Guess who's back, back again?

Rating: 10/10 (1 March 2005)

If, perhaps, you found yourself submerged in an abnormally long hyper-sleep for 57 years having just blasted an extremely hostile life form -and an expensive mining ship- into nothingness, you were picked up by pure chance, experienced terrifying and sweat-laden dreams of chest-burster's and were then told you had to go back out to LV-426, where the alien, the heart of your nightmarish world, first made its appearance in TV everywhere, who else would you want watching your back than a team of aggressive, macho and trigger-happy marines? Well, thats what Sigourney Weaver got. Somehow, however, I believe not all of us would be so lucky to have Michael Biehn and Bill Paxton running around after us, dressed in tight army outfits and wielding some very masculine looking pieces of weaponry, hmm?
The members of the marine core Ellen Ripley joins would be a concept of hilarity if only they were not quite so good at their jobs. I, myself, would not find it wise to laugh in the face of a pulse-rifle wielding egotistical marine, or such a butch character as played by a pumped-up Jenette Goldstein, hmm?
With a variety of weapons, from RPG launchers to 'sharp sticks', you can find yourself submerged in such a detailed and thought-out world that you will forget all else for the time being. Even Alien, the beloved prequel to this adrenaline-rushing film, is pushed from our minds as we find ourselves gazing longingly at Michael Biehn displaying leadership through actually leading rather than constant bellowing, as opposed to Al Matthews 'Sgt. Apone' who, it seems, would have developed lip cancer from smoking cigars if the aliens hadn't promptly ended his life.
Well, James Cameron has broken the rule that all sequels never top the original- Aliens, beating Alien, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection by far, is never long gone from my mind these days as I gaze wistfully out the classroom and dream of days when I can get to the Army Cadets and re-enact a few favourite moments with my comrades. With fire-power, stirring emotional moments from Carrie Henn, who enacts 'Newt', a subtle adoration for Ripley from Corporal Hicks and, as ever, the sleazy 'Company' man Carter Birk (Paul Reiser) who seems to think money is more substantial than over a hundred lives he sacrifices for a percentage and one mean mother of an Alien Queen, it is undoubtedly one of the best films I've ever seen.
This time, its war.