ALIENS (1986) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1997 Ted Prigge
Director: James Cameron Writer: James Cameron (story by James Cameron, David Giler, and Walter Hill) Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Paul Reiser, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, William Hope, Jenette Goldstein, Al Matthews, Mark Rolston, Ricco Ross, Colette Hiller
After re-watching "Aliens" after a couple years, I silently sat there on my bed throughout the end credits without making any sudden moves. This is what this film does to you: it leaves you completely drained, just like the characters in this movie. Some say that the fact that this is exhausting is a major flaw; I say it's ingenius filmmaking, not a shock from James Cameron.
"Aliens" is the sequel to the 1979 classic, "Alien" (duh), where a group of seven were stalked by an acid-burning, shaft-crawling, belligerent alien, and where only one survived: Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver). The film takes place 57 years after the first one, but Ripley has been in the same hibernation she entered into at the end of the previous film, but is luckily woken up by some deep space workers or something.
After a nice little introduction, where Ripley is introduced to the deceptfully slimy Burke (Paul Reiser), a government worker who seems to be Ripley's friend, but asks her to go back to the planet where they found the alien in the first film, since the stupid government has sent about 70 families over there to live, and have lost contact. After some soul-searching (spanning a whole day, and a bad dream), she agrees to go as an "advisor" in what is a military operation.
So off to the freaky planet where the obvious has occured: the face huggers from the eggs they found in the first film have killed off the inhabiants, spawning a ton of giant aliens. Most of the cocky soldiers are quickly and ironically killed off, leaving about eight people left to fend off the aliens by themself. After the only way back to the mother ship is destroyed, and with the threat of alien invasion at any moment, the film from this point becomes a non-stop gradual ascent of pure adrenalized tension.
First off, "Alien" and "Aliens" seem completely different. Some may bitch, but I ask you: do you like seeing the same thing over and over and over and over again (i.e. the "Home Alone" series, which just released a third installment - yeasnorebitchwail). The first one, as directed by Ridley Scott, is a wonderful film, filled with great tension, and directed with great creepy control. James Cameron, not one for slow films with Kubrickian minutes (or hours) of human silence and inhuman noises, has taken a compeltely different approach.
He, instead, takes us right into the field of combat, making us feel like we're right there beside Ripley and the surviving soldiers, waiting until the aliens invade the confines of their space, and probably kill them mercilessly. From the hour point on, "Aliens" holds us in its grasp, and doesn't let us go until the remaining characters (or character...) are finally sleeping after a long period of cringe-inducing, coffee-spilling, nail-biting, finger-tapping tension.
Cameron, who has directed such big films as the two Terminator films, "The Abyss," "True Lies," and the upcoming "Titanic" (to which I'm counting down the days), is a genius director with a big budget. Instead of giving us drivel, like "Independence Day" and "Stargate" (wow! both directed by Roland Emmeurich! who woulda guessed?), Cameron wows us with special effects, bowls us over with an interesting story, and amazes us with interesting characters. Ripley continues to grow as interesting character, having lost her daughter due to the fact that she was hibernation for 57 years and she had died before she got back (a great scene which is deleted in the video copy), she finds solace in the young Newt (Carrie Henn), a little girl who's family was killed by the aliens, but has, herself, survived for a long time by staying away from them. They share a touching, though never melodramatic and/or corny, relationship which gives the film additional depth.
The marines in the film are really not as well drawn as these two, but still carry some great satirical wit along with them. For one thing, they're mostly cocky, and bitch constantly about the conditions. When Ripley briefs them before they go down about the aliens, one of them - the butch chick Vasquz (Jenette Goldstein) - says "I just need to know one thing: where they are." They're cockiness pays a sorry price, as they are confronted with acid-burning, more-belliegerent-than-Saddam-Hussein-on-percodan aliens who wipe most of them out in a harrowingly creepy scene, to which we only see brief shots.
Another satirical part of the film deals with the usual "Alien" government, which is, of course, trying to bring the aliens back for scientific research and all. The government is wonderfully represented in the form of Burke (the brilliantly cast Paul Reiser), a charmingly witty and innocent-feeling member of government, who turns out wants to have the aliens planted in the soldiers' bodies. Reiser gives the film a comic air (even if he doesn't have a lot of zingy one-liners, a good thing in my book), and also does a great job with manipulating us into thinking that he's not such a bad guy.
The film appears to have some minor flaws, like not much characterization, a lack of respect for the other alien (what is the alien feeling), and a seemingly cheap ending tacked on for some more shocks. But. This all adds to the overall fun of the film. If it was too philosophical, and overly cerebral, the film would probably lose its touch. Let "2001" do the cerebral, which is why that is brilliant. "Aliens" is brilliant because of the way its directed. And who says that big budget action pics can't be brilliant?
Other additional notes should be made to whoever did the efx, which are absolutely brilliant, to some of the actors (most notably Weaver, Reiser, Biehn, Paxton - who's annoying but good - Goldstein, and, strangely enough, Henriksen, who gives his most lively performance - save that bizarro episode of "Millenium" where he had blond hair...not that I watch that show - as an android), and to James Horner, who has scored an absolutely brilliant score from start to finish. However, a note should be made that the opening and closing music is a piece from "2001."
But writer/director James Cameron gets the best note. In what is probably his best film so far (along with "T2"), "Aliens" is a filmmaking tour de force. He holds a state of tension throughout, so much that people can come out of it emotionally ravaged. As I said, I was shaking afterwards, and in his review, Roger Ebert said it left him depressed. But even if it may leave a negative reaction, that was what Cameron was going for, and it is nothing less than a brilliant example of sheer film craftsmanship.
MY RATING (out of 4): ****
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