Review of Aliens

Story:

Warrant Officer Ripley, the last survivor of the Nostromo, had drifted through space in hypersleep for 57 years when she is discovered by a salvage crew. She is haunted by nightmares and lost her ranking as a Warrant Officer, because the company she works for - Weyland Yutani - doesn´t believe her story about the alien. Ripley is forced by the company to see a psychiatrist and gets a new job in the cargo bay.

Ripley finds out that the planet on which the crew of the Nostromo found the alien lifeform is now inhabited by 20 families, colonist or terraformers, who are making the planet suitable for living. Suddenly contact is lost with the colony and space marines are sent there to investigate what is going on. Carter Burke, a man from the Company, convinces Ripley to come along with them. Ripley agrees and the group goes to the planet, now called LV426.

There terror awaits them, as the aliens have reproduced themselves rapidly and thousands of them are ready to fight....THIS TIME IT IS WAR!

Birgitte S.C.´s opinion:

First of all I must say that 20th Century Fox made a huge mistake by forcing James Cameron to cut down to 2,5 hours, which was standard at that time. Because of this, Cameron had been forced to remove a subplot and to cut out the scene in which Ripley learns from Burke that her daughter had died in the period she was in hypersleep. This is a very important and damatical scene, which explains why Ripley is so attached to Newt. Fortunately they made it up later by releasing the Special Edition.

Aliens is totally different from Alien. It doesn´t have the dark mood and the slow-paced story, slowly building up the tension. It is a real action piece with a lot of guns and special effects: a thrilling rollercoaster ride.
James Cameron gave the sequel a twist nobody expected and even introduced a new alien lifeform to complete the alien´s lifecycle: the Queen.

Unfortunately, H.R. Giger wasn´t involved in Aliens, but Stan Winston did a wonderful job on the Queen, which stays close to the original concept of the Alien which was created by Giger.

The cast is acting great and the storyline is very original, but Sigourney Weaver really steals the show as the emotionally tormented Ripley. She even got an Oscar nomitation, which is really unique. It is the first (and up to now the only) nomination for Best Actress for a role in a science fiction movie. Although she didn´t win, it was quite an achievement. In my opinion Sigourney would have won if 20th Century Fox had released the film as James Cameron envisioned it (the Special Edition) right away in 1986.

Studio......................................20th Century Fox
Director..................................James Cameron
Executive Producers.............Gordon Carrol, David Giler, Walter Hill
Produced by............................Gale Anne Hurd
Story by.................................James Cameron, David Giler
and Walter Hill
Screenplay by.......................James Cameron
Alien Effects by..................Stan Winston
Music by................................James Horner

Cast Ripley.........................Sigourney Weaver
Corporal Hicks.........Michael Biehn
Private Hudson..........Bill Paxton
Private Vazquez........Jenette Goldstein
Bishop..........................Lance Henriksen
Carter J. Burke........Paul Reiser
Newt...........................Carrie Henn

Aliens is the second movie of the Alien Saga, a sequel to Alien. The sequels that followed later are Alien3 and Alien Resurrection.

Favourite scenes:

- Ripley´s nightmare at the beginning of the movie
- Burke informing Ripley that her daughter has died
(a cut scene added to the Special Edition)
- Face huggers attacking Ripley and Newt in the medical lab
- The battle between Ripley in the powerloader and the Alien Queen

Favourite (and famous) quotes:

- "Get away from her, you BITCH!"
(Ripley)
- "My mommy always said there were no monsters, no real ones. But there are."
(Newt)
- "Hey Vazquez! Have you ever been mistaken for a man?"
"No. Have you?"
(Hudson and Vazquez)
- "Game over man! Game over!"
(Hudson)