Still massively entertaining twenty years on

Rating: 10/10 (3 December 2006)

I just gave myself a treat and watched this movie again for the first time in years, and I am so impressed by how wonderfully entertaining it still is. Say what you will about James Cameron but the man knows how to tell a story! We're still reading Beowulf a thousand years after it was written, and I like to think we'll still be enjoying Aliens a thousand years from now. The movie is perfectly cast and the story unfolds just right, so that the tension and excitement build until you feel like you're on a really well made roller coaster, with a thoroughly satisfying conclusion. And frankly, I have yet to see CG effects that are a match for Stan Winston's genius in this film. Never did I think the aliens looked fake or animated (ok, some of the ships were a little too obviously models) as is so often the case with the all-too-perfect digital creature effects we see in movies these days. CG has yet to produce images that really seem to have convincing weight and heft and sheer size to them. Give me that big old gorgeous Alien Queen any day!