[yasr_overall_rating]
The moon from “Alien” has been colonized, but contact is lost. This time, the rescue team has impressive firepower, but will it be enough?
I remember going to see “Aliens” in the summer of 1986 back in Dublin, Ireland. There, the ratings system is a little different from their American counterparts. Where a film might be rated “R” in the states, once that movie reaches the British Isles, it becomes an “18” rating, meaning that you must be 18 years of age or older in order to see it. I personally prefer that system as it makes it almost impossible for younger kids and preteens to be able to see the movie at all, guardian or not. In the case of “Aliens,” in 1986, I was actually 14 years old at the time but I was able to pass for 18 so technically, this was the very first “R” rated movie in the states, or “18” rated movie in Ireland, that I got to see at the theater.
I am not going to assume that because the film is thirty years old this year that everyone has seen it because I know they haven’t so I will not give away any major plot points. If you are one of those people however, I would recommend you watch “Alien” first (if you haven’t already) and then sit down and watch “Aliens.” They are two of the most highly regarded sci-fi movies ever. After the events of “Alien,” in which lone survivor Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and her cat Jonesey managed to escape, she is found drifting in space 57 years later in cryogenic suspension. Upon waking up, she informs her employers, the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, of the events that transpired on the Nostromo in the first film and gives them a full account of the derelict spaceship they encountered on the moon the company told them to land on, now named LV-426, and the eggs they discovered but they do not believe her and suspend her pilot’s license. As she tries to move on with her life, Carter Burke (Paul Reiser), a company man who seems to somewhat believe her story, informs her that LV-426 is now home to the terraforming colony Hadley’s Hope, where over 200 families live and work but that they have lost all contact with them.
When she is told that a Colonial Marine unit is being sent to investigate, she agrees to accompany them, as a consultant. En route, after having told the marines of her encounter with the alien the first time around, nobody believes her and she is laughed off as crazy but once they reach their destination and land on the moon’s surface, with nobody to be found and signs of a struggle and makeshift barricades throughout the entire compound, Ripley’s story suddenly doesn’t seem so far-fetched after all. When they find a young girl named Newt (Carrie Henn), who has survived by herself using the ventilation shafts to evade capture or death from the “monsters,” they begin to make their way to the atmosphere processing station where the colony’s computer apparently locates the remaining colonists. Still leery of Ripley’s story, the marines are sent in, expecting to meet with humans to determine what happened but they are greeted instead by the aliens.
After an exciting battle where many of the marines are killed, Ripley takes control and rescues the remaining survivors. Now they must plan their escape using a dropship from the Sulaco which is orbiting the moon and hope that their provisional blockades will keep them alive. Before long though, with the aliens penetrating the compound from all angles, Ripley soon uncovers something more terrifying, the alien queen in her egg chamber. With time running out, she must try and defeat the aliens, once and for all, before the compound is decimated by a nuclear blast.
“Aliens” pretty much came out of nowhere in 1986 and has gone on to become an esteemed classic and is considered by many, to be even better than Ridley Scott’s “Alien,” but that depends on the person you talk to. I love both movies equally but if I had to choose, I would pick Scott’s atmospheric, genuinely frightening, and unrelenting opus but at the same time, director James Cameron was wise not to simply carbon copy Scott’s masterpiece, instead, where Scott’s film was basically hide and seek in space, “Aliens” is raw, unadulterated action. We know by now, what the alien is and what it is capable of so another dark and brooding outing would not suffice, this time around, Ripley, accompanied by a band of marines, gets to kick ass and has the ultimate showdown with the alien queen in an unforgettable battle royal.
This was also the movie that introduced me to the late composer James Horner. Although he had scored the soundtracks to various other pictures up to this point, including the vastly underrated “Wolfen,” “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” “Cocoon” and “Commando,” it was “Aliens” that finally put him on the map, garnering him his first Academy Award nomination, eventually losing out to Herbie Hancock’s jazzy “’Round Midnight” score. He would go on to compose two more films with James Cameron, “Titanic,” where he finally claimed the golden statue, and “Avatar,” before his untimely passing in 2015.
Overall, “Aliens” is top-notch entertainment from beginning to end. Cameron has never been better and directs with great aplomb and the entire cast are unforgettable in performances which also put each and every one of them in the Hollywood spotlight. The 30th Anniversary Edition contains nothing new in terms of featurettes or behind-the-scenes documentaries, if you own the “Alien Anthology” then you have all you’ll ever need but it does include some really cool collectible art cards and a book featuring art from the Dark Horse comics ‘ALIENS’ series, as well as an all-new cover created exclusively for this 30th Anniversary Edition.
Available now in a Special 30th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray
