{"id":3730,"date":"2018-07-25T13:00:48","date_gmt":"2018-07-25T17:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/?p=3730"},"modified":"2018-07-30T11:55:30","modified_gmt":"2018-07-30T15:55:30","slug":"lauren-finally-watches-aliens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/?p=3730","title":{"rendered":"Lauren (finally) watches: ALIENS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome back for the second installment in my journey through the\u00a0Alien\u00a0<\/em>franchise. In case you missed part one<\/a>, I’ve somehow managed to go my entire life without seeing a single\u00a0Alien\u00a0<\/em>film, despite being born in the ’80s and loving science fiction basically from the womb. I even managed to remain mostly unspoiled. I knew a few things about the first film, and stumbled across a few spoilers for\u00a0Alien: Covenant\u00a0<\/em>when it came out last year (thanks, internet), but that’s about it.<\/p>\n

So today I’m watching James Cameron’s\u00a0Aliens<\/em>, and I honestly don’t know a blessed thing about it other than that Paul Reiser is in this one and also I think this is where Bill Paxton’s “game over, man, game over” quote comes from. Buckle up.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Aliens<\/em> (1986). Photo credit: 20th Century Fox<\/p><\/div>\n

ALIENS (1986)<\/span><\/h1>\n

My expectations:<\/span><\/h2>\n

My biggest question going into this is does Sigourney willingly go BACK to the alien planet, or do they come to her, because in one scenario she\u2019s less smart than I gave her credit for and in the other she\u2019s got the worst luck EVER. <\/span><\/p>\n

Also, was the cat secretly impregnated with an alien baby, because I kind of felt like it was. (I just <\/span>deeply <\/span><\/i>want the cat to be relevant, guys, considering the time devoted to it in the first movie.) <\/span><\/p>\n

James Cameron is on board as the director for this one, so I\u2019m anticipating GRAND SPECTACLE. Not necessarily on a physical scale (although maybe on a physical scale?), but more that I expect that this film will significantly up the scope and stakes of the conflict. If Ridley Scott\u2019s movies are all about sensation, I\u2019d say that the common thread in James Cameron\u2019s films is overwhelming awe. From <\/span>Titanic <\/span><\/i>to <\/span>The Terminator <\/span><\/i>to <\/span>Avatar<\/span><\/i>, he tends to favor sweeping stories that are breathtaking in both their reach and their impact. <\/span>Alien <\/span><\/i>felt isolating, claustrophobic, and suffocating, but I anticipate <\/span>Aliens <\/span><\/i>broadening the world to focus on more characters than just Ripley, and giving us a conflict in which a lot more hangs in the balance than the fate of a single spaceship. <\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking of the conflict, it\u2019s been pointed out to me that, uh, I missed some nuance in the first movie. <\/span><\/p>\n

I think that, despite my best efforts, I went into <\/span>Alien <\/span><\/i>with a few preconceived notions, and they somewhat colored my experience. Namely, I assumed from the start that no humans had ever encountered the xenomorphs before, so even when Ash was revealed to be an android and Ripley discovered the orders to bring back an alien at any cost, I still reasoned that this was just intended as a contingency plan in <\/span>case <\/span><\/i>they encountered alien life, and didn\u2019t consider the possibility that the encounter with the xenomorph ship was engineered by a Big Bad Organization who already knew they existed. (Also, throw that onto the pile of Things The First Movie Set Up But Never Paid Off.) <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m very curious to see how this second movie builds on the foundations laid by the first one, and whether Cameron will take it upon himself to tie up all those loose threads that Scott seemed perfectly content to leave dangling. <\/span><\/p>\n

Watching the movie:<\/span><\/h2>\n
    \n
  • Nice callback to the first one with the pan through the empty (and…very sparkly? I get that it\u2019s condensation but it\u2019s coming across as thoroughly bedazzled) ship. Oh, hey, it\u2019s Ripley\u2026 and the cat. This must be right where the first one left off? Does the door not work or do we just open doors with lasers in the future? Speaking of which, what year is it? <\/span><\/li>\n
  • Oh my gosh, young Paul Reiser, look how poofy your hair is. <\/span><\/li>\n
  • 57 YEARS??? See this is why I find cryosleep terrifying. <\/span><\/li>\n
  • Wait, now she\u2019s acting like there\u2019s an alien in her\u2026 which means this is a dream, isn\u2019t it? Yup, dream. So maybe not 57 years after all? Are they just\u2026 not going to tell us? Also how did she dream Paul Reiser before she\u2019d met him? Okay, he just said there\u2019s been a colony on the xenomorph planet for more than 20 years, so I\u2019m going to assume 57 years is accurate, despite it being said in a dream. Maybe she was dreaming about her first meeting with Paul Reiser after meeting him in real life. I\u2019m gonna go with that. <\/span><\/li>\n
  • The future is popped collars, apparently. <\/span><\/li>\n
  • These tactics to get her to go back to the planet are very <\/span>The Lost World<\/span><\/i>. Or I guess I should say, <\/span>The Lost World\u2019<\/span><\/i>s<\/span> tactics are very <\/span>Aliens<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • The cat is staying behind, which means my theory that the cat has a dormant alien in it is still alive, but also that as of right now, the cat is still not relevant. Have thinkpieces been written on the cat? I don\u2019t want to Google them because spoilers, but I\u2019m so weirdly fascinated by why the cat gets so much screen time in the first movie.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    \"\"

    Paul Reiser, Sigourney Weaver, and that infuriating cat in Aliens<\/em> (1986). Photo credit: 20th Century Fox<\/p><\/div>\n

      \n
    • I refuse to believe that if you were going into cryosleep for months at a time, on an incline, you\u2019d sleep with one arm over your head. Surprisingly diverse cast for the mid-\u201980s though. I like it. <\/span><\/li>\n
    • Oooooooh telling us about the android up front this time, interesting. And with <\/span>I, Robot<\/span><\/i> rules, I see. Which, as we know from <\/span>I, Robot<\/span><\/i>, never backfires ever. <\/span><\/li>\n
    • \u201cRipley, brief the crew.\u201d [cuts her off before she ever even gets to the part about the actual xenomorph] Also, LOLZ, \u201cit\u2019s all on disc.\u201d I remember the days when everyone thought that the dominant technology of the future would be laserdiscs and hoverboards. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
    • I will forever think of that one soldier guy as the “I WILL NOT GIVE THAT ORDER” guy from\u00a0The Rock.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n
    • Waiting for an alien to pop out in this scene is like constantly winding a jack-in-the-box and bracing for the clown to spring out at you. At this point Ripley is probably wondering why she ever agreed to come on this mission when the only way she killed the first alien was by jettisoning it out into space, which is not an option here on the planet\u2019s surface.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
      \"\"

      Aliens<\/em> (1986). Photo credit: 20th Century Fox<\/p><\/div>\n

        \n
      • Facehuggers in jars, because of COURSE that\u2019s what humans would do. We really are our own worst enemies. <\/span><\/li>\n
      • GET \u2018EM, KID. I was getting all irritated at how that soldier was just roughly groping toward this traumatized kid and then she bit him and that was great. Oh but now Ripley is manhandling her into submission until the kid just goes limp and blank. That\u2026 could\u2019ve been done better, I think. <\/span><\/li>\n
      • ALL the people are clustered together underground? This smells like a trap. If that\u2019s the case, I\u2019m on board. Feels smart to raise the stakes in this movie by not just increasing the number of aliens, but by making it clear that they\u2019re intelligent and devious, not just animals.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
        \"\"

