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| Aliens - The prototype for action movies, a great script, and sequels. |
Written by: James Cameron and David Giler & Walter Hill (story), Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett (characters), James Cameron (screenplay)
Directed by: James Cameron
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton
Rated: R
My rating is simple, Watch It, It Depends, Skip it. Read my previous movie reviews!
Plot
Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is tasked with returning to the now colonized planet from the first movie with a team of marines after all contact is lost.
Verdict
Forging the blue print for action horror movies and sequels, a great script serves as the basis for an absolute thrill ride. Every scene builds plot or character all the way to the end, while constantly reminding you that survival is slim.
How do you make not just a good action movie, but a great film? Aliens holds the answers.
Watch it.
Review
Aliens is a classic, deservedly so. It does so many thing well, and it defied the status quo with a female lead. The script really is a marvel, juggling Ripley fighting aliens and her own fears, a budding respect between her and Corporal Hicks (Michael Biehn), her bond with Newt who is a replacement for her own daughter, and there's even the money hungry bureaucrat that wants to take the aliens back to Earth and use it as a biological weapon.
With so many things working concurrently you can just as easily ignore that and enjoy the pure action movie that puts you on edge at all times. This is reinforced with beeping motion trackers, M41A pulse rifle ammo counters perpetually nearing zero, fuzzy video feeds, and a claustrophobic colony with too many entrances to block. Nightmarish bipedal alien xenomorph predators could be lurking in the shadows, ready to exterminate any threat.
The aliens alone are pure nightmare fuel, starting as a face hugger that implants it's seed into the esophagus. Adult aliens mature in just hours are nearly unstoppable with acid for blood.
It's a simple yet effective concept for a sequel. Instead of one alien on a space craft, let's have multiple aliens on a colony planet. The best of the best, bad to the bone Marines are ready to go in hard and fast and eliminate the threat, but they are over matched and soon stranded.
Despite being an action movie, this provides room for performers to act and convey emotion. Weaver does a great job of reflecting emotion with expression and tone. While Burke (Paul Reiser) may be talking cool, he's sweating bullets when his subterfuge is discovered. Each character feels distinct, other than the few that die in the first encounter.
While this can be categorized a just an action movie, few can match it. Everything has a purpose, from the realization that Ripley's kid has died of old age to losing her flight license and having to work as a loader. Every scene builds character and plot. There's no filler here.
She's willing to take action when others aren't and builds a rapport with Hicks based on respect. She's not a weak woman that needs a man, the men need her. Ripley combines the macho characteristics of a typical action hero with the compassion and caution usually associated to a female.
With the planet on the verge of total devastation and the window for escape closing, it makes complete sense when Ripley tapes a pulse rifle and flame thrower together, willing to enter the alien layer once again. She doesn't have to say a word, we know what she's thinking, that she doesn't want to go but has an obligation, not just to save Newt but to prevent the fate of an alien violently bursting from the girl's chest.
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