Get away from her, you bitch!

THE SUMMARY: Ellen Ripley is recovered nearly 60 years after the events of Alien, only to be talked into escorting and advising a crew of Colonial Marines on deployment to the same moon where her last crew died, and almost all of this crew dies too while Ripley once again defeats alien villains with much upgraded firepower. The sequel is more action-driven than the suspense-and-tension oriented original, which gives it a slight edge in my personal taste.

THE BEST:

The action sped up the pace without sacrificing the tension: For all the criticism about it being slow, one of the better parts about the original is how it builds tension. This movie opts for blazing guns and flamethrowers over creeping drama, but it still retains the scary ‘pursuit’ theme of the first movie. The motion detectors are a cool feature to maintain that theme, and the crawling aliens and scurrying face huggers also retain the creepy chase factor.
A few dashes of (incidental?) comedy: I’m not sure this movie is trying to be funny necessarily, but there are a couple lines that got me given their current context. Bishop gives his pronouns when he says ‘I prefer the term artificial person, myself.’ During the initial briefing with Ripley, Private Hudson makes a crack at Private Vasquez, calling her an illegal alien (below). These pieces probably wouldn’t make a script these days, as sensitive as we are. Related fun fact about the Private Vasquez actress my wife noticed: she’s not even Latino. Her name is Jenette Goldstein, and she definitely wore brownface. Goldstein addressed that issue in a 2017 interview about the movie and her role in ‘white-washing.’

Edit: Goldstein’s Wikipedia page claims she has Brazilian heritage, but c’mon - she’s as Latino as Taco Bell. And the brownface point stands.

Since I’m done saving Sarah, I guess I’ll save your ass too.

Kyle Reese shows up to save the day again and other Terminator crossovers: It was great timing to watch the Alien and Terminator franchises simultaneously, because the crossover was immediately recognizable beyond the direction of James Cameron. Fresh off saving Sarah Connor, Kyle Reese shows up as a Colonial Marine to help save Ripley and Newt. If he and Ripley hook up, is that cheating? 🤔

On another side note, the Private Vasquez actress Jenette Golstein is also in Terminator 2 - she’s John’s foster mom who ginsu-knifes John’s foster dad.

The sets, props, and effects are again excellent, especially for their time: The sets and effects impressed me in the first movie, and the sequel doesn’t disappoint either. All the sets are dynamic and scary, the added weaponry to this movie is cool, plus the cargo-loading mech turned alien exterminator is aesthetically detailed and convincing.

Maybe if we sit around and bitch, we’ll annoy the aliens so much they’ll just go away!

THE WORST:

Again slow to start: I noted how the first movie takes more than a half hour to see any alien action, which is a pretty slow start. While this movie eventually heats up, similarly, it takes almost 45 minutes to get shots fired at Newt, and nearly an hour passes before the Marines get ambushed in the nest. Don’t get me wrong - like the first movie, the buildup is part of what makes the combat tense and dramatic - but if you’re not a patient person, the early portions of these movies can drag.
Private Hudson replaces the hysterical lesbian: In Alien, Lambert, the hysterical crying ship ‘navigator’ nearly ruined the movie for me. Her character is pointless, she offers nothing, she’s annoying, and she just gets people killed. Apparently the director and producers consider the role of insufferable useless bitch to be vital though, because Lambert is replaced in this movie by Private Hudson. All he does is whine and cry, and his lines are painfully lame like ‘with those things runnin' around? You can count me out,’ as though he didn’t sign up for an alien-hunting mission on which he was fully briefed, and as though he has any options besides fighting the aliens anyway. In that exchange, Corporal Hicks responds ‘yeah, I guess we can just count you out of everything, Hudson.’ I wish his role had been counted out of the movie. The illegal alien joke was his best moment.
The alien queen’s airlock death was lame: Overall I enjoyed the ‘boss fight’ between robot suit Ripley and the alien queen. However, I didn’t find the airlock ending convincing or satisfying. This huge alien that shreds humans to mincemeat with one swipe can’t do that to Ripley while it has a hold of her? Ripley’s grip against the space vacuum is stronger than the alien queen’s? Plus, it’s essentially the same ending as the first. I get throwbacks are fun sometimes, but why not have a new death scene?

THE RATING: 4/5 Wickies. I give this movie a half-Wicky edge over the first, but since there are no half scores, and since this movie had enough substantial flaws that I can’t award it perfection, four is where it lands.

YOUR RATING: Vote here ⬇

NEXT WEEK: MY COUSIN VINNY (1992)

AFTER THAT? YOU PICK - VOTE! Note - due to the July Fourth holiday weekend, we will not do a movie review that week and the show will be rescheduled for a different day - stand by for details. This week’s movie pick will be reviewed for the Sunday, July 11 show.

Matt's Movie Reviews

Aliens (1986)