Get Away From Her...I would've.

Rating: 10/10 (18 January 2011)

There should be a rule in Hollywood. When Cameron makes a "Part II," that should be the end to the series as he sure knows how to complete any story with both a bang and an absolute conclusion. Want evidence?
Terminator 2 was a great ending and a complete story to the Big-Screen Sarah Connor chronicles. But no, they ruined it once with Terminator 3 and further beat that horse with Terminator: Salvation.
Piranha II, I've been told, isn't exactly his fault and I'm glad they did end it there. (The incredibly superior 2010 "remake/reboot" Piranha 3D doesn't count as part of that series.)
As for Avatar 2: Electric Boogaloo, I sincerely hope that's the finale. But, then, I wasn't a fan of the first and probably won't see his follow-up anyways.
And nowAliens solidified a story so vividly, brilliantly and completely, there should've never been an Alien3, and if you want proof: Watch this, absorb it, love it and then view just the first few minutes of Alien3 to prove it should never had been filmed.
I digress; this is about the masterpiece Aliens. It's not just one of the, if not thee, best sequels ever, it's a perfect film in its own right. Much like what Cameron's ex-Linda Hamilton did to transform an already good character, Sarah Connor, into excellence (from The Terminator to Terminator 2: Judgment Day,) Sigourney Weaver also blossomed her already good character of Ellen Ripley into an Academy Award nomination (she should've won.)
Beyond her awesome performance, Aliens is pitch perfect in all other categories: mind-blowing cinematography, sets, landscaping and special effects, excellent and eerie score, completely believable acting and dialogue, suspense, drama, action, adventure, science fiction, comedy (thanks, Bill "Game Over, Man!" Paxton,) the human touch, etc. etc.I can't literally express on how this movie works everywhere.
There are those out there that state the movie Alien is the best science fiction movie ever and the best in this series. I wholeheartedly disagree. Alien was the warm up for the real deal. It set the stage and introduced the characters and setting, though it was enormously toned down and 134% slower, comparatively speaking, but still: Alien gave us enough to want 10x more. And Mr. Cameron and the rest of the excellent cast & crew delivered 50x more.
Stuck asleep in a cryogenic tube in deep space for 57 years (or so we're told in a dream sequence, I'm guessing we have to believe she was told that awake at some point,) alien-survivor Ripley is rescued and brought back to Earth. Incredibly, well, maybe not – we're dealing with humans here, she's blamed solely on destroying a multimillion dollar ship in order to destroy an alien no one on Earth heard scream.
She's really screwed up: she's having chest-breaking nightmares, she's been demoted to working grunt jobs and she's concerned about colonists who just happened to be on the same rock where Ripley and her deceased crew intercepted the fateful signal that unleashed the first alien. Again: Humans.
Now, she's coerced into returning to the lion's den, in one of the most believable reasons in movie history to get the original movie's stars back for more. In most lame sequels, you can all but see dollar signs in the original actor's eyes when they stumble back in for some more torture.
She's quite suspicious, uneasy and doesn't even trust the tough marines that follow her in a rescue mission to save the colonists who failed to (surprise) report in.
When they get to their (mostly final) destination, it's up to everyday woman Ripley to attempt to knock sense into the otherwise senseless brute force called soldiers. Without much time lapsing, they learn and pretty fast that, though one alien is badass and hard to take on, 600 are simply impossible. Much like the aliens are really larger versions of ants, it's relevant to say it would be easier for snail to escape an ant attack.
Pretty much, I've given you the set up. There's so much more in this movienamely from the new characters – remember everyone but one died in #1? Oops, spoiler for anyone starting with just this one – and their back stories. Such as the lone/young survivor Newt (Henn,) the possibly corrupt android Bishop (Henriksen) who will become a staple for the series, the after-series, and elevate his movie status from simple B-movies and the personification of "The Company" Carter Burke (Reiser.)
Did I mention there's a special guest in the closing? Well, if you haven't seen this, but undoubtedly have seen Avatar, you'll see where Cameron got all his ideas from. Unfortunately for this next generation, the exceeding advanced Aliens proved to have not only one of the most fantastic, exciting and suspenseful conclusions on record, it really blew anything Avatar produced out of Pandora. On a related note, I remember Aliens's premiere on local TV and I was blown away they allowed the word "bitch" in the famous "Get away from her, you bitch!" line to still be said. And that must've been the downfall of America, right, right-wingers?
AnywaysI can't say enough about one of my all time favorite films. If the original theatre version is still in your collection or that's all Netflix will carry, disregard or eliminate it from your queue. Sure, the Special Edition, the one you should see, is longer, but the motivations behind Ripley are more clearly defined and there's a cool shoot-'em-up scene that might be irrelevant, but fun to watch nonetheless.
Weaver put everything into this role, made the entire experience come together and more accessible to a wider audience as I am aware most women's idea for movie night doesn't include the space-alien genre. This was thee video game movie to watch before video games became as real as they are today. This is real filmmakingnot the horrid CGI generation of today.