Equal to, but much different than the original.

Rating: 9/10 (6 November 2005)

Aliens is without a doubt one of the better sequels ever made. The original film, directed by Ridley Scott was more of a horror film which took place inside a vast cargo ship out in the vastness of space. Aliens, the first big budget venture from James Cameron, is more of an action film. It's filled with shoot-outs, explosions, and has a much larger cast. Most of the action takes place in tight quarters as a group of intergalactic marines battle an army of "xenomorphs" which has wiped out a colony on the planet where the crew from the original film first encountered them. The film is relentless as the embattled humans try to ward off the superior numbers of creatures, and escape back into space.
The cast is terrific. Sigourney Weaver is back to play "Ripley", the only surviving member of the cargo ship from part one. She and her cat have been drifting through space for 57 years before being rescued. She has not aged due to the hibernation process which is used to transport people on long space voyages in these and other space-oriented films. She tries to adjust to life closer to Earth on a space station, but it isn't easy. After a while, contact is lost with the colony which has been set up on the distant planet where the creatures were discovered. Ripley is sent out with a team of tough-talking marines to investigate, since she's the only person who's seen these creatures and lived to tell about it. This big, evil company she works for always seems to be protecting these creatures, and they probably figure this mission would be a good way to get rid of her along with the expendable marines.
Some of these marines (the ones who live past the first 45 minutes) are a hoot. Bill Paxton pretty much rode his character to stardom. Michael Biehn, who replaced the troubled James Remar, also fills out his role nicely. All of the soldiers are upstaged by Jenette Goldstein, however. She's a James Cameron regular who plays the toughest marine in the unit. Right down to her last scene, she's outstanding.
The set design and production values are incredible. The weapons and equipment these soldiers use looks like it could really work. Cameron's attention to detail is well on display in this futuristic world. You can see why studios would later grant him so much money to make movies. The $18 million it cost to make this film wouldn't even cover the catering on one of his films now. Aliens grossed about $80 million in theaters and has made countless more dollars in the home market since its release.
There is one BIG plot hole that prevents me from giving it a perfect score, though. I don't know if anyone else caught this, but there is a problem with how the people in the colony discovered the alien ship. We are led to believe that Paul Reiser's character sent the colonists out to the ship and they became impregnated with the creatures. But wouldn't the colonists have found that ship already? Surely every inch of that planet would have been mapped out before any colony was built! And what about that beacon which led the cargo ship in the original film to the site? Wouldn't the colonists have also heard this beacon? I know this script was monkeyed around with for years, so any explanation of these glitches may be out there somewhere........
9 of 10 stars. The Hound.