James Cameron
Aliens

THE REVIEW

The Alien saga is certainly among the classics of horror-science fiction films, and in this second installment, it continues the story from Ridley Scott's promising debut, with Sigourney Weaver playing Ripley, who is miraculously rescued from her drifting spaceship after an ill-fated encounter with the alien—an elongated-headed giant locust that had wiped out her crew following a rather unsavory gestation within one of the members. Thus begins a second expedition to the infested planet, but deplorably understaffed and inadequate to face the alien adversary that has by now multiplied profusely, such that the mission will quickly shift from reconnaissance to merely getting home in one piece. The settings remain quite claustrophobic, though to a lesser extent compared to the previous chapter set aboard the spaceship.

In truth, I didn't particularly enjoy the film because it's now stuff seen and seen again, right down to the smallest details and tricks, in all subsequent films of the genre, although there's always the outstanding presence of Weaver, which perhaps is lacking elsewhere, and the two and a half hours of the extended version I own pass by well, between the massacre of aliens and the saving of innocents. A film definitely worth revisiting for those like me who couldn't even remember if they had seen it or not, or simply to refresh their memory. With the next chapter, it will be Fincher's turn at the camera, but for now, I preferred this second chapter to the first, which I also watched recently. In any case, the aliens are remarkably well-engineered, with the intent to make your stomach turn, just as it was with 'Predator', and it would be worth watching just for them and the protagonist, regardless of who directs the work.