Sequels are a very very muddy territory to walk into. I mean really think about this, how many different kinds of sequels are there out there? You have the most obvious in direct sequels, (Back to the Future 2, Star Trek 2 [KHAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!] etc.) and then you have spiritual sequels (Casino). But let’s not forget things like sequels that are only sequels because they take place in the same universe (Soldier, the new Marvel movie universe, and pretty much all of Kevin Smith’s filmography.) and then you have sequels that have nothing to do with the original save maybe a character or something like that (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.) After all that, you then have the terrible, though sadly mostly true stereotype that sequels at most are meh-ish versions of the previous movies or just outright suck. The problem with that is that you then also have those sequels that aren’t only good, but they leave the first one in the dust with how great they are. Terminator 2:Judgment Day, The Dark Knight, the above mentioned Star Trek 2: The Wrath Of Khan and of course the grand kahuna of all great sequels The Empire Strikes Back. The point of all this rambling is that sequels are tricky tricky things to pull off, and basically as a viewer, a sequel is like playing the movie version of russian roulette. You have five chances of it being great, good, ok, meh or bad, but there is still that one chance that it will shoot you in the face with terrible.
Thus we come to Aliens. Surprising no one now, but a bit of a shocker then, the first Alien was vastly successful, and almost immediately sequel talks began. Ridley Scott was offered the reigns once again, but he was already working on Blade Runner, and for a long time the project pretty much languished until 1983ish where it first started to take off, and it was all thanks to Dino De Laurentiis being a bit of a dick. No really, here’s the story: James Cameron was finished with and had been shopping around the script for his film The Terminator. It was getting a lot of buzz around it and the movie was about to go into production, the cast was chosen and ready, everything. But then De laurentiis halted it by using a clause in Schwarzenegger’s contract to pre-empt the massive Austrian to star in the mostly abysmal Conan The Destroyer, all because he knew that The Terminator would likely launch Arnold into the stratosphere (you know, like it ended up doing.) and he’d be damned if he wouldn’t try to do it first with another Conan movie. So for about six months Cameron was all set to go on a movie, that had lost the title character, and he didn’t have the time to even film another small project in the meantime, so what was he to do? He took a writing assignment, for the sequel to Alien. Yes, before he was even shooting his second movie (First movie was Piranha 2:The Spawning, but he doesn’t want you to know that.) he was already writing his third. By the time that draft was finished, he was able to go and shoot his super awesome sci fi action piece, and then one of the most unheard of things in hollywood happened: The producers loved his script so much, they sat on it until they could see how he stacked up as a director with The Terminator, and if that was a hit he’d direct their project too. Guess what happened? So Cameron and company headed to London and brought Terminator effects guru Stan Winston with them, for what was from most accounts a trying shoot due to the cultural differences between the American director and the British crew, mostly relating to things like the schedule for breaks, apparently tea time became the bane of Cameron’s life at this point, and the fact that a lot of the crew had a lot of loyalty to Ridley Scott’s film and they weren’t interested in the sequel. The interviews on the two disk special edition DVD go into much more detail, but all in all the shoot was an endurance test of massive proportions. But the love and care is on the screen, not the anger and frustration.
Yes Aliens falls into that sequel category of “just as good, if not better than the original”. The reason relies a lot in the angle Cameron took with his script. His thought was that we’d seen how some random spaceship crew had handled this menacing creature, but now we know what to expect from them, we can plan for it and oh I don’t know, send in a squad of space marines armed to the teeth? I mean, this would be like a cakewalk for them, with time afterward for a few drinks and a round of poker to go with. But that’s the beauty of it, he knows going in that the only way to terrify you again, while not being a retread is to up the ante, and then have the aliens, now known as xenomorphs, call the bluff. Things go horribly wrong and most of the squad is wiped out and the drop ship to the main vessel is destroyed, and our heroes are stuck on a planet where LITERALLY EVERY LIVING THING WANTS TO KILL THEM.
But let’s backtrack a bit, what about tying things up from the first movie? Well, it’s 57 years in the future and Ripley (ok, this is the last chance to avoid spoilers for the first film) as the sole survivor of the Nostromo was stranded in space on the ships life boat, is now utterly alone and everything she knew is long gone. The planet that they explored in the first movie has actually been colonized for crying out loud. No one believes her about the xenomorph, and it pretty much feels like life is one endless pile of “I hate you!” for Lt. Ellen Ripley. (... hmmm, well given how the other sequels turned out....) But then something strange happens, the communications with the colony stop, and they don’t want to rule out the possibility of Ripley’s story, asking her to go along as a consultant if that ends up being the case.
The movie has numerous strengths. Much like it’s predecessor it’s a master of atmosphere, giving us a much brighter view of the colony before the xenomorphs show up, and then turning the lights out to reveal ominous shadows and twisted metal corridors. The different perspective given when we go into the marine’s personal cameras two adds a jarring tension due to the drop in picture quality. And once we go into the alien lair, all bets are off. Most surprising about this atmosphere is how well it’s kept when we need to be pulled out and let the marines unload on things, even in those situations we’re on the edge of our seat because Cameron knows where to put the camera, the monsters, and where to have the marine firing to build the suspense, without diminishing the action.
Not to mention that all the actors involved are so game for this. Of course everyone talks about how well Sigourney Weaver returns to the role of Ripley (she was nominated for an oscar for this performance after all.) but I know I’m not alone in naming my favorite character as Bill Paxton’s Hudson, because he’s hilarious and badass at the same time. Michael Biehn’s Hicks is also great as the corporal turned squad leader, and of course you have Jenette Goldstein as the baddest of the badass Vasquez. All rounded out by first timer Carrie Henn as the reminder that sometimes child actors CAN be good.
Plus, while aspects of the original alien concept are removed or simplified for the sake of there being too many needed to do all the finer work they could do on just one, it still keeps enough of the design to be instantly familiar and also adds a nice aspect to their life cycle in the form of the alien queen, who was a technical marvel in and of herself, giving us one of the greatest fight scenes ever committed to film in the film’s climax. Stan Winston really went above and beyond as he normally does to give us great work and it really shines on screen with all the different elements and actions we never got to see the various stages of the xenomorph do in the first film (face huggers walking across the floor, more animated chest burster etc.) adding more intrigue and depth to the creatures without having to bog us down with exposition dialogue.
But the big question here is which version should you watch? Well, I honestly think both version of the film are great, they’re solid 5 out of 5 material, but the special edition version is the better one. It adds a couple subplot that were cut for time, and especially a crucial scene where we see Ripley react to news that her daughter had died of old age while she was drifting in the void of space. It’s honestly a much more solid film, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that the theatrical film was still great.
Overall Aliens is what I would love all sequels to be. It’s a great continuation of the story, without suffering the staleness of a retread. It goes bigger, but not in an obvious or half hearted way. And it remembers that nostalgia for the first film can only get you so far, you still have to be a GOOD movie too.
Both Versions: 5 out of 5
Next time, the dark times begin with Alien 3
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment