Director: James Cameron
Writers: James Cameron, David Giler, Walter Hill, Dan O’Bannon, Ronald Shusett
Photography: Adrian Biddle
Music: James Horner
Editor: Ray Lovejoy
Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, William Hope, Jenette Goldstein
Now that it’s Christmas week and all time has stopped making sense, consider catching up on one or two or three of your favorite movie series. In the case of the Alien franchise, do as I say not as I do, because I haven’t even seen Alien: Romulus yet (soon!) or any of the TV treatments or Predator crossovers. The first two—Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986)—are classics that are worth multiple looks and basically after that you are on your own, except remember: Christmas week is a generous time for mediocre movies so don’t hesitate to go for three or more movies a day. On the other hand, no one will blame you if you don’t get far past this one. Aliens is rather a different movie from Alien but it’s nearly as good in its own way. Where Alien is a monster horror picture with trappings of science fiction and lots of suspense, Aliens is more science fiction action / adventure with trappings of horror and also lots of suspense. Aliens also has Sigourney Weaver and wholesome girl power all over it—even on the alien side. What’s not to like?
Now that you mention it, and speaking as someone dedicated to not liking sequels, yes, there are things not to like about Aliens: director and cowriter James Cameron, the unctuous sitcom star Paul Reiser (albeit six years before Mad About You), a generally slow start, an overly militarist mindset (albeit 15 years before 9/11), and even some noticeable cribbing from Steven Spielberg’s style. Aliens rationalizes all the shock of the Alien revelations into a systematic universe with a known sequence of so-called “xenomorph” malevolence: the face-hugger, the chest-buster, the blood that is an incredibly corrosive acid. In many ways this alien life form is the perfect terrifying monster. Except—is it my imagination or are they a little inconsistent about the whole alien-blood-is-acid thing? Sometimes it seems much less corrosive than others.
Now that it’s Christmas week and all time has stopped making sense, consider catching up on one or two or three of your favorite movie series. In the case of the Alien franchise, do as I say not as I do, because I haven’t even seen Alien: Romulus yet (soon!) or any of the TV treatments or Predator crossovers. The first two—Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986)—are classics that are worth multiple looks and basically after that you are on your own, except remember: Christmas week is a generous time for mediocre movies so don’t hesitate to go for three or more movies a day. On the other hand, no one will blame you if you don’t get far past this one. Aliens is rather a different movie from Alien but it’s nearly as good in its own way. Where Alien is a monster horror picture with trappings of science fiction and lots of suspense, Aliens is more science fiction action / adventure with trappings of horror and also lots of suspense. Aliens also has Sigourney Weaver and wholesome girl power all over it—even on the alien side. What’s not to like?
Now that you mention it, and speaking as someone dedicated to not liking sequels, yes, there are things not to like about Aliens: director and cowriter James Cameron, the unctuous sitcom star Paul Reiser (albeit six years before Mad About You), a generally slow start, an overly militarist mindset (albeit 15 years before 9/11), and even some noticeable cribbing from Steven Spielberg’s style. Aliens rationalizes all the shock of the Alien revelations into a systematic universe with a known sequence of so-called “xenomorph” malevolence: the face-hugger, the chest-buster, the blood that is an incredibly corrosive acid. In many ways this alien life form is the perfect terrifying monster. Except—is it my imagination or are they a little inconsistent about the whole alien-blood-is-acid thing? Sometimes it seems much less corrosive than others.
It doesn’t matter! The point is not necessarily for everything to add up, but rather just to make you nervous enough that the movie wins your undivided attention. It takes a while for Aliens to get there, but it does get there. Leaning into the female view—to the degree that these five contributing male writers can, trying very hard—is one of the shrewdest decisions in this screenplay. Sigourney Weaver as Ripley is once again utterly convincing as a tough woman who’s way ahead of all her male peers. Cameron & crew even ratchet the stakes by replacing Jonesy the cat in Alien with the little girl Newt (Carrie Henn), which obviously brings even more dramatic potential, even if Henn’s performance is largely marked only by an unusually piercing scream.
