Aliens (1986)

[Tyler]

Here we have James Cameron's action packed sequel.



It took me some time to warm up to this actually. I never hated it but I've always been more of an Alien person myself. I like it more than I used to and I admire how Cameron made his own movie rather than copying the original. He put his own stamp on it. I still prefer Alien but Aliens is pretty damn good too.

Up next: Predator (1987)

[alienhulk2099]

action packed sequel.

Heh.

I used to like this movie, but the last time I tried watching it when it was on TV I just couldn't for some reason. I don't know what happened, it just wasn't as good as I remembered it.

[Hellspawn28]

Aliens is a great movie. One of the best action movies ever. The action is great, the characters are great, and the final battle with the Queen is epic. The director cut for the movie is even better.

I like Alien better, but Aliens is a perfect sequel next to Return of Jedi, T2, and The Last Crusade.

[HayesAJones]

This is a great movie! One of the few instances where a sequel surpasses the original. And Ripley's battle with the Queen is just awesome. Definitively one of the best action flicks out there.

[gvamp]

This is my favorite of the franchise. It's simply brilliant and is an excellent sequel. Just everything about the movie is amazing from the score, to the characters to the aliens design to the atmosphere just simply brilliant.

Can't wait to watch this on Blu-Ray in a few months.

[Gorosaurus Rex]

Alien may be an art film, but Aliens is probably one of the best action movies ever made. Its a ton of fun, and the characters are fantastic. Probably my favorite James Cameron film.

[KaneLocke]

Meh. I like Aliens (the extended version), but I actually liked Alien3 better. And Resurrection is good fun, too.

Aliens just... loses some of it's shine after a while.

[JVM]

My favorite of the few AVP films I've seen (Aliens, AVP:R, Predators) but it didn't hold well. However, I was also tired and spacey, and I think a re-view is definitely in order.

[Spirit Ghidorah 2010]

I fvcking love this movie. Easily my favorite of the Alien franchise. Perfect blend of action, suspense, and drama.

[Arrow]

Awesome movie is awesome. The original is superior to be sure, but I actually prefer this one. It's a great action movie that's a lot of fun to get into. My favorite, easily.

[Astacius]

Aliens was a fantastic sequel to Alien and for a sci-fi actioner, it's one of Cameron's best. Alien is still my favorite of the series and I look forward to Ridley Scott's prequel in a couple of years.

[GotengoXGodzilla]

Personally, I find Aliens to be rather boring. The build-up to the fight sequences is good, but the pay off is nothing more than a bunch of soldiers just shooting randomly. Guess what? Shooting randomly is not exciting or entertaining. I will admit that the characters are set-up very nicely, and I can appreciate that. However, most of them come off as jerks, so I'm glad to see a good chunk of them die.

I find Alien to be a MUCH better film, in terms of both action and suspense, as well as creating likable characters. Aliens has some elements that I enjoy, but when it comes to action, its nothing special.

[EleKaiju]

Like GxG said, I actually found it satisfying to see some of the characters die. For me, the Queen is why I like this better than Alien by just a smidgen. She's a bit wide, but considering it was 1986 and the fact that she still looks awesome, that fight just blows me away.

[Mini-Godzilla]

A tad overrated and neither as good as its predecessor or James Cameron's Terminator films, Aliens is nonetheless a spectacular little thriller. While the action scenes and the space marines are enjoyable, the real appeal is Weaver's more developed version of Ripley. I'm still split on the very concept of a queen, but the effects for the creature are undeniably amazing. Too bad that the other aliens fall short of the majesty of the first film's monster. Even so, this is a textbook example of how to make a worthwhile follow-up to a film that needed no sequel.

[Tyler]

I'm still split on the very concept of a queen, but the effects for the creature are undeniably amazing.

I think in a film like this a final boss is needed. The fight at the end is very satisfying and gives a sense of finality. Egg morphing from the original (although deleted) was a cool idea but the Queen is pretty badass too.

[Mini-Godzilla]

Yeah, but it comes at the expense of retroactively wimp-ifying the alien from the first film. It's sorta like the Halloween movies: the first one works best without the context of the sequels, even though I like some of the sequels in both cases.

[Tyler]

Yeah, but it comes at the expense of retroactively wimp-ifying the alien from the first film. It's sorta like the Halloween movies: the first one works best without the context of the sequels, even though I like some of the sequels in both cases.

The writer of the first film always meant the Alien to be an animal that can be killed. The characters just couldn't do it because its acid would eat through hull. The environment in Aliens allowed hoards to them to be blown to pieces. If anything the Queen takes the place of the original Alien in that it's unbeatable until Ripley finds a way to defeat it.

[Mini-Godzilla]

The writer of the first film always meant the Alien to be an animal that can be killed.

Er, which writer? O'Bannon? Shusett? Hill? Giler? And where have they made these statments that you attribute to them?

[Tyler]

Er, which writer? O'Bannon? Shusett? Hill? Giler? And where have they made these statments that you attribute to them?

O'Bannon. He didn't want the Alien to be bullet proof or anything like that but at the same time he didn't want it to be easily dealt with by the crew members. Someone suggested the idea of acid for blood (either Shusett or Ron Cobb), meaning it couldn't be killed because the hull would be damaged and all the oxygen would get sucked out. This is all on the Quadrilogy DVD. O'Bannon wanted the Alien to feel like a living, breathing creature unlike other sci-fi monsters.

[Mini-Godzilla]

It was a living, breathing creature that enjoyed raping and murdering the crew of the Nostromo. It wasn't mindless cannon fodder...James Cameron took that idea from Starship Troopers.