Aliens

I might as well get this review out of the way. So I finished the ALIEN trilogy a few days back (yes I know it’s a legacy or saga, but I’m only 3 deep so far this time around so back off) and I’ll discuss ALIEN3 tomorrow. So James Cameron directed this thing and you can totally tell it’s his style all over the picture. Plot – Ripley is sent back out to a planet where the alien has supposedly resurfaced and killed everyone. Accompanying her is a team of marines armed with bad haircuts and overly excessive amounts of fire power.

Aliens Trailer

I wonder what draws directors to make sequels so over-the-top and packed with action? TRANSFORMERS 2 (terrible), GHOSTBUSTERS 2, BACK TO THE FUTURE 2 – it seems like they HAD to kick up the action levels to draw crowds and appease people during their summertime blockbuster viewings. The same is so true here with ALIENS. It’s over 2 and a half hours and packed with nonstop action sequences. It becomes really overbearing and mundane well before halfway through the film. To Cameron’s credit, the world he creates is very intricate and extraordinary; the characters, no so much so. To be completely truthful, we don’t give two rips about what happens to the characters. We know they are only there to provide entertainment to us in how they die by the alien. That’s it, and that’s sad.

ALIEN was paced so well and it built the suspense perfectly, and then the payoffs were well warranted. Here, however, I feel that they tried to throw in as many payoffs as possible just for the sake of audience appeasement through action based gratification. And think about it – was there even an actual legitimate scare or frightening moment in ALIENS? The answer is NO. In ALIEN I can think of at least 5 legit, intense shock moments. Here, not so much. I guess that’s why they are so different. ALIEN is a smart, well-paced psychological thriller, and ALIENS is a fast moving, all-out, bullets-blazing action blockbuster. To each their own, and I’ll take ALIEN any day.

Rating: 6.5/10
RT: 100%