James Cameron’s epic sequel to the sci-fi classic Alien.
Sigourney Weaver returns to her role as Ellen Ripley, who begins the film by awakening from a fifty-seven year sleep, after her last encounter on a planet where her crew were viciously attacked by an alien creature, and only she made it our alive. Drifting through space in her dream-state, her ship is found by a salvage team, who bring her home, where she finds life has gone on without her.
Ripley discovers that the planet of her previous mission has been colonized, and that they found no dangerous creatures there. However, it soon emerges that contact with the colony has been lost, and therefore Ripley, along with a new crew, must journey to the planet to investigate. This time, the crew bring immense weapons in order to prepare for any kind of encounter.
An extremely entertaining sequel, Aliens is a brilliant example of what a science fiction film should be like. The atmosphere is intense throughout, with claustrophobic scenes of journeying through a derelict power plant, and the suspense is brilliantly built up into gratuitous, messy fighting scenes, where the crew use all the weapons at their disposal in order to combat the nest of aliens. Thematically, Cameron highlights some interesting notions of motherhood, and the protector instinct, but these are fleeting enough to be enjoyable, rather than syrupy.
Cameron uses some excellent techniques in bringing the creatures to life, methods that still hold up today. Some of the animatronics do seem a little silly, but make the film seen appealing, rather than dated. Weaver’s performance is impressive, shining in her role as the worried yet resourceful lead character, whose relationship with the small girl found on the colony makes for a very interesting side-plot.
Arguably better than the first film of the franchise, I would rate Aliens up there as one of the best sci-fi films ever made.
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