Almost an Army feature Film

Rating: 6/10 (18 April 2009)

When I saw "Aliens" more than 20 years ago, I didn't like it because of the military presence. I didn't like the Army, and I didn't believe that in the future such an armed rabble would be used to make something like 'first contact' with possibly precious xenomorphs. I disliked the complete crew, and my understanding was that the movie was sympathizing with them. Maybe I was wrong and it is all humor, and the Army is satirized. I'm not that intelligent, you should know.
At first, I liked the introduction. Ripley aged only a few years during her 57 years hibernation, I found that time line a good Idea. Unfortunately, script writer's imagination could not transport the effects of this half century, on the contrary, technology, clothing and behavior mention more a regression than improvement.
First laugh (in a bad sense) was, when Ripley was accused for destroying her worthy freighter Nostromo. Of course was the Nostromo worthy like a supertanker, but isn't a ship of this size and the cargo insured ? They had 57 years to get the insurance sum, so what's up with this future ?
Later it comes out that the contact to the colony on the Alien egg planet is lost. Surely they had no opportunity to report what happened. A colony around an expensive atmospheric modifier doesn't give any reports about what's happening or any dangerous incidents.
Someone in the movie says that it lasts decades to transform a planets atmosphere. Meanwhile the colonists, which are obviously researching the surface, didn't find any trace from the huge stranded spaceship, which sent the distress call that led the Nostromo to her final destruction in the first movie. OK, colonists are dumb or simply blind.
Also dumb are the marines. Confrontated with Ripley who is the last survivor of a deadly alien encounter, they are not willing to hear anything what she says. I as their officer would have made them shut up immediately, because every information could be important for surviving. If soldiers of the future are such idiots as shown here, there would be no need for powerful aliens to destroy humanity.
I can't imagine that any officer wouldn't send artificial drones ahead to research the situation. I can't imagine, too, that anyone would send such a small and dumb team to investigate the possible alien-caused death of 70 families. The mission in the later "AVP" movie is much better prepared with scientists from all over the world. OK, here we have Bishop, but he doesn't seem to be very helpful, and he has no rights to make decisions. A few more Bishop's, especially for fighting purposes, would have made the mission more serious.
The greatest disappointment in "Aliens" is the disappearance of the alien's being nearly indelible. When the alien in the first movie is not even destroyed by the escape pod's jet engines (it's adapting to the heat, i suppose), it is here like destroying cockroaches. You can squish them with your car, you can shoot them, or simple burn with a standard flamethrower. A bunch of well-armed soldiers with a little bit more brain than the people shown in this movie would be able to eliminate a complete alien population. For what purpose would the military use such a weak race defies me. Sure, you can infest a planet of your enemies, you don't have to care about them any more. But then your own world would be also in danger because of the revenge of the survivors. And the infested world is useless. However, I know, military is always interested in new and dangerous toys.
The mystery of the aliens and the other race - the big stoned guy - from the first movie is completely gone. It is simply a bug slashing feature film. When they find out that the colonists have already caught two living facehuggers, Burke's mission would be done. Instead, they are going ahead for certain death.
There are many errors in the script. One is, how did Burke mange to put the facehugger to Ripley's sleeping place. Did he carry the containment tank, or did he carry the alien under his arm ? Then, there is the first confrontation between the Queen and Ripley. Ripley fills the eggs with loads of ammo and explosives, Mother's bearing channel is slashed, and there is no acid burning Ripley and Newt. And in the final fight, the ladder where Ripley is hanging is always within reach for the queen's second hand. Instead, she is angrily swinging around with her free arm. And I thought (almost), come on, big lady, take the ladder, take it, please, and then eat Ripley for killing your babies. Poor mother, so big, so dumb.
The positive side is, that - blinding out the mediocre script, visuals, dialogs and actors - the movie is actually thrilling. It's more thrilling than most of the movie's of it's time, and the idea to fight the queen with the cargo loading exoskeleton is really funny. I personally understood Ripleys decision to go for Newt into the burning reactor, but I also understood that the figure of Newt is only a vehicle to fill plot holes.
I gave 5 stars even if it deserves six for the thrill of the hunt.