How do you follow up one of the greatest science-fiction films ever made? Let's look at the poster for Aliens for our answer. To start, you change the director, replacing Ridley Scott with Terminator veteran James Cameron. Add in a few, OK - hundred more of your extraterrestrial antagonists and cap it off by giving your heroine a complete character makeover, with a gun. Should be a recipe for success, right?
Well, to an extent. As sequels (or sci-fi/action movies in general) go, you can't find much of anything negative to say about Aliens. Seven years and several key developments after its predecessor, you find that there are a handful of areas (plot, special effects and action sequences in particular) in which the sequel surpasses the original. But in spite of the advancements that were made, the style changes were too numerous, and the several small victories aren't enough to generate that big win - the one that elevates it past Alien as the franchise's best.
We open with Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) drifting unconsciously along in space, as per the conclusion of the last film. After her rescue, lawyer/professional scumbag Carter Burke (Paul Reiser) informs her that 57 years have past since the events aboard her ship, the Nostromo - the destruction of which temporarily loses Ripley her space flight license. However, after contact is lost with the colony aboard planet LV-426, the site of the first film's extraterrestrial encounter, she's coaxed back into action and travels with Burke as part of a rescue team to investigate.
After meeting their team, composed otherwise entirely of a colonial space marine unit, one thing becomes clear: we've said good-bye to pure sci-fi and have moved into more of an action film environment. Gone is the intelligent, calculating crew of the Nostromo, replaced instead with a reckless bunch of über-soldiers (Bill Paxton, Michael Biehn, etc.) whose collective M.O. of "shoot first, shoot some more, then investigate" sets the film's overall tone. The thinking man's Alien film has past; this one's for pure adrenaline junkies.
The team lands on LV-426 and immediately discovers a young girl named Newt, who eventually forms a mother-daughter-like bond with Ripley. It's these sort of added depths in the role, along with the grace with which Weaver realized them, that contribute to the franchise's advancement. The majority of Alien saw Ripley as one crew member of seven aboard the Nostromo, whose cool thinking and sharp decision making saw her emerge as a heroine at the end. Here, she's got that distinction from the start, but must also tackle protecting Newt and winning over her new team in addition to strapping on a gun and kicking some alien ass.
Oh yeah...the aliens. Seven years of special-effects enhancements clearly worked wonders for the franchise. When the aliens strike here, they do so mercilessly. To start, there are more of them (hence Aliens being the title, as opposed simply to Alien 2), and they appear to have developed new breeds. And where the original alien walked, these things run, jump, climb and, most importantly, pursue. It's no longer the humans hunting down the aliens; the hunters have become the hunted on LV-426. A new level of peril emerges in the franchise, to the audience's delight. The showdown between Ripley and the film's main newcomer, the Alien Queen, is a real treat - a showcase of action, stunning effects and pure good-over-evil bravado.
But at times, it's all just a bit much, and it feels like they tried a bit too hard. You kind of start to miss the quiet, more haunting sort of film the first was when thrust into the endless spectacle of the second. Aliens ultimately makes one think of another high-profile sequel from a franchise 15-odd years down the road: The Matrix. The two series both started the same way - with films that succeeded by means of effortless confidence. They sucked their audiences in and won them over without even appearing to try. Both of their sequels got bigger, placing greater emphasis on both the action and the antagonists. And while Aliens has nowhere near the disastrous results of Reloaded and Revolutions, it still doesn't quite match up to its predecessor. A very entertaining film, to be sure, but in the end, Alien is still top dog.
3 stars out of 4
7.5/10
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