Aliens Review

in my review of Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi/horror movie Alien, I pointed out that I didn't get to see that film in theaters until the videocassette was released in the mid-1980s.

That's not to say that I didn't know what transpired; I did get Alan Dean Foster's novelization that same year by ordering it through my junior high school's Scholastic Books Club program and read the "young adult" edition (presumably Foster wrote one version without all the F-bombs and S-based swear words from the screenplay).  Later, I found the graphic novel and read it so many times that it fell apart.   (No fooling!)

I eventually did see the entire Alien Quadrilogy on DVD, but to date I've only seen two of them in theaters: James Cameron's muscular Aliens and David Fincher's "disavowed" Alien 3.

Aliens: Vietnam War in Space

Released in the summer of 1986, Aliens takes up Lt. Ripley's (Sigourney Weaver) story after the space tug Nostromo's ill-fated encounter with a single alien lifeform that resulted in the deaths of Ripley's six crewmates and the destruction of her ship and its valuable cargo. With Jones, the ship's cat, as her only companion, Ripley survived a final battle with the alien and placed herself in cryogenic suspension aboard the Nostromo's lifeboat-shuttle, expecting to be picked up in six months or so.

But when a manned spaceship stumbles upon the shuttle and rescues Ripley and Jones, the Nostromo's sole survivor returns to an Earth she doesn't quite recognize...and to discover that 57 years have elapsed since the nightmarish last mission on planetoid LV 426. Worse, the company execs who debrief her at the requisite inquiry don't believe her amazing story -- or at least the "suits" of Weyland-Yutani pretend not to believe her. In a contentious meeting in a cold, sterile-looking conference room, Ripley's licenses -- including her flight officer's certification -- are revoked, ending her career and basically ensuring that her story of Weyland-Yutani's complicity in the incident is kept from the public.

Van Leuwin: Thank you, Officer Ripley, that will be all.
Ripley: G-d damn it, that's not all! 'Cause if one of those things get down here then that will be all! And all this bullsh!t that you think is so important, you can kiss all that goodbye!

Worse, when Ripley begs the ranking executive to send out investigators to LV 426 to corroborate her story of the crashed alien ship with its hold full of alien eggs, she's horrified when she's told that the cold and barren planetoid is now home to a "shake and bake" colony of terraformers, Weyland-Yutani engineers...and their families.

Ripley's fears are ignored for a while, but they're confirmed when her company "watcher," the seemingly sincere Carter Burke (Paul Reiser) shows up at her apartment with Lt. Gorman of the Colonial Marine Corps; the company has lost communications contact with the colonists on LV 426 and Gorman's platoon of Marines has been assigned to investigate. Burke tells Ripley that it could be just a downed transmitter, but that her presence on the mission would be appreciated just in case the loss of contact is related to the aliens Ripley believes are still on LV 426.

Ripley refuses to go...but when the nightmares that have haunted her since her rescue recur, she contacts Burke and tells him she'll go, but only if the mission is to destroy the creatures. "Not to investigate, right? Not to bring back, right?"

And so Lt. Ellen Ripley sets out on a fateful trip which will pit a platoon of well-trained Colonial Marines -- with all the modern tools of a mechanized fighting force -- against thousands of deadly -- and cunning -- "xenomorphs" and their monstruous parent, the Queen alien herself.

Hudson: Is this going to be a standup fight, sir, or another bughunt?
Gorman: All we know is that there is still is no contact with the colony, and that a xenomorph may be involved.
Frost: Excuse me sir, a what?
Gorman: A xenomorph.
Hicks: It's a bughunt.


Although Cameron studied Ridley Scott's 1979 original film and took pains to make Aliens consistent both visually and thematically, his chapter in the Ellen Ripley saga is essentially a war movie instead of being a Gothic horror rehash. This was a brilliant move on Cameron's part, because it continues the story rather than being a pale carbon copy of Scott's vision.

Aliens uses the horror elements of the first film -- the "facehuggers" and "chestbursters" are back, and in greater numbers, but Cameron's theme is a futuristic Vietnam-in-space situation; not only are the Marines soundly beaten by the hordes of non-tech aliens, but the very look of the uniforms and the drop-ships is supposed to evoke images of America's lost crusade in Southeast Asia. (Look carefully at the drop-ships -- their lean-and-mean design is derived from Vietnam-era Phantom II fighter-bombers and UH-1 "Huey" helicopters.)

The 2003 Collector's Edition features the original 1986 theatrical release version (running time: 137 minutes) and an extended 154-minute version which not only reveals Ripley's first name and develops her relationship with Corp. Hicks (Michael Biehn) a bit more, but also gives the audience more insights as to why Ripley is so motherly with Newt (Carrie Henn). There is also a bit more exposition in the first third of the film, with a longer inquiry scene and a frightening sequence that takes place on LV 426 that sets up the film's central plot. (See below for more product information on the 2-disc set.)

My Viewpoint:  Aliens has been widely cited as one of the rare sequels that is just as good as, if not better than, the original film, and I agree. I like the way Cameron took Alien as the launching pad for his own film, infusing Aliens with energy, action, wry humor, and a believable set of characters, expanding the story while remaining true to the first chapter's premise.

Once again Ripley is placed in jeopardy and has to deal with the nefarious Weyland-Yutani's habit of betraying its employees in order to get something new and deadly for their Bio-Weapons division, but this time she's not just a victim-turned-into-reluctant hero. She's definitely a take-charge leader and avenging surrogate mother -- her confrontation with the Queen alien is basically a standoff between two mothers, each one determined to kill the other to save her young.

Is Aliens better than Alien? The question always arises when a successful film begets a franchise; look at the Star Trek or Star Wars multi-film series and you'll get into a bunch of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is better than..." or "the Star Wars prequels are inferior to..." discussions. My take is that Cameron's film is co-equal with Scott's original Alien and far superior to the claustrophobic Alien 3 and the odd Alien: Resurrection.

The only cons I have about this 2003 re-release are the disjointed way in which the "making of" featurettes are arranged and the lack of subtitles on the extra-features disc. I would have liked for the featurettes to have been joined together into one documentary; the way the galleries and non-featurette materials are inserted between each stage of production gives the whole thing a stop-and-start feeling. Also, because I'm hard of hearing, I would have liked it if 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment hadn't deleted the "subtitles" option from their Special Features Disc Twos on many movies..



DVD Features:
Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)

Commentary by Michael Biehn, Jenette Goldstein, Carrie Henn, Terry Henn, Lance Henriksen, Gale Anne Hurd, Pat McClung, Bill Paxton, Dennis Skotak, Robert Skotak and Stan Winston

Theatrical version (137 min.)

Extended version (154 min.)

Pre-Production: 57 Years Later (continuing the story), Original Treatment: by James Cameron, Building Better Worlds (from concept to construction), The Art of Aliens (conceptual art portfolio), Pre-Vis Animatics

Preparing for Battle (casting & characterization), Cast Portrait (still gallery)

Production: This Time It's War (Pinewood Studios, 1985)

Production Gallery (photo archive), Continuity Polaroids, The Risk Always Lives (weapons and action), Weapons and Vehicles (photo archive), Bug Hunt (creature design), Beauty and the B!tch (Power Loader vs. Queen Alien), Stan Winston's Workshop (photo archive), Two Orphans (Sigourney Weaver and Carrie Henn)

Post-Production: The Final Countdown (music, editing and sound), The Power of Real Tech (visual effects), Visual Effects Gallery (photo archive), Aliens Unleashed (reaction to the film), Film Finish & Release, Easter egg (A Boy and
His Power Loader)

Number of discs: 2