Aliens

Year of Release:  1986

Director:  James Cameron

Screenplay:  James Cameron, from a story by James Cameron, David Giler and Walter Hill

Starring:  Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein

Running Time:  137 minutes (theatrical cut); 157 minutes (director's cut)

Genre:  Science-fiction, action, horror

Following the events of Alien (1979), Ripley (Weaver) is found in suspended animation in an escape pod.  Recuperating on a space station orbiting Earth, she learns that she has been drifting through space in stasis for 57 years.   Traumatised by her experiences, her situation is only made worse by the fact that no-one believes her story.  It turns out that the planet where the Alien was found, Planet LV-426, has been home to a human colony for the past twenty years.  That is until Earth loses contact with the LV-426 colony, and Ripley is persuaded to join a platoon of Colonial Marines on a mission to investigate.  

Aliens is one of the great sequels in film history.  While Alien is a horror film in space, Aliens takes a completely different approach and is a war film in space, in fact writer/director James Cameron described it as being a Vietnam film in space, with it's depiction of a technologically superior invading force being repelled by an enemy which they have completely underestimated.  The film takes it's time building up the characters and suspense, but when the Aliens do appear in all their slimy, toothy, insectoid glory the film immediately kicks into high gear and doesn't let up until the end credits roll.  The Aliens are a largely unseen enemy, usually attacking en masse or hidden in shadow, or moving so fast that you can barely get a good look at them, this was partly practical because the production couldn't get many Alien costumes.  The action scenes are well staged and exciting, and the special effects still hold up today, with the Alien Nest, where their luckless victims are gruesomely cocooned to be impregnated by the facehuggers, memorable and disturbing.  The lengthy set up means that we get to spend time with the characters, they are not just there to be eaten by the monsters.  There is a theme of motherhood in the movie, Ripley is a mother, and there is a scene which is in the extended director's cut, but not in the theatrical cut,  where she is informed that he daughter had died during her absence.  The sole survivor of the colony is a young girl called Newt (played by Carrie Henn) and she becomes a surrogate daughter to Ripley.  In the film's climax however, Ripley has to battle the vast Alien Queen, which lays the Alien eggs.  It's the battle between two mothers: one seeking to protect her daughter, the other seeking vengeance for her slaughtered children.  The heart of the film really belongs to Newt and Ripley, the scenes between them have real emotional heft, and the male characters with a couple of notable exceptions, by and large take a back seat.  Sigourney Weaver gives one of her best performances as Ripley, who is one of the great characters in action movies, tough, compassionate and ruthlessly practical where necessary

The film continues and expands the anti-corporate theme of the original, with the treacherous weasel Carter Burke (played by Paul Reiser), an oily space yuppie and Eighties Guy par excellance who unfortunately feels all too contemporary, whose actions lead Ripley to contemplate whether the humans are any better than the Aliens.  Also in the supporting cast is Michael Biehn as likeable Marine Hicks, and provides the closest thing that the film has to a love interest for Ripley; Lance Henriksen as the soft spoken but slightly sinister android (although "artificial person" is the preferred term) Bishop; and Bill Paxton as Hudson, the most arrogant of the Marines, but the one who quickly falls apart.  

The 1980s were the era of flamboyant, excessive action spectacles, where living action figures routinely blasted enough firepower to wipe out a small country, as well as throwing up endless sequels to anything even slightly popular (which, to be fair, is something that for better or worse shows no sign of ever going away).  Aliens is a high point, expanding and developing the story of it's predecessor, as well as taking it in a completely new direction, igniting the screen with spectacular carnage, and nightmarish visions, but with added intelligence and heart, putting it ahead of it's contemporaries.  The best of the Alien franchise, and one of the highpoint of action cinema.

Sigourney Weaver hunts Aliens

      

Signs

Year: 2002
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Screenplay: M. Night Shyamalan
Starring: Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin, Abigail Breslin, Cherry Jones, M. Night Shyamalan
Genre: Science-fiction, thriller, drama
Running Time: 107 minutes

Summary: Former preacher Graham Hess (Gibson) lost his faith when his wife died in a car accident, and now works as a farmer a few miles outside Pittsburgh with his younger brother, former minor league baseball player Merrill (Phoenix), and Graham's two young children Morgan (Culkin) and Bo (Breslin).
Waking after a night disturbed by strange noises, the Hess family are shocked to find a large crop circle design in their corn field. Initially putting it down to local pranksters, the family soon discover that there have been reports flooding in from around the world of an unusually high number of crop circles appearing in a brief space of time.
Speculation is rife as to what caused the crop circles, some believing it to be an elaborate publicity stunt, some claiming it is a widespread hoax and others claiming that it marks the end of the world.
Morgan becomes fascinated with a book he buys about UFOs and extra terrestrials. The news reports on the television and radio become increasingly disturbing as strange lights are seen in the sky near the circles and video footage of briefly glimpsed strange creatures surface on the news. It soon becomes apparent that a full-scale alien invasion is under way, and the Hess family are among their targets.

