Violence is needed for survival

Rating: 9/10 (17 April 2018)

Throughout ALIENS, never once are you left wondering if the action is over. The suspense the movie evokes into one is uncommon from an 80's film. There are a plethora of reasons as to why James Cameron's film was such a hit, and many times have they been pointed out. The acting by Weaver and Paxton were phenomenal, and yes the suspense the Xenomorph can induce is petrifying, but one thing that does not get mentioned often is the tale that the story really tells.
ALIENS is an action movie, and within that, it tells a story of survival. Many say that the film is a story of an invasion gone wrong, but they would be the ones in the wrong. ALIENS is a film where one crew of space marines and Ellen Ripley are sent to defend the human race. The movie is not portrayed that way, but underneath it all, had Ripley not done what she did, the fate of humans could have been forever changed. ALIENS is not a glorification of war, it is instead the opposite. It demonstrates the horrors of war, but also provides evidence as to why violence is necessary at times.
Through all the blood and acid, the takeaway from ALIENS is not a story of aggression gone wrong, but a final stand in which the human race was victorious. The story line of ALIENS is due to the direct actions of ALIEN, but that is for another review. ALIENS was not intended to be a film that approved of unnecessary force, it was a film that showed how the human race survived through self defense.