Quote:
Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs  Aliens (1986)
I know this goes against all public opinion but i'm really not a fan of James Cameron's Aliens.
On the plus side it's a tremendous looking film with the alien planet and all the space craft and vehicles on display looking ultra realistic so from a technical aspect it's superb but as a piece of entertainment, well that's where it falls down with me.
Sigourney Weaver, returning as Ripley from Ridley Scott's far superior Alien, remains a force to be reckoned with but the seemingly legendary Colonial Marines (Michael Biehn and Bill Paxton aside) are instantly forgettable. It's testament to John McTiernan's soon to be inextricably linked to this franchise Predator (1987) that he could make a team of army grunts fully rounded and interesting characters in one brief helicopter ride that Cameron couldn't manage in a mind numbing hour and a half of Colonial Marine chatter.
What irks more than anything is that this is supposedly an action film, yet most of the action we don't actually get to see. One long scene where the alien Xenomorphs are being mown down by automatic machine guns we don't see at all and this like so much of the so called action takes place as the viewer watches others watching the action.
The Xenomorphs themselves are utterly pointless having at most 20 seconds screen time throughout the first two hours, admittedly the final half hour features the alien queen extensively but the classic alien creature is sadly mostly absent from proceedings.
I've always found this film disappointing and last night's viewing on blu-ray was no better. Sorry but this is the worst of the first four Alien films. |
That's quite a statement considering part 3 was universally panned and part 4 was even worse. I have good memories of watching this on home video with my dad as a boy so it has nostalgic value.
I watched it the other week with my own son and still enjoy it. I didn't see the original until the mid 90s and thought it was just as good as the sequel and a totally different film.