Opinions: M. Night Shyamalan has had an interesting, if very uneaven career. From the highly successful and critically adored The Sixth Sense (1999) to the critically panned The Last Airbender (2010). Shyamalan is at his best when he is dealing with regular people pitted against otherworldly events. This film really has him doing what he does best, and provides an imaginative ground zero view of an alien invasion.
Unlike most films of this type there are no flashy spaceship effects or spectacular battles, or even ray-guns zapping everything in sight. The spaceships are seen briefly in TV news footage and then are basically lights in the sky. The aliens are barely glimpsed throughout the whole movie, and are usually depicted as just noises in the house.
The film features an impressively subdued turn from Mel Gibson as a tormented former preacher who is still stricken with grief and bitterness over the untimely death of his wife. Joaquin Phoenix is also good as the younger brother, who seems to be treated more like an employee than a family member. As the two kids, Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin both provide powerful and affecting performances.
The movie does have it's problems, most notably a ludicrous final revelation about the aliens, although that really comes too late in the day to spoil anything. Also the elements of family drama and alien invasion movie, as well as the film's surprising religious overtones, don't always gel. At times it comes across as a fusion of Ingmar Bergman and Steven Spielberg.
However, this is an intriguing and fascinating film and a cut above most alien invasion movies.

"See what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, that sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky? Or, look at the question this way: Do you believe that there are no conicidences?"
- Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) philosophises in Signs.



Rory Culkin, Joaquin Phoenix, Mel Gibson and Abigail Breslin watch for Signs

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Year: 1951
Director: Robert Wise
Screenplay: Edmund H. North, based on the short story "Farewell to the Master" by Harry Bates
Starring: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Billy Gray, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe, Frances Bavier
Running Time: 92 minutes
Genre: Science-fiction

Summary: An alien spacecraft lands in the middle of Washington D.C. It's occupants are the humanoid Klaatu (Rennie) and large robot Gort (Lock Martin). Upon producing a strange looking device, Klaatu is shot and wounded by a nervous soldier. It turns out that the device was not a weapon but an interstellar communicator, intended as a gift for the President.
In hospital Klaatu tries to impress upon his official visitors that he has an urgent message to deliver to all the people of the Earth. However, they refuse to listen to him. Klaatu escapes, hoping to familiarise himself with Earth's people and customs. He moves into a small boarding house where he befriends widow Helen Benson (Neal) and her young son Bobby (Gray).
While Gort and the spacecraft stand immobile, resistant to any attempts at destruction or study, Klaatu finds himself the subject of a nationwide manhunt and desperate to find a way to make the people of the Earth listen to his urgent warning before the human race suffers complete annhiliation.

Opinions: This film is one of the classic science-fiction films and is one of the most influential of it's type ever made. Released during the Cold War period, this film is notable for it's fierce denunciation of militarism and paranoia. In this film the alien is not hostile, but benevolent, however he is treated with nothing but aggression from humanity.
The acting is impressive by all concerned, with Rennie in particular striking as the noble Klaatu.
A powerful and serious-minded film this has stood the test of time much better than many of other films of the period, and in many ways is still as pertinent now as it was when it was released. Many of the images and lines of the film have passed into cinema folklore.
The film has quite strong religious symbolism, which at times is hammered home a little too strongly.
This is essential viewing not just for science-fiction fans but for anyone seriously interested in cinema.
The film was remade in 2008.

"Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!"
-Helen Benson (Patricia Neal) in The Day the Earth Stood Still


Lock Martin, Patricia Neal and Michael Rennie in The Day the Earth Stood Still

The Fourth Kind

Year: 2009
Director: Olatunde Osunsanmi
Screenplay: Paul Brooks and Joe Carnahan
Starring: Milla Jovovich, Elias Koteas, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Will Patton and Charlotte Milchard
Running Time: 98 minutes
Genre: Science-fiction, horror, alien, mockumentary

Summary: In October 2000, psychologist Dr. Abigail "Abbey" Tyler (Jovovich), whose husband was brutally murdered in mysterious circumstances right in front of her a couple of months previously an event which left her so traumatised that she has blocked out all memory of the actual killer, returns to her home city of Nome in Alaska with her two children determined to finish the work that her husband started.
Abbey starts conducting extensive therapy sessions with three Nome residents who all suffer from severe sleep disorders. Abbey is struck by the strong similarities between each case, in particular the presence of a white owl in each account. When she tries hypnosis on one of the patients, Tommy (Corey Johnson), he starts screaming, terrified of some presence which is trying to take him away.
As inexplicable and violent events seem to happen all around her, Abbey becomes convinced that she is dealing with genuine cases of alien abduction, and that she herself may also be a target.

Opinions: This film purports to be a drama-documentary telling the story of a real-life case, with the drama interspersed with interviews and genuine archive footage and tape recordings. In reality, it is an entirely fictional film and is not based on any actual cases. Also, in contrary to what is stated in the film, Nome is not some kind of alien abduction centre. Although Nome and other Alaskan towns have their fair share of disappearances, the FBI have stated that the specific disappearances that are discussed in the film are down to a combination of alcohol and freezing temperatures. Also the interviewees in the film are actors. This approach lead to a lot of controversy when the film was released due to the fact that the film is marketed and presented as being based on "actual case studies" studio produced fake on-line news reports and obituaries to make the film appear more genuine.
What about the film itself though? It features some good performances but otherwise doesn't really work. It's overloaded with flashy little flourishes, such as split screen, which just serve to take you out of the movie. Most of the shock scenes are telegraphed in advance by having the screen go blank and silent for a couple of seconds before something loud and sudden happens. There are a couple of effective jolts, but not many. The movie would have made a good 45 minute episode of The X-Files but feels stretched at 98 minutes. That is another thing about the movie, it actually feels quite dated now because the whole alien abduction thing has been so quiet in the last few years from it's hey-day in the mid to late 1990s. Incidentally, the title of the film is taken from an expansion of J. Allen Hyneck's "Close Encounters" classification of UFO sightings - a "close encounter of the fourth kind" referring to alien abduction.
Horror fans will probably be disappointed at the lack of real scares and those interested in alien abductions are not likely to find here that they have not seen before.



Milla Jovovich in The Fourth Kind