Review #190: Aliens (1986)

This review was originally written in 2022.

Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #45: Aliens (1986)

I've heard a lot of people say "Alien is a horror film, Aliens is an action film". And it's not entirely inaccurate. But while this one's focus is definitely on action, it's still totally a horror film (even if the previous film kept the horror more front-and-center). I'd never seen any movie in the Alien franchise until a couple years ago, and upon first watch I was kind of lukewarm on them. I'm very glad I gave this one a second chance, though, because it blew me away!

While the action and sci-fi and even horror elements are the bread and butter of this movie, I'd argue that this movie lives or dies by the characters and their interactions. Don't get me wrong, even if the characters were bad there would still be the same amount of action in the latter half, but to this day I still hear people quoting the interactions between the marines from the first half of this film ALL the time. These archetypes became an inexorable part of pop culture after this movie skyrocketed to the top of the charts, and it's all because of how well-written the characters are. No matter how good the action in the second half is, you don't get this big of an audience memorizing the film if they don't care about the first half! I can't get over how much fun this film gets when all of the marines are joking around, hassling each other, and bragging and reminiscing about their past exploits. These characters all feel real, they feel like they have actual history with one another, and they feel like they're a living, breathing part of the world around them. I felt like I was watching a group of old friends going up against an unseen menace none of them knew was coming, and that makes it all the more sad when this bug hunt goes wrong and people start dying left and right.

The pacing, while not perfect (there was a teensy bit that felt like it dragged at about the 2/3 mark), was pretty fantastic considering how long of a film this is. The aliens felt as terrifying as they were meant to, and I definitely felt like the whole situation was as hopeless as James Cameron wanted it to feel. The twists and turns the plot took were shocking, and I felt the full range of emotions as the movie went on. I think Aliens is a fantastic film- I'm not sure whether I like it better than the first, which is also fantastic- and I would recommend it to anyone. (And I watched the Special Edition, which I would definitely recommend as well.) The only thing I don't like is how the third movie takes a big steamy dump on the ending of this one, but I'm not reviewing that movie this year!

Overall Rating: 10/10 Games Over, Man

Movie Connection: Apparently, in the first few days of shooting, actor James Remar (who was eventually replaced with Michael Biehn) had somehow gotten live ammo in the shotgun that his character was using, and he blew a hole in the studio wall, damaging both the Aliens set, and the set of Little Shop of Horrors, which was filming next door!