Movie Details
| Title: | Aliens | |
| Director: | James Cameron | |
| Year: | 1986 | |
| Genre: | Sci-Fi | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 01.30.10 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (2)
- Avatar
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 01.30.10 | Alamo Ritz | Max was waiting for us after A Town Called Panic got out. We all went over to the Highball, where we bowled while waiting for everyone else to join us. BriGuySalisbury, Kayla, and BTSJunkie eventually joined us. After my sister kicked butt at bowling (I was a close second) we headed over to the Ritz where we met up with ldmullen and several others. In all we had ~10 people at the screening. An excellent crowd for what turned out to be a really fun movie. The presence of Reiser initially took me out of the film (after growing up alongside the ever-present Mad About You, he's branded in my mind as the quintessential broad-comedy sitcom actor, and seeing him in a futuristic sci-fi/horror flick just seemed strange), but the rest of the cast made up for it. This is one of the most enjoyable cinematic military squads I've seen in recent memory, with several extra kudos going to Al Matthews (Sgt. Apone) and Jenette Goldstein (Private Vasquez), and ten billion extra kudos going to the king of all Comedy Relief characters, Bill Paxton. Man. Everything that guy said was pure gold. Because I was coming to this film for the first time, and because the Alien-Needs-A-Space-Nap debate from the first movie was fresh on my mind, I couldn't help but keep a running tab of things that I didn't think made sense. I discussed some of them after the film with BTSJunkie and others, and they resolved most of my plot-related questions (Though I'm still not completely sure how the queen got from the landing gear into the spacecraft without setting off any alarms). But there were a few sequences that I still question: :: I don't care how tired Ripley is (and I know they referenced her not sleeping for more than 24 hours), it doesn't make sense that she'd just crawl under the bed and pass out with Newt. :: There sure seemed to be a lot of scenes where aliens were getting blasted without any acid-blowback. :: An inordinately large amount of soldiers survive the "aliens attack through the ceiling" scene given how badass the aliens are supposed to be. Those are arguably nits. But the big glaring logic hole for me was the ending. Ripley opens the spacelock and, not only does she manage to not get sucked into space, Newt (a little girl) withstands the pull of an absolute vacuum with her fingertips. Don't remember that? Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqzHdKqZAmo#t=2m45s Seriously. That's crazytalk. Oh, I'm also pretty sure that Ripley is the bad guy in this series. I need to go back and rewatch these movies to further develop my theory, but so far, the aliens don't seem to be evil. The facehugger latches on to people more or less by instinct. It isn't evil any more than any wild animal is evil. When the aliens mature, they seem to have some sense of intelligence, and it can be argued that all they are doing is protecting themselves. But the scene that drove it home to me was when Ripley faces the Queen for the first time. Two guards are about to kill Ripley, but she threatens the Queen's eggs with a flamethrower. The Queen calls off the guards and allows Ripley to leave. A truce has been made. But what does Ripley do as soon as she's out of reach of the guards? She blowtorches all the eggs! They weren't posing any danger to Ripley! They can only activate when there's something nearby for them to latch onto, and there weren't any more humans around for the eggs to do that with. What a xenocidal bastard move! Just look at how that scene plays out using good and bad humans: The hero in a WWII movie confronts Hitler, but gets waylaid by two SS Guards. Out of necessity, the hero grabs Hitler's baby out a nearby stroller and holds a flamethrower to its head. Hitler calls off the guards, and says "I'll let you leave here alive if you let my baby live." The hero says ok and the SS stand down. The hero backs out of the room, still holding the baby. Just as the hero reaches the door, he smiles at Hitler and then lights the baby on fire, along with twenty or so other babies. It's the same thing. But yeah... where was I? Oh yeah. Aliens is a really fun movie. You should check it out. Afterwards we talked outside the Ritz for a while, I inwardly toyed with the idea of staying for Herzog's My Son. I eventually talked myself out of it given that I'd have to drive back super late. So we got on the road and headed back to Waco. After I dropped my sister off, I grabbed a coffee at her favorite coffee shop, Common Grounds, and then powered through the rest of the drive home. In all, an excellent day. Thanks to everyone who came out. |