--Ellen Ripley, Aliens
Aliens famously deviates from the isolation horror of Alien by focusing on action. With the first hour devoted to setup and the next approximately 40 minutes devoted to drama, there comes a distinct point at which the film unleashes a barrage of excellent action sequences after a long period of slow burn buildup. More characters, more xenomorph aliens, and a more direct approach to the cautionary themes about greed all help Aliens overall. I did find myself surprised by just how little action it has after hearing so much about how it radically shifts the series from horror to action. This is not a complaint: the drama is still handled very well and Aliens director James Cameron clearly builds off of the template Ridley Scott offers in Alien.
Production Values
Aliens has far better special effects than the original Predator film despite only getting released one year later. It truly has astonished me just how bad the non-practical effects are in the latter! In Aliens, the dark areas or red light environments help make the practical effects seem all the more superb. The physical effects work still looks competent in 2021. Everything from the exo-skeleton loaders to the xenomorphs themselves are realized through practical effects that Cameron utilizes very well. In particular, shots of the xenomorphs along the ceiling uncoiling themselves or crawling along upper shafts showcase a fitting in-universe aesthetic while giving more of a look at why the xenomorphs are so dangerous. The introduction of the xenomorph queen does the same.
Sigourney Weaver stands out not just as the main character but also as the best actress in the whole movie. Unsurprising, as this is her iconic character! What Aliens gives her the chance to newly explore is her acting in the role of a caretaker, watching over series newcomer Newt, a young girl found in the first half. Weaver still gets yet another chance to face the xenomorph threat on her own near the end, just as she did in Alien. This time there are just far more xenomorphs. When it comes to the secondary cast members, this praise would not always be merited. In all fairness, this is partly due to the writing. Some of the other characters just make jokes or overact (like the actor who keeps putting "man" in his sentences). James Cameron veteran actor Michael Biehn of Terminator also gives a great but calm performance. This is simply not a feat shared with the other supporting cast members.
Story
Some spoilers are below.
Ellen Ripley is found in stasis sleep on her vessel, having drifted through outer space for 57 years before a salvage team happened upon her. The leadership of the company owning the Nostromo, the ship she set to self-destruct in the climax of Alien, refuses to take her warnings about the creature she faced seriously, only to ask for her help with a potentially related matter. The moon LV-426 where the xenomorph entered the Nostromo is home to dozens of colonist families--and they have suddenly stopped communicating with the company. Suffering from nightmares, Ripley is asked to return to the planet as an advisor to armed units. The unit finds the settlement without human life and with signs of possible acid blood spills from xenomorphs. Of course, evidence starts mounting that the species has a far more extensive presence than seemed to be the case to Ripley before.
Intellectual Content
The first Alien movie was too focused on isolation and horror to develop any grander philosophical themes beyond its basic story--and that is alright. It is still an improvement of sorts for Aliens to let viewers see more of the explicit disregard for the lives of others that seems to characterize plenty of the members of the series company. Lies are used to cover up a reckless pursuit of monetary gain at the expense of human lives starting at an early point, although some of them are not revealed until much later. Films like The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Underwater have varying elements of this same emphasis on the sheer destruction that can come about when money is prized above humans. Money itself poses no sort of danger, moral or physical, but living for money can damn a civilization just as surely as it can damn a company.
Conclusion
Aliens, as excellent as its best qualities are, is not even James Cameron's best movie, something that is quite the accomplishment! Cameron nonetheless honors Scott's initial vision by expanding the characterization of Ripley without dismissing what came before, portraying the xenomorphs working as a group, and replicating the same fakeout calm between an explosion and an alien's sudden appearance in the finale. Sadly, Aliens is the last entry in its franchise before the more mixed sequels that followed. If anything, it is at its best when it shows how to continue and improve on a premise without betraying the worldbuilding and iconography that have already been established.
Content:
1. Violence: One of the earliest scenes of violence (which does not even take place until more than 30 minutes into the runtime) has a baby xenomorph bursts out of a woman's chest onscreen and is quickly killed by a flamethrower. Eventually, the xenomorphs openly attack the humans and are often shot enough to mar them quite a bit and spill acid blood on some characters. An android also gets torn in half, releasing the milk-like artificial "blood."
2. Profanity: "Damn," "shit," "bitch," "bastard," and "fuck" are heard.
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