        Aliens<\/em> (1986). Photo credit: 20th Century Fox<\/p><\/div>\n

          \n
        • NO ONE thinks to ask why they\u2019re being told not to fire in there? They just assume it\u2019s for kicks, and that it\u2019s no big deal for half of them to have hidden extra magazines? Dang it, people, you\u2019re going to realize this was a bad idea when you all die in a nuclear explosion. <\/span><\/li>\n
        • Crap, here they go.<\/span><\/li>\n
        • I\u2019m glad that these movies decided to cast women in multiple roles that seem like they\u2019d more typically go to men, but why are the women so INFURIATINGLY STUPID. First Lambert and her staggering uselessness in the first movie, and now this trigger-happy woman just blindly spraying bullets everywhere after being specifically told not to. Sure, she doesn\u2019t know WHY she was given that order, but as a soldier, isn\u2019t it her job to at least ATTEMPT to follow orders? Or at least to question any that seem suspect before flagrantly disobeying them? (I\u2019d make a terrible soldier; I have to question everything.) Can\u2019t any woman other than Ripley resist the urge to act like a massive idiot? <\/span><\/li>\n
        • ACID BLOOD EVERYWHERE, oh dang, I knew that was going to happen to someone eventually. <\/span><\/li>\n
        • Having trouble closing the ramp = there is DEFINITELY an alien on board that ship. [5 seconds later] Yup. <\/span><\/li>\n
        • IDK how I feel about the convenient \u201cthey come at night, mostly\u201d loophole, but I guess they needed SOME way to give the characters time to regroup and plan. <\/span><\/li>\n
        • Bill Paxton has never played a bigger mess than he does in this movie. Is this just a thing with ALIEN movies, to have a character whose entire job is to FREAK OUT in every scene? (I find him less grating than Lambert though, partially because he seems to at least be a decently competent soldier, but mostly because he\u2019s Bill Paxton.)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
          \"\"

          Bill Paxton in Aliens<\/em> (1986). Photo credit: 20th Century Fox<\/p><\/div>\n

            \n
          • She put the location fitbit on the kid. That\u2019s for sure gonna come back around.<\/span><\/li>\n
          • This is going to sound very cold, but I’m finding it a little hard to swallow just how incredibly\u00a0fond\u00a0<\/em>Ripley appears to be of this kid. I completely get that the poor kid has Been Through Some Stuff, and that Ripley forged an immediate connection with her on the basis of them both being the sole survivors of similar trauma, but… I dunno. I totally understand that she relates to the kid, and that she feels fiercely protective of the kid, but I think the thing I don’t quite get is why she appears to\u00a0like\u00a0<\/em>the kid so much, when the kid has shown no real personality (which is fair, given what she’s been through). Maybe Ripley is just projecting maximum warmth in order to try to diffuse some of the kid’s fear, because she’s a\u00a0kid\u00a0<\/em>and does not deserve what’s happened to her, and Ripley is not a monster and would want to try to make the kid more comfortable. I get\u00a0all\u00a0<\/em>of that. It just seems like more than that, like Ripley legit\u00a0loves\u00a0<\/em>this child after only knowing her for a few hours, and that’s the part that doesn’t ring entirely true for me — but it’s also not enough to take me out of the movie. Just a small character question that I can’t quite shake.<\/li>\n
          • \u201cWho\u2019s laying the eggs?\u201d Oh man, is this going to be an \u201cit\u2019s a HIVE MIND, we have to take out the QUEEN\u201d story, because that feels like where this is going. (I hope I\u2019m wrong.)<\/span><\/li>\n
          • Wait, Paul Reiser is a BAD GUY? I keep being surprised that movies about super-powerful killer aliens require human villains (yes, even after being told that I overlooked the human villain element of the first one). I should\u2026 maybe get over that. Also what is Paul Reiser\u2019s endgame here, does he WANT Ripley to get implanted by the facehugger? Did he let it out on purpose? WHY?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
            \"\"

            Paul Reiser and Sigourney Weaver in Aliens<\/em> (1986). Photo credit: 20th Century Fox<\/p><\/div>\n

              \n
            • …Okay, so, his whole plan is to BRING THESE TO EARTH, does this franchise end with the human race going extinct because we are just TOO DUMB TO LIVE?<\/span><\/li>\n
            • There\u2019s that acid blood again. It\u2019s funny, the first movie is full of setup that never goes anywhere, which I didn\u2019t really mind at the time (because Ridley Scott magic). But I like how this second movie is finally paying all that off. Makes it feel like that was the plan all along. James Cameron wizardry. <\/span><\/li>\n
            • Hahahaha Ripley just duct taped a flamethrower to her already ridiculously gigantic gun. Because why settle for a ridiculously gigantic gun when you can add fire and duct tape to it. The Rock would be proud. (Also, here\u2019s the location fitbit coming into play, as predicted.)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
              \"\"

              Sigourney Weaver in Aliens<\/em> (1986). Photo credit: 20th Century Fox<\/p><\/div>\n

