1986
Directed by James Cameron
I have such a low opinion of sequels. It seems like nowadays every successful film has at least two sequels. And then of course, when the number of sequels reaches the double digits they usually just reboot the franchise and start over. I sound like such a curmudgeon. There are obvious exceptions like The Godfather: Part II. I wouldn't exactly consider Aliens a masterpiece, but at the very least it wasn't as disappointing as it could have been.
Ripley is rescued and debriefed after drifting through space in stasis for fifty-seven years. None of her employers really believe her account of what happened. In fact, the planet (or moon...or whatever) where the alien eggs were found is now home to a colony. Once contact is lost with the colony, the company sends a Marine unit to investigate. Ripley warns everyone about the dangers but everyone is too busy mansplaining to listen. Ripley agrees to go with them and things go about as well as you would imagine.
By their very definition sequels are never really going to show us anything particularly new, so I can see a lot of people complaining that this is basically a rehash of the first movie, plus a really cute kid. I happened to really enjoy the first movie and gladly sat down to watch Ripley fight the patriarchy and be a bad ass again. I also liked that the stakes were a lot higher than last time, so it felt like we were building to something rather than just facing the same conflict again.
So maybe not a film that I would consider a "must see" but I still had a really good time with this.
RATING: ****-
Interesting Facts:
Carrie Henn kept messing up the shot of her sliding down the vent on purpose because it was so fun. Cameron told her if she got it right she could play as much as she wanted. Adorable.
Longest Alien film.
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