As he would once again prove with “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”, James Cameron knows how
to use maternal compassion to make a badass protagonist. As part of The Musicbox Theatre’s
Halloween screenings, they played James Cameron’s legendary horror action film “Aliens” to a
packed audience, and needless to say, it was incredible.
Cameron who at the time of this films production was a veteran VFX and special effects worker
in Hollywood who outside of “Terminator” didn’t really have anything noteworthy to his name
as a Writer/Director was given the reins to make the sequel of Ridley Scott’s claustrophobic
creature feature Alien. Known for being fairly minimal compared to other sci-fi films, Alien is
built around being a bottle movie horror with high stakes and foreboding atmosphere.
Cameron, never one to make the exact same movie twice, knew exactly what he needed to add
to the science fiction and horror of the first film; make it a war movie.
Picking up 57 years after the first film, Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley wakes up from her cryosleep
(a common sci-fi technology where people can sleep your years without aging) back in the
hands of her outer space company Weyland-Yutani. The events of the first film have been
written off by corporate and Ripley is stripped of her rank and credibility, leaving her jaded and
traumatized. However, they pull Ripley back into the fray after learning the planet they found
the Xenomorphs (The acid blooded, leathery skinned aliens in question) on has been colonized
and they have lost contact. Since Ripley is the only person that supposedly has come in contact
with the aliens, she is hired as a consultant for the journey. They plan to execute an extraction
mission of the colonists, bringing a platoon of the Colonial Marines in case they need some fire
power. After things go south and the group gets picked off one by one, the film turns into a race
to escape the planet while trying to survive.
It isn’t often that a sequel to a successful genre film has any merit (just look at any Alien film
after this one), however Cameron and company successfully built upon the world of the first
film while raising the stakes and fear factor. He doesn’t dwell on the first film’s premise very
long, only using it to set up the plot of his sequel brevity. While you should watch the first film,
it doesn’t feel like a Marvel superhero movie where you are totally lost without watching two
decades of movies and TV.
The film’s action is frantic and brutal as it incorporates the body horror and menace of the
Xenomorphs. As the crew gets progressively more strung out and paranoid with each others
loyalty, the action also builds upon unique locations and dazzling cinematography, eventually
ending with it’s explosive climax and “fisticuffs” in the finale. By the time the crew lands on the
planet, there is not a single moment when you aren’t on the edge of your seat. It isn’t all balls
to the wall action and scares however; the film has a mix of comedy, exposition, and character
building that not only gives us time to catch our breaths, but make us care more about the
characters we see.
While the soldiers are being played by a boatload of badass character actors (particularly the
hilarious Bill Paxton), Paul Reiser is perfectly despicable as Burke, and Lance Henriksen is
wonderfully understated as the android Bishop, the obvious standout is Weaver’s powerhouse
performance as Ripley for which she was nominated for an Oscar (and robbed off. When was
the last time you heard someone talk about Marlee Matlin in Children of a Lesser God?). What
makes Ripley so amazing isn’t just her quick wit and no BS attitude, but rather her relationship
with Newt. When the crew first arrive to the planet, they find a small girl who had miraculously
survived the Xenomorphs and was living in the air ducts. Ripley naturally sees herself in Newt,
played by Carrie Henn, since she had done the same in the first film. Over the course of the
film, this kinship develops into a surrogate mother-daughter relationship which; drives the
emotional climax of the film; (like when watching Ripley suit up in the forklift armor and yell at
the queen “Get away from her you bitch” followed by the sold-out theater erupting in applause
was spectacular).
In a simple yet effective way, “Aliens” delivers on being a strong evolution on the first film that
you could easily argue is better than the first. The film has left an unbelievably strong influence
on the action, sci-fi, and horror genres that can easily still be seen to this day. To put it simply, it
delivers on the title. The first film has one alien, and this film has at least two. I think all sequels
should adopt this naming convention.
