There are a lot of people out there that say the first film (Alien) is actually the best film of the bunch. Actually I think this is the prevailing opinion. It isn't however my opinion. I think that the second film in the series was the best one and I'm here to tell you why. Feel free to voice your disagreement as it is expected. James Cameron was the director and he has gone on to be largely considered one of the best directors of all time so perhaps that had something to do with it.
It is amazing to me to look back on this film and then be told that the entire budget for the movie was $18 million. That is truly amazing considering that I would say all of the special effects still stand up to today's standards. Actually, i think the use of creative lighting and puppets instead of CGI is vastly better. This is a lesson the Star Wars learned with episode 1-3.
The story behind Aliens is probably already very well known to everyone out there but basically, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is rescued from statis after being asleep for nearly 60 years. The people who discover her don't believe her story about an Alien destroying her ship and killing her crew (from the first film,) and they reprimand her by taking away her license or something.
I don't remember why but it is necessary for her to go with a exploratory crew to a terraforming planet that has stopped responding. However, this time she is traveling with a crew of highly-trained, highly-arrogant space marines.
This, my friends, is the reason why I think this movie is better than the first one. It is really the only reason I have to be honest. The performance of the marines and their subsequent return to reality when they basically get their asses handed to them by a superior opponent who possesses no technology, is really fun.
Of course Bill Paxton is the real star here and his performance was just exceptional. His famous line of "Game over man, game over!" wasn't even in the script apparently and Bill was improvising. It is now the most famous line in the film so well-done Bill! Paxton received a Saturn Award for best supporting actor in this movie.
The discovery of Newt was pretty interesting but a little unbelievable because she is able to avoid the aliens somehow but no one else on the colony was able to do so. I do think the young girl (Carrie Henn) did a great job in this role. It is still shocking to me that after completing this role and being involved in one of the most iconic and famous sci-fi franchises of all time, Carrie decided never to act again.
Now briefly I'm going to gripe a little bit about eye-rolling moments that happened in the film.
The marines have motion sensors that is their only way of knowing the aliens are getting near. However, during their final stand they seem to be surrounded but there are no aliens about. No one thinks the check in the ceilings until it is too late. they spent all that time welding doors shut only to be thwarted by a crawl space. What the hell is the point of giant metallic doors if the ceiling is false?
The marines first enter the building the timers on each individual camera goes back and forth in time. I know this is nitpicky, but continuity people!
Bishop is an android yet gets put in a cryo-chamber for long-distance travel anyway. He doesn't age, he doesn't need this.
There is a scene where one of the marines get's alien acid blood on him, melting his armor and causing skin burns. The burn initially happen on the right side of his face, however later the burns magically jump to the other side.
When they first arrive on the planet they run through the pouring rain to the entrance of the facility. Upon arriving at the entrance they are all completely dry. This exact scene is actually in the trailer.
I suppose I shouldn't have ended with my gripes, because I love this film despite these nitpicky details (there are more.) This is one of the best sci-fi movies ever made in my mind and it still looks good by today's standards. I'm a sci-fi nerd so I might be a little biased in my review. So be it.
Lol Your gripes are funny as eff, in particular the one about freezing Bishop. That is hilarious.
I'm with you on the movie. Best in the franchise, no question.
Ridley Scott's movie was a typical jump scare horror movie, set in space, with that director's eagle eye and stunning design sensibility setting it apart as a piece of art. What made Scott's movie extra deep was the creepy way he assigned feminine qualities to the alien, with all those orifices everywhere, leading through the alien ship, with all those aggressive eggs, and a creature that swallowed men like a giant vagina. It's like he took the fear of women that teenage boys feel and made it so real it could kill ya. Of course it took a woman to beat a woman.
Where Scott's movie was about feminity, Cameron's movie is more about men. Sure, he continues the feminist trope of a protagonist whose great ideas are always dismissed because she's only a woman, but Cameron's new focus is on different kinds of masculinity.
Cameron sets up the shit show as a replay of the Vietnam war, with copious macho phallic weapons being waved around in an alien terrain where their effectiveness is neutralized by the aliens' superior knowledge of the battleground.
In the movie Jaws, Spielberg had shown how three different types of men could unite to battle a shark. Cameron instead shows how three different types of men work against each other.
The rapacious Paul Reiser wants to exploit the alien power and is willing to murder his own men to achieve that; the macho posturing Bill Paxton revels in his weapons like they are his dick, but when it gets chopped off, his true cowardice reveals itself, as he yells: "Get us out of here!" As well as the classic ultimate defeatist declaration of his inner pussy: "Game over man!"
And then there's the third type of man, Michael Biehn, like his character from Terminator, a man of few words, bold action and total respect for women, both for Ripley and the alien Queen herself.
