Aliens

This movie is pretty awesome and a million times better than the first. I think it’s the best sequel I’ve ever seen.

We return to where we left off, with our heroine Ripley in hyper sleep after she escaped from the first film. Sorry if you haven’t seen it but you must know there’s a sequel and everyone knows that someone from the first film has to survive to continue to saga. Anyways, the first film was called Alien because there was just the one alien. This one is called Aliens because there is more than one. A whole lot more than one.

I’ll be honest, I got so wrapped up in this movie that I totally forgot to write notes so I only have a few but I’ll try to make up for it with my ending paragraph.

There is slightly more CGI in this than the first but its only for shots of the ships in space, not the aliens. Thank goodness they stuck with ‘real’ aliens and not CGI because I feel that them being real is what made them so terrifying.

Futuristic sets. 80s clothing. Hmmmm…

Its all 57years into the future. Suddenly we learn that Ripley had a daughter. I don’t like this part because there was no mention of a daughter in the first film [at least not what I could hear, which to be honest, wasn’t much] so I felt it was a bit forced to suddenly mention that Ripley was a mother. I say ‘was’ because its 57 years in the future and therefore her daughter is dead. I would care if I’d known in the first place but I didn’t so alas, I don’t. I suppose it builds the grounds for the Newt [the little girl] & Ripley bond which I think they could of easily done without the daughter part. Actually… now that I remember, I was watching the special edition so that included the deleted scenes into the movie and I think that was one of the deleted scenes. So it depends on what version you watch, though there’s only a 15 minute difference between both movies and the daughter scene was the only one I could think of that wasn’t needed.

The court scene was infuriating! I totally felt Ripley’s frustration as no one believed her story about the alien. She’s in ‘court’ because she blew up ‘an expensive piece of equipment’. I think this is a proper dig at the government and special businesses, they don’t care who died or what happened, they only care about the fact they lost millions of dollars worth of equipment. Even though there is a female in the court [aside from Ripley], the whole scene feels very male-orientated and Ripley is talked down to and patronized. However, this is also done by the woman so its not just the men’s fault. Anyways, Ripley can’t prove the alien is real because she blew up the evidence on the ship and blasted the alien into space. Its incredibly frustrating to the audience because we know! We saw it! I want to run into the scene and hand them the Alien DVD and go “HERE’S YOU BLOODY EVIDENCE YOU TWAT!”

Like I said before, the government or special business or something has created a living environment on the planet that the alien comes from, being fully aware that there are dangerous aliens on it. Twats.

OK. I hated the marines in this for a majority of the film until most of them were killed off. Honestly, you’d think with everything that’s going on in our world at the moment that you couldn’t possibly hate the armed forces but ooooooh no, James Cameron [director] found a way. The marines are a group of people who are sexist, arrogant, disrespectful and egotistical maniacs. Even the women. However, we get to laugh at them because they’re there showing off their weapons thinking they’re going to kick ass but we, who have seen the alien, can snicker because we know what they’re up against and they have no idea.

“They mostly come at night. Mostly.” I love this line thanks to South Park [‘Cat Orgy’, Series 3, Cartman constantly repeats ‘mostly‘ at the end of sentences]. Anyways, this was the line that drew me in. I stopped writing notes after this part because this is when it starts to get very intense. I was laying in bed up till this point and I sat up, knees to my chin with anticipation for the rest of the film. And trust me, this is an incredibly good sign.

I didn’t write this note but its one of the most powerful female shots in cinema history [at least in my opinion]. Ripley vs. MUMMY!Alien. Ripley is revealed by an opening down to be in this metal body suit [which is the future’s answer to forklift trucks] and looks totally awesome and kickass and says the most awesome kickass line ever “get away from her, you bitch!” WOOOOOOO!!! GIRL POWER!!!! YEEEEEAH!!! I found myself punching the air and everything, just like my brother does when his team scores a goal/touch down in sports. We’ve gone from spoilt little brats with big dresses and manners to KICKASS ‘YOU BITCH’ AWESOMENESS! I used to think Lara Croft was the awesome woman but I bet Ripley would kick her ass. And without a bra on.

Hurrah! The cute marine lives! I didn’t think there was any reason at all to even hint that something would happen between Ripley and the cute marine, it was completely unnecessary and border-lining degrading. ‘Alien’ was fine without romance, so would be ‘Aliens’.

The other robot managed to change Ripley’s mind on robots! Remember? The other robot [Bilbo Baggins] tried to kill her. Which reminds me, where are the English people in this?! Did the alien in the first film kill the only English space people!?

Erm… so yeah, it’s a very good film, I really enjoyed it and I think I could happily watch it again right now. I’ve only ever felt that about one other film in this challenge and that was Cloverfield. You see? You see how much of a good film this is? Then Cameron had to bugger it all up with Avatar. Shame.

176/212

Kate
xoxo