ALIENS (1986)

James Cameron's awareness of what happens in the darkness of a theater while the light is flickering on the silver screen is tremendous.  Aliens, the sequel to Alien (1979), displays his cinematic skills of directing a fast-paced believable science fiction film combined with dreadful horror.  The horror of Aliens grasps the audience by the throat from the beginning and slowly drops of some strange pod that will later explode inside the torso of the audience freezes the viewer as fear spreads.  Despite being a sequel, Aliens seems to supersede the original in horror and suspense as the aliens crawl 12 meters, 11 meters, 10 meters, 8 meters, and closing while remaining hidden.

After Ripley's (Sigourney Weaver) escape from the Nostromo she has been adrift in space for 57 years when a salvage space craft discovers her by a mere chance.  Returning to an Earth space station Ripley finds out that her daughter died at the age of 66, which causes her much grief as she did not fulfill her promise to return to her on her 11th birthday.  In addition, when the company for which she works for hears her story of the events on Nostromo they do not believe her.  The company dismisses her as they deem her unfit for flight duty while making sure that they get psychological evaluations in order to keep her at a safe distance from the company's interests.  Despite the company's disbelief, Ripley is caught in a post-traumatic nightmare that haunts her as she frequently wakes up drenched in sweat while being in a zombie state while awake.

For the past 20 years people have been populating the planet, where Ripley's crew discovered the predator-like alien life form, through creating an artificial breathable atmosphere through technological advances.  However, when contact with the planet mysteriously is disrupted the company sends Burke (Paul Reiser) to convince Ripley to join them on an investigative voyage to find out what happened at the space station.  Together with a group of Colonial Marines, for whom Ripley is to function as a consultant, she returns to the source of her recurrent nightmares as she must deal with her lost years as a mother.

Aliens was nominated for several Oscars, but only ended up with the Oscar in the special effects department.  The special effects are brilliant as the alien life forms seem alive and ready to kill anything in their path.  In addition, the mise-en-scene brings the film an authentic atmosphere which is essential for the films success as weapons, environment, and space crafts elevate the cinematic experience.  Last, but not least, the performances of the cast is terrific as there is a wide range of characters that offer intrigue and further suspense as Aliens in the end turns out to be an excellent film that offers some truly harrowing shocks.

DIRECTED BY

James Cameron

COUNTRY

USA / UK
REVIEWED
BY KIM ANEHALL – 12/24/2004
GRADE


Filmography links and data courtesy of  
The Internet Movie Database.