After returning safely to base, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is called upon to return to the planet where her old crew discovered the alien. It turns out that a nearby colony on the planet was ordered to investigate the outrageous claims from Ripley that she and her crew had found an advanced race on the planet’s surface. After following orders, however, the colony was never heard from again. Now, with Ripley as their reluctant guide, a rough and tough troop of marines is being sent in to investigate the disappearance of the colony. Once the team gets there, things get complicated.
A new director is at the helm this time around. The now-famous James Cameron, fresh off the success of The Terminator in 1984, directs in much the same intense style. He deviates from Ridley Scott’s slower, impending-doom pacing and goes for a quick, action-oriented style. This works perfectly with the sequel since there are now more aliens to fight and plenty of marines (with big, loud guns) to battle them. The battles are fierce and frantic as the aliens come in waves to attack the marines, and while the majority of the movie feels like it belongs in the action genre, there is still plenty of Ripley fleeing from the aliens that invokes memories of the previous movie.
Even though the pacing has changed, the atmosphere and style remains the same. The planet is still as eerie as anything on film, the aliens are still powerful and dominating, and the additional knowledge of their birth cycle and spawning (queen alien, anyone?) is a huge creepy bonus.
What amazes me about these Alien films is the impact they had on the entire science-fiction world. Other movies attempt to imitate, but never duplicate, the creepy horror/sci-fi feel these two films bring. Video games like Halo and especially StarCraft, which even quotes the movie ‘Aliens’ on several occasions (the Dropship unit for the Terrans), were heavily influenced by these movies.
Both ‘Alien’ and ‘Aliens’ are terrific movies in their own right, but having both in the same series of films makes them that much stronger. While the first film may be the more revolutionary and recognized of the two, I enjoyed the second film the most. The action is great, the acting good for an action flick, and the enemy is strong and intimidating. However, without the first film, this one isn’t nearly as fun. The first lays the creepy foundation, while the second takes this foundation and builds an incredible structure of action, suspense, and drama that is hard to find in any other film to date. 9/10
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