Aliens - The quintessential Sci Fi / Horror movie?

I've been looking forward to the Alien Anthology on blu ray for a while.  The opportunity to have both Ridley Scott's and James Cameron's early masterpieces in high definition is one that many movie lovers will take.  Borrowing heavily from the already released Alien Quadrilogy on DVD, this is the definitive set for Alien fans, comprising of a frankly overwhelming amount of extras.

With regards to the movies themselves, Alien 3 is a curious failure.  A movie that epitomizes why the creative minds should be left to the decision making, and not the head honchos of the studio.  Alien Resurrection is an attempt to bring Aliens up to date with much more special effects and set pieces.  It's not a bad movie by any means, but when put beside the first two, it's definitely an inferior take on the Alien mythos. 

Which brings us to the first two movies.  It's impossible to mention one without the other, as the two are so perfectly intertwined that they could almost be one 5 hour movie cut in two.  Judging them separately, you're either a fan of Ridley Scott's slow building and atmospheric movie, or James Cameron's slow build followed by balls to the wall action.  I definitely fall into the latter category.

In my opinion, James Cameron is one of the most consistently entertaining directors of all time.  Even his 'weaker output' such as True Lies or The Abyss, are both head and shoulders above anything Michael Bay will ever accomplish.  But then you just roll off the list - Terminator, Aliens, Terminator 2, Titanic, Avatar.  They are all bona-fide genre classics.  But let's just focus on Aliens.  For now........

Set 57 years after the original, Ripley is woken from her hyper sleep, only to be blamed for the original disaster aboard the Nostromo.  This is Cameron's depiction of how big business works.  Someone has to be culpable for all those lost dollars, and Ripley's the only survivor.  She tells them about the Alien lifeform they encountered, and how what she did was out of an instinct for survival.  As no physical evidence was found, nor any alien lifeform found in the following 57 years, her flight license is revoked.  To add to her woes, she also finds out that mining colonies have been set up on the planet where the original crew first encountered the Alien.  Her warnings fall on deaf ears.  Until.......

They inevitably lose contact with the mining colony and as a result ask Ripley to join a group of space marines, and investigate what happened.  Ripley is initially hesitant, but suffers from crippling nightmares, and realizes she'll never be able to move on until she faces her fears.  So off they go.

This leads to one of the most tense and slow build sequences in cinema history.  Cameron revels in drip feeding the audience information before the Aliens attack.  So much so in fact, that the studio, having seen the rushes, asked why they weren't seeing anything.  They wanted to know where the money was being spent.  Then the walls start to move in on the Marines.  Kick ass action follows, and the film doesn't let up for the remaining duration of the running time.

To say any more would ruin the movie for the two remaining people in the world who have not yet witnessed its greatness.

For me, the reason the movie works so well is because everything fits together so perfectly.  The directing and writing by James Cameron is top notch.  The characters he has created and the structure of the film is perfect.  What starts as a celebration of how technologically advanced and superior the human race is, halfway through transforms into how futile those weapons and technology are in the face of a much more primal, and determined species.  The subtle Vietnam analogies are there for all to see.

The characters he created are fantastic, but the actors who bring them to life are all flawless.  Sigourney Weaver deservedly got a best actress nomination at the Oscars that year, in a movie and genre that the Academy would normally ignore.  The grunts are all very individual from Bill Paxton's Hudson, to Michael Biehn's Hicks and Jenette Goldstein's Vasquez.  Then there's Lance Henriksen's android Bishop, and of Paul Reiser's ultimate corporate sleazeball Burke.  All of the cast are individual and you care for every one of them, something that was sadly missing from the likes of Predators and the AvP movies.

It's also hard to believe this movie was made nearly 25 years ago.  The set design and special effects, especially the Aliens themselves, are top notch and really do stand up today.

The sound is a key element is a movie like this, and it is unnerving at times, heroic at others.  In other words, it fits perfectly.

The blu ray itself is stunning.  The clean up in the picture quality is masterful, hardly surprising given that James Cameron personally supervised the transfer. This is the kind of movie that really shows the power of the format.  The fact that both the theatrical version and the director's cut is also included, is a bonus.  Personally I'd opt for the director's cut, as any more Aliens is in my mind, a good thing.

As I'm sure you've guessed by now, this is one of my favourite movies of all time.  It is the perfect blend of suspense, horror, character, action and drama.  It is a testament to Aliens, that Cameron referenced the movie so many times in Avatar, be it in the way the grunts act or the design of the military.  And if it's good enough to influence the most successful film of all time (tm), then it's definitely good enough for me.

Until next time...........