Good, but no match for the original

Rating: 6/10 (19 March 2006)

Approximately the first half of this movie is really suspenseful - although the viewer who saw the preceding film already knows what the marines will encounter, and that most of them are probably doomed to die, everything is done very well and keeps us in excited expectation of the things to come. Good classic space SF meets good classic horror. However, it gets rather stale later, regrettably. There are just too many aliens and too many fights - when it comes to the last one, I think "one more time, I saw this already, what's the point?" - somewhat boring repetitiveness marks "Aliens". It's not only repetitive in itself but also in relation to "Alien": oh yes, we already had the airlock trick, we already had a butchered android, hadn't we? There are no new ideas here, just more or less successful variations on the original theme. Maybe some people will now think that the little girl should be mentioned. Well - she is only a hollow character. Cute, doing nothing interesting, just there to be saved and to serve as an ersatz daughter for Ripley. To me, Ripley running around to save her new "daughter" is too stereotypical and does add nothing to the story which is not in every poor disaster flick. It seems that mainstream movies including disasters very rarely are able to do without saving at least a pet, or a child, or both - still a bit disappointing that "Aliens" had to follow this pattern, too. Watching the movie, things became so very predictable. Saved in the nick of time, of course. From a dramaturgical point of view, it would have hugely improved the film and Ripley's character if the girl at least died, if she has to be in the movie at all. The cat in "Alien" was much less irritating... the whole movie was done with more restraint, better pacing, and - well, it had the original ideas. Still, "Aliens" is very watchable. But not more - it's far from being an important achievement.