Different In Style, Equal In Entertainment.

Rating: 9/10 (21 June 2008)

James Cameron's Aliens is one of the best sequels ever made. Being a sequel to the brilliant Alien is not easy, yet this movie manages to hold its own and create its own atmosphere and tone. And succeeding at it.
What impresses me is that the Alien universe allowed a fantastic suspense/horror first film as well as a fantastic action sequel.
The fact that it's an action movie does not bother me. It wasn't trying to imitate the original or to be a suspense movie. It was trying to be a more accessible shoot-em-up movie loaded with guns, explosions and humor and I think James Cameron did an amazing job with the script and the direction.
The characters are well-written. You know they're disposable, yet they have each one a different charm that I really like in ensemble casts. Bill Paxton being particularly funny as Pvt. Hudson.
Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn are great together as Ripley and Hicks respectively. The chemistry was good and it allowed the characters to have some valuable interaction without distracting from the action.
The aliens were cool-looking and they make some great villains. They are not scary like the creature in Alien was, and they are killed like bugs by the marines, but still, they fit as well in an action movie as they did in a suspense/horror one.