Official Synopsis
The moon from Alien (1979) has been colonized, but contact is lost. This time, the rescue team has impressive firepower, but will it be enough? (via IMDB.com)
There is nothing I can tell you about this film that you haven’t already heard, but as a reviewer I am required to try, so here we go.
Since this film is turning 30 this year, it has come to my attention that the kiddos in high schools and colleges around the country/world probably haven’t delved into the scary-ass world of Aliens before. Maybe they have caught Ridley Scott’s 1979 masterpiece on AMC some Saturday or have argued how incredibly lame Prometheus is (or for some of us, a good film), but most have never understood why Aliens was a different experience in almost every aspect from the original film.
To understand the differences, one has to go back to the original film.
Alien was a sci-fi horror classic. Director Ridley Scott and writers Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett took their time building the suspense and the horror. They used elements of dark visuals, even German expressionistic elements at times (lots of white and black areas for contrast) to bring about a feeling of uncertainty and the looming sense of an evil villain hiding in the shadows. They also used sound as a tool to add terror to scenes, sometimes the sounds came through loud and blaring, sometimes through uncomfortable silence. Alien was scary because of the closed in environment that seemed off from the moment we’re introduced to the crew. All of these elements were slow and methodical and it made Alien an iconic, sci-fi horror that folks have yet to replicate. And believe me, they have tried.
Most sequels, very much so nowadays, try to take that same successful formula the original films had and apply it. It’s easy money, right? Shockingly(/s), replicating the original formula doesn’t always work out. What most viewers get out of that strategy is more of the same, which viewers don’t want to see. Sometimes the story simply doesn’t fit the structure, which is another reason why this strategy fails with sequels. Thankfully, James Cameron’s Aliens didn’t want to replicate the original and decided to take a very different route.
Aliens takes the two main characters, Ripley and out antagonist species, and puts them in a different story shell. Cameron’s vision of this world is not slow and methodical, rather it’s an action thriller sprinkled with a good coating of horror. It moves much faster than Ridley’s masterpiece and doesn’t hide that it wants to lock and load from point A to point B. Throwing space marines into the mix and seeing those poor schmoes fail over and over again , which adds more perspective of the antagonist; plus it does expand the Alien universe quite a bit, making it seem much bigger (and dangerous). In addition, the stakes of the story are bigger with the aliens having infected an entire colony of people, which created hundreds of full grown aliens. It also sprung the idea that if one of those things gets back to earth it will be a disaster. Cameron’s sequel isn’t as contained as Scott’s, it doesn’t simply put a ship and its crew at stake. It breathes a bit, looks at a broader horror picture of the alien situation and puts the real fear of God in the viewer, yet a action-based fear. In short, it tells a completely different type of story than the original, yet it uses the same players. It’s absolutely brilliant.
Overall, Aliens is a blueprint for how sequels shouldn’t use blueprints to replicate a franchise’s success. Going a different direction, while maintaining the core players, depending on story of course, could equal out to a great film. Or, in Aliens case, a classic.
Having jibber-jabbered enough about the movie production, let me just say, on the record, that this is quite possibly the most beautiful transfer of an older film that 20th Century Fox has done to date. Now, it might be the same disc as what was in the Quadrilogy release from years ago, which is fine, but seeing it in HD is still something to behold. Folks, there is absolutely no imperfection in this release. In addition, it’s nice that Fox has included the theatrical and special edition versions of the film. Having both on one disc is impressive.
On the special features side, you get some good stuff with audio commentary from Cameron and crew, an introduction from Cameron on the special edition version (shocked they included him, his talking probably took up a lot of space — kidding, kidding) and some interesting music related features, extended and deleted scenes. The release also comes with a set of cool art cards. It’s a nice homage to a 30-year old masterpiece. It almost makes you want Cameron to quit doing this Avatar crap and come home and do another Alien movie. Or at least a Terminator film. Anything without blue people.
Here is the full list of features:
• NEW – The Inspiration and Design of Aliens featurette
• Deleted and Extended Scenes
• Superior Firepower: Making Aliens
• Superior Firepower: Making Aliens Enhancement
• Pre-Production Galleries
◦ The Art of Aliens
▪ Gateway Station and Colony
▪ Vehicles and Weapons
▪ Aliens
◦ Casting
▪ Cast Portrait Gallery
• Deleted Scene Montage
Onto the summary.