I didn’t even notice exactly when Aliens transitioned from a largely boring first hour into the riveting picture it becomes where you can’t take your eyes off it, sometime in the second hour. It builds to an incredible 15-minute real-time extravaganza that never stops getting more intense. They squeeze everything they can from it, and then they continue milking everything after that for all they can for another 15 or 20 minutes. It’s a finish worth sticking around for. They hold off most of the xenomorph appearances until the second half, taking time at that point finally to wallow in the creepy biology of this species. I hope I never see eggs like those in real life. There’s even some great sound design elements in the big collapse on planet LV-426—some eerie weird noises in there that somehow don’t seem unlikely at all, only adding to the terror.
I also want to argue for a lot of the supporting players here, who I thought were surprisingly good at bringing a range of color and variety to the action. Paul Reiser is well cast as the corporate sleaze Burke with all his yuppie scum stylings. Mad About You is still years in the future, but the TV show role retroactively (and obviously unintentionally) contributes to the unlikability of this character. Bill Paxton is great as the high-strung soldier Hudson who is cracking up in falsetto from events when he’s not obnoxiously swaggering around the place. Lance Henriksen as Bishop is as good as Ian Holm as Ash, these mysterious white-blooded androids who comes to similar ends.
The second half of Aliens is increasingly about the intensities of pure survival, only concentrated further by putting the focus on females. Ripley and her surrogate daughter Newt hold off the xenomorph queen, who not only has fearsome powers but is also, as we come to understand, cunning and intelligent as well. Perhaps the best news in the series of shocks delivered in the finishing scenes is that not one of them turns out to be a nightmare someone wakes up from, the favored horrory device used by Brian De Palma and so many others and one I keep fully expecting. All the battles in Aliens are real and epic, for the greatest stakes possible: survival and life itself. Pretty good for a sequel that still falls short of the original.
I didn’t even notice exactly when Aliens transitioned from a largely boring first hour into the riveting picture it becomes where you can’t take your eyes off it, sometime in the second hour. It builds to an incredible 15-minute real-time extravaganza that never stops getting more intense. They squeeze everything they can from it, and then they continue milking everything after that for all they can for another 15 or 20 minutes. It’s a finish worth sticking around for. They hold off most of the xenomorph appearances until the second half, taking time at that point finally to wallow in the creepy biology of this species. I hope I never see eggs like those in real life. There’s even some great sound design elements in the big collapse on planet LV-426—some eerie weird noises in there that somehow don’t seem unlikely at all, only adding to the terror.
I also want to argue for a lot of the supporting players here, who I thought were surprisingly good at bringing a range of color and variety to the action. Paul Reiser is well cast as the corporate sleaze Burke with all his yuppie scum stylings. Mad About You is still years in the future, but the TV show role retroactively (and obviously unintentionally) contributes to the unlikability of this character. Bill Paxton is great as the high-strung soldier Hudson who is cracking up in falsetto from events when he’s not obnoxiously swaggering around the place. Lance Henriksen as Bishop is as good as Ian Holm as Ash, these mysterious white-blooded androids who comes to similar ends.
The second half of Aliens is increasingly about the intensities of pure survival, only concentrated further by putting the focus on females. Ripley and her surrogate daughter Newt hold off the xenomorph queen, who not only has fearsome powers but is also, as we come to understand, cunning and intelligent as well. Perhaps the best news in the series of shocks delivered in the finishing scenes is that not one of them turns out to be a nightmare someone wakes up from, the favored horrory device used by Brian De Palma and so many others and one I keep fully expecting. All the battles in Aliens are real and epic, for the greatest stakes possible: survival and life itself. Pretty good for a sequel that still falls short of the original.
No comments:
Post a Comment