Directed by:
James CameronScreenplay:
James CameronCinematography:
Adrian BiddleComposer:
James HornerCast:
Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, William Hope, Jenette Goldstein, Al Matthews, Mark Rolston, Ricco Ross (more)VOD (5)
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Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), the sole survivor from the original ALIEN, is awakened after 57 years of drifting through space, her stories disbelieved by Company executives who tell her that the alien's planet is now inhabited and colonized. When contact is suddenly lost with the colonists, Ripley returns to the planet with a squad of marines, an android (Lance Henriksen), and a Company executive (Paul Reiser) with a mission of his own. Once on the planet, no survivors can be found except for Newt, a little girl who awakens motherly instincts in Ripley just in time for the acid-blooded aliens to attack in what quickly becomes a one-sided battle for sheer survival. (official distributor synopsis)
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James Cameron is a master with a capital M, and when he took over the director's chair from Ridley Scott, he certainly didn't do the first Alien a disservice. Cameron doesn’t skimp, in fact, that word may not even be in his vocabulary, and delivers a perfect and technically proficient sequel about alien monsters. Of the cast, Bill Paxton honestly bothered me a lot, but otherwise I have no other complaints. The music is pretty unremarkable, but the sound effects are very good. Just looking at the spaceship or the model of the alien queen made me stare and wonder if the movie was really a quarter century old. All in all, a very good sequel with a lot more monsters, action and technical gadgets.
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Clearing a seemingly unattainably high bar was an impossible task, but James Cameron did what he could. Ripley still works, and even Newt, Hicks, and Bishop quickly grew close to my heart. Still, I only started to like Aliens after seeing the extended version, which truly gives the right charge to the psychological background of the first half. The film's success with the audience is also due to the timeless action and breathtaking moments full of elegantly deadly antagonists.
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Hands down the best installment of this famous franchise. James Cameron confirms his incredible talent and visual sensibility here and imprints the film with his unique directorial style. The action is fantastic, raw and “realistic”. Similarly, the characters are unusually dense and well-developed for this type of sci-fi. The Marine commando is one cool gang, dropping one-liners faster than the bullets from their machine guns. Finally, we get to see the feared monster in all its beauty and power, and it's no longer just “a guy in a costume”. Sigourney Weaver is even more likeable, and her transformation from a timid advisor to a seasoned warrior is brilliant. The minimalist soundtrack and the android Bishop have become legendary. Together with Blade Runner, clearly the best sci-fi films of the 1980s.
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Although it's out of place, I can't avoid the comparison; as far as I’m concerned, Aliens is more creative and entertaining than the first one. Cameron is amazing, he elevated an already perfect space survival story to the ultimate polished and incredibly balanced action flick. In the manner of the original, it’s almost heart-attack inducingly suspenseful (you almost can't breathe during the sequence before the first contact with the monsters), but at the same time it's adrenaline-fuelled and superbly choreographed terror for film and computer geeks (so it's quite timeless), and still a prime example of how to use film space with maximum efficiency and how to work with characters in an action story where most of them have to gradually disappear, inventing a variety of traps in line with keeping the pace and delaying the climax in favour of a moment of surprise to the point of being outrageously sexy and cool. An amazing Weaver and a brilliant Henriksen. Together with The Dark Knight and T2, the best sequel ever.
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Where Ridley Scott triumphed through the use of a creeping atmosphere, Cameron puts his money on action-packed antics at a seemingly deserted military base. Where Ridley afforded us just as fleeting as possible glimpses of the alien, believing that unseen evil is the most effective, Cameron deploys whole armies of aliens degraded to the role of insectoid cannon fodder. Where Scott has made do with a few actors in what is almost a chamber piece, Cameron gives us a mega production. Hard to say which of them is better. Both are completely different and yet perfect, although each in its own separate genre. But I won’t try to hide the fact that I prefer the movie that uses the singular in its title.
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Photo © 1986 20th Century Fox
![Aliens - Photos](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w663/files/images/film/photos/158/510/158510083_3c4fb7.jpg)
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