With the impending cinema release of
Alien Convenant and as another example in the Classic Movies Revisited segment of this blog I decided to give
Aliens a view and see how well this James Cameron directed classic has aged!
The good news, as with most cinematic masterpieces is that it has aged quite well. Obviously, movie special effects have improved in leaps and bounds since the mid 80's (ironically at the hands of James Cameron himself) but the movie itself proves that tale, tension and atmosphere together with a powerful central performance by Sigourney Weaver, shows that classic film making is timeless!
In this sequel to the equally impressive
Alien, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) accompanies a crew to the moon from the first film which although it has been colonised, contact has been lost. On arrival, loaded with heavy firepower and a military crew, Ripley discovers a sole survivor, a young girl named Newt (Carrie Henn) and what follows is an all out bloodbath as she battles the aliens that threaten the crew and more importantly Newt's survival.
The first half of the movie is quite similar to the first Alien film, in that the tension is slowly built by Cameron before an explosive second half sees the pace crank up dramatically and what follows is movie genre pick n' mix with action, horror, drama and war all evident in the lead up to a dramatic finale!
This film also saw the beginning of the careers of some excellent actors in the shape of Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, and Paul Reiser and indeed the strong performances of the cast add extra weight to already solid production.
However, as in
Alien, it is Weaver who steals the show, putting in a tough and smart turn as the formidable Ellen Ripley.
Overall,
Aliens puts the myth that a sequel can never be as good as the original to bed, and is deserved of repeated view if only to demonstrate how a blockbuster big budget movie can entertain the masses yet still have so much more attached than just eye-popping special effects. Classic.
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