This week, I continued to chip away at
the list of Movies I Have Not Seen And There's No Excuse For That.
There's still a lot of films on this list, notably the Tim Burton era
Batman films (and The Dark Knight Rises, I mean, come
on, what am I doing with not
seeing that?). But this week managed to knock two glaring entries
off the list: Ridley Scott's Alien
and James Cameron's Aliens.
I've been meaning to see these for a while, especially because
they've been in the pop culture consciousness a lot recently. Alien
consistently shows up on lists of the scariest films ever made, I've
read a lot of articles about this series on Cracked.com, a lot of
discussion about the merits of Avatar
include references to Aliens,
and in the past five years we've seen not just a recent prequel to
Alien but also the
sequel to Alien vs Predator,
and when they make sequels to crossover movies from overexposed
franchises, not seeing the originals becomes akin to mortal sin for a
film enthusiast like me. So when a friend of mine offered to show me
both Alien and Aliens,
I couldn't turn down her offer.
Before
I continue forward, I should probably make good use of a SPOILER
WARNING in case you, like
me, have waited too long to watch these movies.
But
that might not be terribly necessary for discussion of Alien,
at least. There's not much I can say about this film that hasn't
already been said. It is a very tight, very well-crafted horror film.
The villain(s???) are threatening, the suspense is well done, the
atmosphere is rarely broken, and except in one or two cases, the plot
does not rely on characters making idiotic decisions. So you're not
going to hear anything particularly novel on the topic of Alien
from me.
No,
what I really want to discuss is Aliens.
A straight sci-fi action contrast to the first installment's
Gothic-horror-in-space, I've heard a lot of opinions on this film in
a number of directions. I mean, it's certainly classic: a lot of the
mainstays and iconic moments come from this film rather than the
predecessor. But there's a lot of discussion on whether this film is
good or bad, better or worse than the original, an example of James
Cameron as a good director or a bad director, etc.
I
think there's a very strong reason for such split opinion. When this
film is good, it is excellent action with high stakes. When this film
is bad, it is cheese and schlock and questionable one-liners. Let's
not be mistaken: this film has flaws. Space Marines are often kind
of hit or miss, especially being everywhere these days, and Aliens
has them in all their meatheaded, obnoxious glory. You won't feel
for the ones that get killed off early, and you likely won't remember
any of their names. The young actress who plays the little girl Newt
is not very good at all, though at least she feels important. More
than a bit of the dialogue is bad, many of the line reads are either
flat or hammy, the list goes on and on.
I
would argue that these flaws to not prevent it from being a good
movie. But even more than that, I would state that this film is an
example of how to make a fantastic sequel.
Sequels
can fail for a lot of reasons. Airplane
2 made the mistake of trying to be exactly the same as the original.
Indiana Jones 4 was
hated because it wasn't enough like the originals. Iron Man
2 is unsatisfying because the stakes feel too low. Pirates
of the Caribbean 2 and 3 spiral
out of control by raising the stakes too high and too fast. A sequel
has to have enough continuity without being a carbon copy, and it has
to feel bigger while not getting away from itself. This has often
been a difficult thing to do. Some times sequels are
studio-slaughtered abominations of filmmaking. And even when a sequel
is a great movie, like The Dark Knight,
it can still be an ill-fitting sequel. So the balance between
respect for the original and creating something new can be incredibly
touchy.
Aliens
hits this balance almost perfectly. James Cameron couldn't have
possibly captured the same sense of suspense and terror that Ridley
Scott managed in Alien;
no one could have. So he made the right decision and didn't even
try. Instead of focusing on the isolation and fear of a small group
of untrained survivors fighting off a single unknown foe, Aliens
brings in a squadron of marines with guns blazing against an army of
hivemind xenomorphs. But at the same time, Cameron manages to hold
back, showing the aliens in surprisingly few shots, much like the
original. Additionally, Aliens expands
on a lot of concepts and story presented in the first film, while
never really contradicting existing mythos or derailing the one
recurring character.
In
Aliens, the stakes are
higher and the action is grander. More people are involved, more
lives are lost, but also more is risked on a personal level for these
characters. The insider isn't acting merely on orders, he's acting
out of self-interest, as idiotic as it might be. Ripley isn't just
fighting for her life, she is fighting for the lives of the colonists
and, when that doesn't work out, for one colonist in particular.
There is a sense of pathos on some levels of this film that doesn't
get achieved in many sequels, and indeed in many films in general.
Is
Aliens as good or as
tight of a film as Alien?
Certainly not. Have better science fiction action films been made
before and after it? Goodness me, yes. But Aliens
succeeds on possibly the most important front for a film like it. It
expands upon the original while keeping true to its roots as a story.
Aliens is a fantastic sequel. And that, for me, is enough.
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