Aliens

This was one of my all time favourite movies growing up. Yeah, I know, I'm weird, but whatever. I've watched this movie a dozen times or so. Then I got the DVD for my birthday last month and finally found the time to watch it. I was surprised and elated to discover there were added scenes and sequences in the DVD.  Since I just watched that version, it will be the DVD I'm reviewing.

We start the movie seeing a very familiar ship drifting through space. It is then picked up by a salvage ship and we see that none other than Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is in cryo, sleeping soundly. She wakes up in a hospital a few days later and Burke (Paul Reiser) from the company is there to talk to her. It turns out that after the first movie, she has been drifting in space for over 50 years. Then an Alien pops out of her chest. But it's okay she was only dreaming. There's an added scene after that where Burke and Ripley are talking about the upcoming inquisition, for lack a a better word, and she asks about her daughter. Man, it's been so long since I've seen the first movie, I totally forgot she had a daughter.

Anyway in the hearing they recap the first film and explain about the creatures, how they were on a crashed ship on a planet and Ripley's ship set down and were attacked by the creature with acid for blood. Long story short, they all think she's nuts and take away her license. She asks one of the men to check the planet in question, but there is no need because terra-formists have been living there for over twenty years with no problems.

There is an added sequence here that explains why all of a sudden there were aliens in the colony. We see the colony and they have just received a communication from the company telling them to go explore a part of the planet that no one has before. It turns out that is where the alien ship is and one of the colonists is attacked when he goes in the ship.

We are then brought back to see Burke with Lt. Gorman (William Hope) visiting Ripley. They tell her that they have lost contact with the colony and they want her along for the rescue mission. She reluctantly agrees after another nightmare and they are off.  Ripley, Gorman and Burke are accompanied by Bishop (Lance Henriksen), an artificial person (one that Ripley doesn't get along with too well since the one on her last ship went nuts and resulted in deaths) and a pack of Marines.

They land sometime later and they see the colony is completely deserted. There are signs of attack everywhere, including places where the metal floor was completely eaten away by acid. They discover, in the med-lab, 2 creatures that are still alive. They are the ones that wrap themselves around the face of a host and implant the mini alien in the host's chest. Anyway in their search they find one survivor; a little girl called Newt (Carrie Henn). 

They find the rest of the colonists and walk right into an ambush and most of the marines are killed. The only ones that are left are Cpl. Hicks (Michael Biehn), Pvt. Hudson (Bill Paxton), and Pvt. Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein), along with Burke, Newt, Bishop, Gorman and Ripley. They decide to nuke the site from orbit, only their ship crashes and they can't get the other one. Things go from bad to worse as there's a problem with the factory and it'll blow in a few hours. And, of course Burke tries to get the aliens to impregnate Ripley and Newt, and the aliens cut the power and make a final assault and Newt gets taken by the aliens. Eventually the survivors of all that make back to their ship only to discover the Alien Queen, being pissed at Ripley for destroying all her eggs, followed them and there is the coolest fight scene in the history all Sci-fi where Ripley takes on the Queen with the loader suit. Greatest off all times.

As I said, this is one of my all time favourite movies. It has action, adventures, aliens creatures, scares (not so many though), gore, you know; all the good stuff. I like the fact that there are added scenes in the movie; the part where Ripley is pissed with Burke for sending the colonists to their death makes sense now. I was always like "Hey Ripley it wasn't his fault you weren't even awake yet to tell them about the alien ship". Now it makes sense.  Even though I've watched it like a dozen times it's never lost it's enjoyability to me

Grade: 9/10