He is the one willing to team up with a good woman (Ripley) to dispatch a bad one (the alien queen Ripley refers to as the "bitch").
So Cameron's movie reworks the creepy femininity of Scott's film to have a male-female partnership of equals destroy it, but he also gets to satirize the foolish bravado of the asymmetric warfare of the Vietnam conflict, and he does all this in the context of an all action all the time thrillfest that you just can't stop watching.
One of the best sci-fi actioners of all time, no doubt! :)
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you've definitely one-upped me again. I come up with casual generalized opinionated observations of a novice and you blow me away with your educated explanations.
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You're no novice. You've watched more films than most film students, and have more honest reactions.
You don't suffer from being a walking meme, repeating other people's opinions, a highly common disease recently diagnosed by one of @Tarazkp's blogs here on Steemit.
It's a disease I have to fight, cos when someone teaches you something, it's hard not to think that way. :)
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I am just going to add my voice to the chorus of praise for this movie. It is as near to being perfect as any I have ever seen. I will not say that it is much better than Alien - which is just about near to being perfect also. But I do love all the characters in this movie. I have rarely seen a movie where all the characters were so well developed. Even most serious dramas seldom develops each character so completely. None of these characters are stereotypes even Paul Reiser as Burke, although the slimy company/government man villain is a prerequisite in disaster type movies. I would almost say that my favorite is Michael Beihn as Hicks, just because I like his work & consider him to be underrated. But I also like Lance Henriksen as Bishop, William Hope as Lt. Gorman, Bill Paxton as Hudson, and of course, Jenette Goldstein as Vasquez. I liked all of these characters. I cared about their lives & deaths. The final scene for Gorman & Vasquez still chokes me up after seeing it many times.
I am not ignoring Sigourney Weaver or Carrie Henn. Ripley is the template for the modern action heroine. In the 24 years since Alien, few have been able to measure up to Sigourney Weaver's Ripley. Even in Alien 3 & 4, Ripley was still powerful, despite the 3ed rate quality of the movies. As for Carrie Henn as Newt, she was the emotional heart of Aliens. Cameron's ability to develop well rounded characters does not detract from his ability to create great action scenes or to scare the audience out of a several years of growth.
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Great post @gooddream
I love both of these movies and they definitely have a place in my childhood memories. I was pretty young when the original came out so I never went to the cinema to watch it. It is more of a space horror movie and I must admit that that genre is my least favourite but sci-fi is my thing, so I'm a bit conflicted.
I remember my cousins, who were slightly older than me, forcing me to watch the John Hurt 'birth scene' in the original which made me absolutely brick it! Funny enough, it also gave me the curiosity to go back to it and I've appreciated it ever since. Brilliant cast, great script and beautiful cinematography. The late 70's was huge for the sci-fi genre and films like Star Wars, Close Encounters, Logans Run and The Black Hole were ahead of their time.
The love I have for the second movie is shared with my brother. We both bring up scenes or quotes from the movie. The interaction of the marines is brilliant and Vasquez always gets the better of the others, especially Hudson.
For example,
They brought in quality people to play these roles and they are a highlight, especially Jenette Goldstein.
You're right, there are a few cringe-worthy moments in the movie and a few continuity errors but I can easily overlook and forgive them because the rest of it is so well put together.
Which leads me to all the other movies. Actually, I'm not sure I wan't to go there!! :(
Cheers, Gaz
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I vividly remember this movie, but I cant remember that part, maybe because i was too young to take cognizance of it, Carie Henn killed it for me though, and yes the gadgets and graphics are old but gold i give it a 8/10 too
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"Aliens" still look revolutionary. In some moments, even now you wonder how then in 1986 it was possible to do everything. In general, I have long noticed that James Cameron makes films ahead of time. Probably, he simply does not know how to do it differently, but the fact that each of his new film looks a cut above all the others is felt at once. That's "Aliens" look very cool for their time. I also noticed that the second part is perceived more as a fighter than as horror. There is almost no that gloomy atmosphere of constant danger, persecution and despair that was in the first part, but at the same time the second film turned out to be more terrible than not strange, especially the ending of the film. In general, James Cameron showed a worthy continuation of the legendary film, not dropping it in the mud face, as it could do some artisans later.
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Have to disagree there. The first stood out for me by a mile
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Hiii... Gooddream
I Also Watched This Superb movie. I like this type of movies very much. Because, we can't see this types of seen in our real world. So, this types of movies giving us good and different feeling.
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Good view, though they used creative lighting it still looks good but on the part of the director, he should have worked hard to get the best done and applied other experiences into the movie.
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I haven't seen this movie in a while, really, a long time ago, but i remember how much I enjoyed it, it's one of those 80's classics that never get old.
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