“Aliens” is the sequel to “Alien”, and the movie begins with Ripley — the main character of all the “Alien” movies, and the sole survivor of the incidents of “Alien” — and her ship being found by agents of the Company, her previous employers. She’s in a state of cryptosleep, and has been so for the last 57 years. Her ship has passed through several systems, and it was only blind luck that made a Company salvage crew discover her.
She is debriefed, but written off as a lunatic — at least officially. But twenty years before her reawakening, the planet she and the others landed on 57 years ago was colonised, and now, all contact with this colony is lost. The Company therefore invites her back into the warmth, and she accpets under the condition that they’re going in to annihilate the aliens, not capture and export them.
So she is sent to the planet, accompanied by a squad of the most incompetent Marines I have ever seen (and, amusingly or frighteningly enough, not too exaggerated ones, either, according to the one of my flat mates with the most military knowledge), but it doesn’t take long before the proverbial shit hits the equally proverbial fan.
I thought “Aliens” was a better film than “Alien”. Where “Alien” was a very conventional splatter-horror — I believe I descibed it as “‘Scream’ in space”, although “‘Jaws’ in space” might have been more accurate — “Aliens” is something more. While the splatter-horror elements are still very much there, there are also quite a lot of straight-out action, and some small elements of a psychological thriller, as the humans turn on each other, and as differences within the group — mostly linked to the objectives of the Company — come to the surface.
6.0/10.
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