the sole survivor after battling an Alien which found its way on board and killed the rest of the crew. Her employers at the Weyland-Yutani Corporation are dismissive of her claims that an Alien killed the ship's crew and forced her to destroy the ship and as a result, her flight officer's license is suspended. When contact is lost on a colony on LV-426 a Weyland-Yutani executive Carter Burke (Paul Reiser) and US Colonial Marine Lieutenant Gorman (William Hope) ask Ripley to accompany Burke and a US Colonial Marine platoon to investigate the disturbance. After much reluctance and reoccurring nightmares, Ripley agrees, but only to destroy the aliens. The USCM platoon is made up of such members as the respected platoon Sergeant Apone (Al Matthews), Corporal Hicks (Michael Biehn), Private Hudson (Bill Paxton), Private Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein) Private Drake (Mark Rolston) and many others. Also accompanying Ripley, Burke and the Colonial Marines is Bishop (Lance Henriksen) was the android executive officer of the USS Sulaco and unlike the traitorous and deceitful Ash from the first movie Bishop is friendly and loyal to the crew especially Ripley despite her fearful suspicions at first. The mission goes horrible wrong when the Aliens are awakened and despite the Marines' firepower a majority of them are killed leaving a handful remaining to fight for survival on an unfamiliar planet in unfamiliar territory. Rebecca "Newt" (Carrie Henn) was the only survivor amongst the colonists of LV-426 and Ripley takes Newt under her wing and the Marines vow to protect her while awaiting rescue.
James Cameron has brilliantly and intelligently done an amazing job with Aliens. After exploding onto the scene with Arnold Schwarzenegger's The Terminator (1984) James Cameron further establishes his credentials with Aliens. It's not that often you see a claustrophobic and atmospheric science fiction-horror movie followed up with an all out science fiction-action movie that sets the trend for all movies on how to follow up with a sequel that outshines the original.
Sigourney Weaver reprises her role as the strong willed Ripley who must overcome her fears from the events of the first movie and she does so by overcoming her fears to fight to survive and shows that when pushed she is a determined and strong willed woman that will fight back.
The supporting cast is also top notch. Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein, Lance Henriksen, Mark Rolston and a special mention goes to Carrie Henn who plays the precocious but resourceful Newt who has managed to survive and stay calm even as some of the Colonial Marines have cracked under a great deal of stress. This was Carrie Henn's sole movie appearance, who later became a school teacher and decided not to pursue a movie career.
Alien 3 (1992) and Alien: Resurrection (1997) failed to reach the benchmark set by Aliens, having suffered the fate of the sequels that have failed to reach the expectations of audiences.
30 years on, Aliens is still a favourite amongst all audiences. Not just as a science fiction movie but as an action movie as well. The cast is top notch, the story is enthralling and engaging from start to finish, and the action keeps the movie crackling along at a fast pace. James Cameron's brilliant direction made this possible as a movie that has gone one better from the original.
9/10.