Aliens (1986)

aliens poster 1986 movie
9.5 Overall Score
Story: 9/10
Acting: 9/10
Visuals: 10/10

Amazing visuals, nice acting, good story

Nothing

Movie Info

Movie Name: Aliens

Studio: Brandywine Productions

Genre(s): Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Action/Adventure

Release Date(s): July 18, 1986

MPAA Rating: R

aliens-marines-ripley

That’s right aliens…You’re dealing with the Marines!

Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) finds herself out of time.  Waking up after what seems like a night of sleep, she finds herself fifty-seven years in the future when her escape pod becomes lost in space.  With claims of encounters with an alien creature and blaming it for the destruction of the Nostromo, Ripley learns no one will believe her because the planet of LV-426 where the alien was found has been populated.  When the Weyland-Yutani Corporation loses contact with the colony on LV-426, Ripley is sent with a team of Marines to see if her fear of an alien infestation is true.

Directed by James Cameron, Aliens was a big hit follow-up to the original movie with (for the time) quite a long time between it and other originalAliens was well received and a big money maker.  The movie won Academy Awards for Best Effects—Sound Effects Editing and Best Effects—Visual Effects with nominations for Best Actress (Sigourney Weaver), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Sound, Best Film Editing, and Best Music—Original Score.

aliens-newt-water

Swimming isn’t as fun as I remember it

Alien was a sci-fi/horror movie, Aliens is a sci-fi/action movie.  The movie is fast and furious and with hundreds of aliens, the Marines scrapping tons of them become possible.  It turns from a strategy movie to a war movie…but there are still a lot of elements of horror mixed in.  The Marines all have pretty distinct personalities for the short screen time they share and it is just a great action picture.

The Alien franchise continues to develop the already great H. R. Giger created aliens by not only allowing the viewer to see the aliens, but the revelation of the alien queen.  The queen’s design is amazing and Cameron gives the perfect reveal with her egg laying room.  The original Alien plan was that alien’s victims become the eggs, but fortunately that idea was scrapped (though the scene was shot and can be seen on DVD collections).

aliens-mover-queen

Get away from her you bitch!

The sci-fi aspects of Aliens still involve the roles of the mother.  The original movie had the computer Mother betraying her children by sending them to a dangerous alien creature.  This movie has Ripley trying to cope with the loss of her daughter (who died of old ages when he was lost in space).  She takes Newt (Carrie Henn) as a substitute daughter and come in conflict with the alien who also is trying to protect her young.

Aliens is a great movie…some say it is better than Alien but I prefer Alien…just by a little.  Aliens is a different movie however and it is pretty hard to compare the two since they have different themes and styles to them.  Aliens is like Alien on crack and instead of being afraid of the Alien, everyone is like “let’s kick its ass”.  Aliens was followed by Alien3 in 1992.

Related Links:

Prometheus (2012)

Alien:  Covenant (2017)

Alien (1979)

Alien3 (1992)

Alien:  Resurrection (1997)

Aliens vs. Predator (2004)

Aliens vs. Predator:  Requiem (2007)

 

Author: JPRoscoe View all posts by
Follow me on Twitter/Instagram/Letterboxd @JPRoscoe76! Loves all things pop-culture especially if it has a bit of a counter-culture twist. Plays video games (basically from the start when a neighbor brought home an Atari 2600), comic loving (for almost 30 years), and a true critic of movies. Enjoys the art house but also isn't afraid to let in one or two popular movies at the same time.

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