James Cameroon took over from Ridley Scott to direct this sequel to the highly successful Alien (1979). My colleague, Mazlan, loves it so much that it is in his top 20 list. It shouldn't surprise me, anyone who loves firepower and Alien, will like this movie. As a matter of fact, many Alien series fans liked this to the original. It is just a matter of taste.

As a matter of fact, Cameron did a fantastic job with this one, up to the point that you don't want to compare it with the original. In this he is given more aliens, characters and loads of hardware to choose from. And he used them wisely and generously.

The first thing that caught my attention in this film, is the complete absence of characters. There are plenty, in fact. Ripley is the only survivor from the original. Otherwise, the rest of the characters comprise of the marine personnel like Hicks (Michael Biehn), Hudson (Bill Paxton), droid Bishop (Lance Henriksson) and Vasquez, (Janette Goldstein) - the latter is a muscular babe with mixed up chromosoms. On top of that you have thousands and thousands of aliens (hence the Aliens title, instead of Alien 2). Somehow, my problem that is, I don't see a single stand-out character, with the exception of Ripley and probably Bishop. The same goes with the aliens. In the original, you begin to recognise the feller. You are likely to be intrigued, as you learn its habits and diets. Here, there are just too many.

If Alien is a horror suspense film, this is an action thriller. There are some scare factors here and there, but more than anything I believe Cameron is intrigued with pyrotechnics and gore. I liked the original for its ability to absorb us into its atmosphere. It showed very little of the Alien and yet there is fear everywhere. I guess I like intensity and atmosphere. It is a bit missing in this film.

Aliens begins 57 years after Alien. Ripley(Weaver) is discovered by The Company in hypersleep on the Nostromo. When she wakes up she explains what had happened only to be met with doubt. The planet where they found the Alien now has inhabitants. Then thing goes wrong and her story sounds feasible. So, they gather some marines and goes to check out what's wrong. Of course, what follows is some tremendous heart-pounding action scenes with thousands of aliens getting blown with equally mindblowing whatchamacallit guns.

There is a small sub-plot involving Ripley and maternal relationship with a girl, Newt, who survived the alien infested planet where the marines go for extinguishing purpose. This relationship is exploited symbolically when Ripley meets the queen Alien, and it worked well. I just didn't like the way it was dispatched with that mano-o-mano...wait, womano-o-womano confrontation. Watch it and you will know what I mean

I was reading some other reviews and found one review by eFilmCritic very fascinating. After praising Cameron's work, he went on to make a comparison. Here is his take:

Overall, the film was brilliant but I still have to harp on some problems I had. Cameron's plot seemed to mirror everything that already happened in Alien.
For instance..
Alien: A Company robot 'Ash' wants to protect the Alien.
Aliens: A Company worker 'Burke' tries to protect the Alien.

Alien: Dallas tries to find the Alien in the air ducts.
Aliens: There's a big air duct chase.

Alien: The ship is set to detonate and a female computer voice counts down the time remaining.
Aliens: The complex is overheating and a female computer voice counts down the time remaining. (From where?)

Alien: Ripley goes in search of her cat Jones.
Aliens: Ripley goes looking for Newt.

Alien: The Alien hitches a ride onto the scuttle.
Aliens: The Queen Alien hitches a ride onto the ship.

Alien: Ripley blows the Alien out of the airlock.
Aliens: Ripley blows the Queen out of the airlock.
(This scene is by far one of the most unrealistic things I have ever seen! That Ripley must be pretty strong to hold onto a ladder with a Queen hanging onto her foot and with tons of air pressure sucking out the oxygen!)

So, I guess Aliens pretty much falls into the 'remake' sequel category. Can't blame Cameron. It is a script fault. Hark! Wait, it was written by Cameron, and I read elsewhere that he wrote it while writing Rambo: First Blood Part 2. Oh, oh!

But I admit that Aliens is a tremendous entertainment and I don't deny that I enjoyed it very much. I just took it a bit too seriously. Just dumb of me to do that.