Sequels - they can work

Rating: 9/10 (12 April 2001)

When I first saw Aliens back in the late eighties, it was considered the hip and cool film to see. I really didn't like to just go with the crowd so the main point I picked out was that it was almost always dark and so you couldn't see what was going on, hence I thought it wasn't that good. I am now big enough to admit that I was wrong.
As for the argument "is it as good as original?", my answer is yes. Mainly for the fact that it succeeds on its own merits, very rare for any sequel. The 2 films are very different in my opinion, different genres under the general umbrella of sci-fi. The first "alien", was a tense, scary atmospheric film. It had a group of civilians that come up against a terrifyingly dangerous opponent and how they fight for their lives. Now for a sequel, it would be stupid to do the same thing, there had to be something new. Cameron decides to take things up a notch, instead of the atmospheric "where is it? I'm terrified", we have a band of good guys that could be a match for the alien, professional army types. I agree that eventually they are in a similar situation to the characters from the original but there is still a preference for action than suspense. It is then left to the viewer if they would rather see a suspense film or an action film, both are of high quality. Personally I prefer action films (probably because the original is a little too suspensfull for me, I find myself jumping out of my seat every 2 minutes). I just hope that films like Matrix 2, Jurassic Park 3, MIB 2 and The Mummy Returns all take note and have the same mix of the spirit of the original but still have something new to see.
Aliens has a superb plot, i love the idea of the marines thinking they can kill anything, meeting their match and then running for cover. Paul Reiser's character is maybe a little bit too evil *spoiler* surely he wouldn't want to risk being attacked by the aliens on the trip home when he intended to have ripley impregnated, he's a weasel, he'd just want to get out of there alive and forget about the others *end spoiler*
All in all, I do like this film and its name has been tarnished by the far lesser sequels that follow it (even though the talented fincher directed alien3).
9 out of 10