1986 148 mins

dir - James Cameron
stars - Sigourney Weaver - Lieutenant Ellen Ripley

Carrie Henn - Rebecca "Newt" Jorden
Michael Biehn - Corporal Dwayne Hicks
Paul Reiser - Weyland-Yutani Corporation Advisor Carter J. Burke
Lance Henriksen - Science Officer Bishop
Bill Paxton - Communications Technician Private W. Hudson
William Hope - Squadron Commander Lieutenant S. Gorman

I had been led to believe by most people that the Alien sequel was far superior to the original but having just watched it I must say that I didn't think it was and I am slightly disappointed.

The movie begins where the last one finnished, with Ripley finally being rescued by a passing space craft and after an inquiry into the destruction of the Nostromo she is relieved of her duties as an officer. However we find out that the planet from Alien has been colonised by a small number of humans but contact with them has been lost and so Ripley (acting as a special advisor) accompanies a bunch of marines down to the planet to try and rescue any survivors and annihilate the Aliens. And I'm sure you can guess what happened next.

It was an excellent movie but in my opinion not as good as the first. For starters I thought that it lacked the suspense of the first one and that is what had made that such good watching, it did have some but I felt that it was lacking slightly. Also, with so many Aliens knocking about and a bigger budget to blow on the film, Aliens had more than its fair share of explosions and big gun battles (although with this bigger budget they couldn't stop the spaceships and vehicles looking like models)

It is far less subtle than Alien which is the reason why I liked Alien so much. I have read that Aliens was basically a Vietnam war movie in space and this is a pretty good description of it, there were literally thousands of Aliens hidding away in the deserted colony and they always had the upper hand. Another good description could be (and take your pick from these two) Predator in Space or if you prefer, Rambo in Space.

I also thought that Bill Paxton completely sucked as Hudson. Every time he spoke I wanted to go up to him and tell the little pussy to shut his whining trap. And, the acid blood seemed to be in short supply. With exploding Aliens everywhere you looked I expected to see plenty of people with burnt off faces but didn't unfortunately.

Not as imaginative or intelligent as Alien and not as scary but a good movie nontheless.

BBM

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