Aliens: Critic Reviews

A flaming, flashing, crashing, crackling blow-'em-up show that keeps you popping from your seat despite your better instincts and the basically conventional scare tactics.

The ads for Aliens claim that this movie will frighten you as few movies have, and, for once, the ads don't lie.

Count me out of the fan club for this one.

One sequel that surpasses the original.

Makes up for lack of surprise with sheer volume of thrills and chills.

"Absolutely smashing!"

When it comes to the logical marriage of action, adventure, and science fiction, few films are as effective or accomplished as Aliens.

The trouble Ripley has found this time is exponentially bigger and scarier than anything she encountered in Ridley Scott's memorably minimalist, eerily elegant 1979 film.

Another defining picture in the sci-fi genre. A stellar achievement that's almost as good as the original.

Aliens contains a fascinating exploration of the way Western culture has traditionally aligned feminine characteristics onto nature while masculine characteristics have been aligned with civilisation.

James Cameron's Aliens is easily one of the best sequels ever made, taking the original story and expanding upon it in ways most sequels are afraid to do.

Alien sequel is bigger, faster, scarier.

It's interesting that the film, a sequel to Ridley Scott's 1979 atmospheric horror-film-in-space, is generally regarded as an action movie. Go through it, and you'll realize the character and dialogue scenes far outweigh the kablooey stuff.

Proved that James Cameron has a mind for directing action movies considerably more nuanced and plot-driven than just "find ways to blow things up".

If you were to only see one movie in your entire lifetime it would have to be ALIENS. James Cameron has delivered a masterpiece that will never in a million years be topped...

Some critics consider this chapter to be better than the first, but the two movies are vastly different: Ridley Scott's is a scary horror film, whereas James Cameron's is a high-tech actioner with superlative set-pieces.

Cameron's strength lies in solid storytelling in the muscular fashion that he stages the action, creating exciting thrills and intense suspense without ever descending into the mere mechanical.

Un film cle en son genre.

Weaver is superb -- tough, smart, and the best fighter, male or female, in the movie.

If only all blockbusters were this good.

Truly great cinema.

There is always an interesting tension in Cameron's work between masculine and feminine qualities. When it finally hits the fan here, we're in for the mother of all battles.

It's actually scary to think about what the movie landscape would look like had Aliens not been the critical and commercial success that it was.

Everything a sequel should be.

This sequel dares to build slowly, allowing Weaver to develop a multi-dimensional character even as it ups the ante by fetishising the Marines' hi-tech hardware and spawning legions of aliens.