As the blockbuster visionary behind huge hits such as The Terminator, Titanic, and the Avatar franchise, James Cameron has long since proven his knack for telling original stories. One of his first big projects, however, was a sequel to one of the most important movies of its time – a sequel that he managed to make completely his own. With little more than a monster and a star to work with, he made a film – now coming to Netflix – that can only be categorized as an essential action classic.
Cameron Follows Sci-Fi Horror’s Greatest With a Sci-Fi Action Masterpiece
Aliens takes place years after the events of Alien, which ends with Ellen Ripley standing as the sole survivor of the massacre aboard the Nostromo spaceship. As Aliens opens, Ripley has been in hypersleep for 57 years; when another ship retrieves her shuttle, the crew aboard awakens her. Learning that her rescuers have lost contact with a colony that has been living on the planet where her crew met the aliens that led to their doom, Ripley decides to join a group of Marines for an investigation. Quickly, she discovers that her greatest enemy has now multiplied, and is hungrier than ever.
While Aliens takes place in the same universe as Alien, the movies are quite different. The action elements in Cameron’s sequel are much stronger, with horror almost becoming secondary. The gnarly kills and spectacular visual effects are there to make viewers uncomfortable, but Aliens fully departs from the original. It’s a wildly original sci-fi action movie instead of a generic horror sci-fi follow-up repeating what worked the first time around.
Does ‘Aliens’ Top Its Predecessor?
For decades, fans have debated whether Aliens is better than Alien. Even though it’s a near-perfect sequel that Cameron achieved without sticking to the rules set by Ridley Scott’s classic, it’s hard not to compare them with each other. That said, the movies belong in different genres, and they can easily coexist without one having to top the other. In fact, as great as it is as a sequel, Aliens is also pretty effective as a standalone action movie that happens to take place in space.
1979’s Alien is a film that leverages the overwhelming vastness of space, whereas in Aliens, the spaces are more confined; in fact, claustrophobia is a key device Cameron uses to make the viewer feel uncomfortable. The beauty of the Alien franchise, in the end, is that it has something for everyone, from the gritty backdrop of Ridley Scott’s classic to the visually stunning style of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s criminally underrated Alien: Resurrection.
In the end, there’s no definitive answer to the question of whether Aliens tops its predecessor — but now that Cameron’s classic sequel is set to stream on Netflix starting September 1, alongside Ridley Scott’s 1979 original, it’s easier than ever to schedule a double feature.