|
|
“Game over man, game over!” While everyone around her was shakin’ in their boots, she picked up a gun and blew ‘em into outer space. Our next woman who doesn’t want flowers for Valentine’s Day is Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley in Aliens.
The sequel to Alien, which only had one alien, actually has multiple encounters with aliens, thus the slightly confusing name. Aliens is a classic action movie that came out in 1986, chock full of suspense, mixed with action and even a little bit of humor at times, not to mention what everyone wants in a movie: really big guns!
Ripley is found (57 years after the events of Alien) at the beginning of the movie drifting around in space in a hypersleep. They wake her up only to scoff at her story of the alien. FOOLS! Well, these people in the future have lost contact with one of their colonies and form a team to go investigate, to which Ripley, for some reason, agrees to be a part of. They arrive at the colony to find no one around except aliens. They spend the rest of the movie trying to escape the colony with their lives.
We do get to see a little softer side of this heroine, Ripley, who’s not just a hardcore killing machine like The Bride. Ripley grows fond of a little girl and vows to protect her. Awww, isn’t that sweet. Save it for Oprah!
Ripley shows her soft side.
Aliens is a very suspenseful action movie. So full of suspense, in fact, that it’s on the lower side of the action spectrum. As you can see below it was a whole hour before anything happens. There were only a few actual action scenes and then a lot of those sequences just show the characters shooting guns…into the air, it doesn’t show the aliens for a while longer, which builds the suspense even more, but not the action. One aspect that I love in this film is the fact that Bill Paxton (known to me as dude from Twister) and a lot of the other guys freak out completely over the aliens; however, Ripley keeps her cool and proves that she has bigger balls than the rest of them by taking control of the situation and formulating a plan. Oh yeah and kicking some alien ass! BOOYAH!
Sigourney Weaver is a hardcore tough chick though. She survived when hardly anyone else did…twice. So maybe forego the flowers for Valentine’s Day for this tough chick. She would be more impressed with you bringing her a dead alien and a flamethrower, really proving yourself worthy.
Time until the real action: ~ 60 minutes, no joke, a whole hour before any action starts. That only left about an hour to squeeze in some double-fisted alien ass kicking.
Guys getting killed (Bad guys): Aliens Best Line: In the beginning, people are talking about how there has been no record of any aliens existing. Ripley replies, “GOOD! Because I blew them out of the GD (sic) airlock!” Now there’s a woman who takes control!
Best Alien Kill: While Ripley is driving one of the tanks trying to escape from the aliens, one jumps out in front of her. She doesn’t blink, she doesn’t brake, she just floors it and turns that alien into a pancake.
Best Human Kill: This kill is not one that you actually get to see but is still awesome. It is just an implied kill. I am classifying it as the best human kill because it is the one that you cheer over when it happens-Burke, the weasel conniving jerk. Burke dies by the very aliens he was trying not to kill, and he deserved it. Three cheers for Burke’s death!
Best Explosion: Ripley and her crew call the mother ship for rescue and evacuation help. When the dropship is on the way to rescue them, an alien pops up behind the pilot and destroys her. The ship crashes and explodes right by Ripley and her team. Then it skids into the processing station and doubly explodes.
Best Narrow Escape: Ripley stumbles upon the Big Momma Queen Alien. It looks like Ripley will be able to walk out slowly and alive as long as she doesn’t disturb any of the eggs the Big Momma Alien is laying. Well, Ripley’s big balls get the best of her and she torches all the eggs with a flame thrower. That makes Big Momma Queen Alien nice and mad. She rips herself free from the ovipositor and goes after Ripley (oh yeah, and the kid was with Ripley this whole time. Traummmmma! ). They barely make it into the elevator using the flamethrower and tapping into all of their luck at once. The Big Momma Queen Alien takes a ride in the elevator as well, but Ripley and the kid make it onto the ship just as the Queen gets off the elevator and they escape…or do they!?!?! DUM DUM DUM!
Rating: 2 and a half Big Momma Queen Aliens, out of 5
 |
|
Pingback: What’s Happening? » Blog Archive » » the Classic Sci-Fi Action Movie (Well, Half an Action Movie …
Weaver got nominated for an Oscar for this roll. It’s a crying shame that she got beat out by Marlie Maitlen, because this was a much better performence and a much better movie.
2.5???
So if you were rating just the last half of Aliens, from when the action really starts, what would you rate that?
‘Kay then why only 4? That’s a fantastic bunch of action and people still talk about Sigorney 20something years later as the action heroine everybody else dreams to emulate.
Wow. 23 years ago when that came out, people thought it was so full of relentless, gutwrenching action that they left the theater almost ill. I’m not kidding, read that pansy Roger Ebert’s review!
Now it’s barely an “action” film… sorry hon this is one of the classics, and the build from suspense-horror to action is what makes it all work. Compare it to AvP 1 or 2 and you can see that the suspense pays off.
“Nuke the site from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure” Aliens is one of those primordial action films that upped the ante so we could have stuff like Shoot Em Up and Transporter.
Well, sweetheart, I enjoyed this movie a lot. However, I rate movies based on a contemporary perspective on action. I felt that by judging Aliens on a modern standard of action, it warrants a 2.5. I thought Aliens was a great Sci-fi/suspense movie; however, I don’t give scores based just on how much I enjoy a movie.
shortened url = http://3.ly/Aliens
Half an action movie – I guess it is, at that. Just wanted to say you have a great site!
The best ‘Alien’ film made for action. The first one is a classic. Ripley is tough, kills a load of aliens, gets away with the little girl. Alright Ripley, way to go!