How do you follow Ridley Scott's Alien, an abject lesson in sci-fi/horror perfection? That's like having The Beatles as a supporting act. However, James Cameron gave it a real good go with Aliens. It does what a good sequel should do; acknowledge it's roots while simultaneously expanding the mythology, upping the scale and threat and generally giving us, the audience, more. Taking a more action-based direction, Cameron keeps the pace electric, the thrills constant and the action exciting, as a group of stereotypical army grunts team up with Ripley to try and exterminate a planet full of aliens. While Scott's film gave us one alien, Cameron ups the ante considerably with a planet full of the acid-blooded xenomorphs, allowing for some exciting and exhilirating action scenes, handled brilliantly by one of the masters of the genre, James Cameron. Sigourney Weaver is of course excellent as Ripley, while Michael Biehn (fresh from tackling another Stan Winston creation, The Terminator), Bill Paxton ("Game over man, Game over!") and various other tough looking guys impress in their roles. Cameron can direct action scenes in his sleep, and Aliens is testament to that. An exciting, thrilling,badass, well made film, that disproves the theory that all sequels are shit.
