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movie review - Aliens

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Well it's New Year's Day, and it's been thirteen years to the day since I started my capsule movie reviews. Today I re-watched the '80s classic "Aliens", and realized that I hadn't written a review.

This is a War movie with a Sci-Fi sleeve. It follows a platoon of soldiers in a futuristic setting into a little-known planet where a colony is in distress. Upon arrival, they discover that all of the colonists have been walled up in some kind of organic material. They wake one of the colonists but they only beg for death. So maybe I'll add Horror to the description: it's a Horror War movie with a Sci-Fi sleeve. The soldiers then find a sole survivor hanging on in the infrastructure - and it's a little girl named Newt. She tells the soldiers, "They mostly come at night. Mostly," and all hell breaks loose.

I really liked the strong writing, the great cast, the believable events (in context), and the setting. There are points when think the nightmare is over in this movie but no, no-no. Why I say this is a War movie: I agree with the comments that came out soon after its release that it's really about the Vietnam War. The US arrives, thinking they're invulnerable. They are bogged down in something they can't win, and wind up taking their problems back with them. Very clever, makers of "Aliens". Very clever.

Strongly recommended.