Viewed – 30 July 2008  DVD

Special edition

Having not watched this movie in a long while, and actually not having seen the extended special edition at all; with the recent purchase of the Alien Quadrilogy box set, I thought I’d give it a look.

James (Terminator 2, Titanic, True Lies) Cameron’s 1986 sci-fi action movie is the follow up to Ridley Scott’s seminal Alien, and turns a slow-burning horror movie into a gung-ho marines in space testosterone-fest.  Sigourney Weaver’s iconic heroin Ellen Ripley wakes up 57 years after the first film, only to discover that a colony of settlers on the same planet that the alien was discovered originally, have ceased communication.  Knowing that something may have gone horribly wrong, she leads a band of tough, cocky Marines on a search and rescue mission, only to come face to face with a  nest of the deadly, vicious xenomorphs – and a battle for survival commences.

What makes this such a memorable movie is a great cast, with Weaver joined by Cameron regulars Michael Biehn & Bill Paxton, as well as a stand-out Lance Henrickson as android ‘Bishop’.  Now compared to much sci-fi or any action movie of the time, this is all played VERY seriously, with a gruelling 2hr 35 minute run time, but the story and the atmosphere is solid stuff and I personally never got bored.  Ok, it takes a while for the action to kick in, but by this time we’re already hooked by the characters and their situation, and the pyrotechnics are just the icing on the cake.  This extended version adds some back story to little girl ‘Newt’ and some references to Ripley’s daughter, but don’t really make for a radically different film so if you’ve only seen the theatrical cut…you’re still seeing the best this movie has to offer – and the ending is stuff of cinematic legend.

Verdict: 4 /5