                \n
              • Oh, there\u2019s the kid, suffering from a tremendous case of Will Byers-itis. <\/span><\/li>\n
              • \u2026 I just realized where the inspiration for the Upside Down must have come from. <\/span><\/li>\n
              • QUEEN ALIEN. Called it. Barbeque her, Ripley. Wait no, barbeque the EGGS. Or both. Both is good.<\/span><\/li>\n
              • Ripley, maybe stop exploding the aliens when they have acid blood, have you forgotten about the acid blood, acid blood is an ongoing theme in this movie. <\/span><\/li>\n
              • The Queen is chasing her. Please tell me this isn\u2019t going to end with her killing the Queen and all the other xenomorphs just dropping dead. That always feels too easy. (I realize none of this has been EASY for the characters so far, but you know what I mean.) <\/span><\/li>\n
              • Oh good, it didn\u2019t. But there\u2019s always the next movie. <\/span><\/li>\n
              • OH DANG, there goes Bishop. DID NOT SEE THAT COMING. Man, I was hoping he\u2019d be in the third one, too. So the Queen just like\u2026 clung to the bottom of the ship? In space? Do the xenomorphs not require oxygen? Because they sound like they breathe. Is that just a thing they do to sound more intimidating? Is that REALLY necessary?<\/span><\/li>\n
              • ROBOT VS. MONSTER, ALWAYS A GOOD CALL.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
                \"\"

                Aliens<\/em> (1986). Photo credit: 20th Century Fox<\/p><\/div>\n

                  \n
                • Awwww, Bishop\u2019s torso is still being heroic. Poor Bishop. Maybe there\u2019s hope for him to be in the next movie after all. <\/span><\/li>\n
                • Is the kid going to come back as a grown-up in the next movie? Maybe that\u2019s too obvious. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                  Closing thoughts:<\/span><\/h2>\n

                  I honestly liked this movie even more than the first one. I thought the pacing was much more even, and while Ripley was definitely still the strongest character, the others felt far more fleshed out than the crew in <\/span>Alien.\u00a0<\/span><\/i>I also liked how the action was sprinkled throughout the movie instead of concentrated mostly at the end. While I think the slow burning tension of the first one absolutely worked, my personal taste tends to lean a little more toward traditional action frameworks, so this one was a bit more in my wheelhouse.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

                  As expected, James Cameron took everything about the first movie and made it bigger, and I think it really worked. I very much appreciated how he took most of the open-ended setup from <\/span>Alien <\/span><\/i>and either unpacked it or took it one step further, which I think not only made for a stronger second movie, but actually retroactively elevated the first one. <\/span><\/p>\n

                  The exception, of course, is the stupid cat, which I will apparently be obsessing about at <\/span>least <\/span><\/i>through the third movie, and possibly forever. <\/span><\/p>\n

                  I think I\u2019ve finally wrapped my head around the idea that there are human (and\/or android) villains in these movies, so I will hopefully not be blindsided by that a third time. But the presence of Bishop shows that not <\/span>all <\/span><\/i>androids are evil (although I\u2019m not entirely convinced Ash was entirely <\/span>evil <\/span><\/i>— maybe \u2018dangerously logical and devoid of all empathy\u2019 would be more accurate?) so it doesn\u2019t appear to be a Cylon-type thing. After two movies alluding to some devious shadow organization pulling strings in the background, I\u2019m anxious to have that curtain pulled back a bit more, hopefully in the next one.<\/span><\/p>\n

                  Next up we have <\/span>Alien\u00b3<\/span><\/i>, which was the first feature film David Fincher directed, after working exclusively on music videos up until that point. So I\u2019m expecting something dark and murder-y, but also maybe a little jazzy? Time will tell. <\/span><\/p>\n

                  <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                  Welcome back for the second installment in my journey through the\u00a0Alien\u00a0franchise. In case you missed part one, I’ve somehow managed to go my entire life without seeing a single\u00a0Alien\u00a0film, despite being born in the ’80s and loving science fiction basically from the womb. I even managed to remain mostly unspoiled. I knew a few things […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[385,614,615,584,612],"class_list":["post-3730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies","tag-alien","tag-aliens","tag-james-cameron","tag-lauren-thoman","tag-ridley-scott"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.avengingforce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/MV5BZDg1MTkzODgtY2M3NS00NWM2LTgxZTAtYzFhNjlkZWY2ZWZhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzc5NjM0NA%40%40._V1_.jpg?fit=1100%2C597","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Vfwz-Ya","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3730"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3841,"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3730\/revisions\/3841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}