Aliens

Year: 1986

Grade: A-

Country: USA

Director: Cameron

Review

(director’s cut) – james cameron likes directing films with strong female leads – terminator 1/2 had linda hamilton, aliens had sigourney weaver, and titanic had leonardo dicaprio. this film succeeds where the original failed – it has more action and the action is more fulfilling. the comic relief was a little stronger as well. however, it’s not as good a film. first off, a sequel always has the burden of being less original and thus has to do more to be just as good. aliens a lot going for it, but it gives up a little to the original film in the atmosphere and originality departments. i don’t know what differences there are between the dir. cut and the theatrical cut, but the dir. cut is longer and i would imagine that helps with atmosphere more than anything else. the first half of the film did a good job of building tension, and the second half was just all out hollywood blockbuster…it was good, but not as good as the original. also, even as far as sequels go, this film was a bit too derivative. the story was almost exactly the same all the way through to the end. cinematographer was adrian biddle who did a decent job and in his first five years did this, willow, princess bride and thelma & louise; after that he kinda sold out, it seems.