During the course of the film, you expect all sorts of things, Aliens, eggs, and a nascent Alien from the chest of its host. You'll find it all in the second episode. But before that, you have to go through all the agony Ellen Ripley experiences after her awakening from hibernation, which was unplanned, and Ellen woke up to a new time with haunting memories of a planet where, with her co-workers, she discovered an indestructible warrior race that she destroyed only on the condition that she destroy her ship and travel only in an escape pod.
Ellen finds herself in a new era, and experiences much suffering, mostly psychological, as humans are unteachable, and revisits the planetoid LV 426, where a colony of humans grew up and were sent to fill the universe, untouched for decades.
Unfortunately, humans are unteachable. Gradually they are killed and the Aliens use them as incubators. And Ellen and her army security detail also run out on LV 426. There will be more than one battle. Of the humans, the last survivor is the last inhabitant of the planetoid, a little girl named Newt, a soldier named Hicks, and of course Ellen, who faces hibernation again and, by the third episode, her death, which is her deliverance.
The extended version of James Cameron's Aliens brings more than 20 minutes of new footage and scenes. We learn more about the colony of humans and how they lived before they discovered the alien eggs. Then a few tidbits before the final battle takes place. It's all completed very well within the story and gradually builds towards the end of the film.
James Cameron's Aliens doesn't fail to impress. The action is classic Terminator and the alien queen puppet is one of the gems of the 80s. It's one of Stan Winston's finest works.
The film's look doesn't belie its analogue age, classic analogue techniques, with rear projection and the use of miniatures being the most common tricks. The 80s were the years without computers, so I'm always amazed at what could be done with just the art of puppets and optical tricks. I love movies like this on Blu-ray. And I want to go to the cinema too, to see an analogue print. Without digital editing and with a classic movie look.
The sound quality is good, the THX certification as with the first part of the original track gives a quality movie listening experience. The Czech dub is from 1993, when it was released on VHS. Sigourney Weaver has her own court dubber, Dagmar Čárová. And because the dub is 22 years old, both Soukup and Meduna sound young. There's no other dub, it would be a shame if the film was re-dubbed. The third episode has a unique dub. Jana Paulova and so I'll definitely remember that for the next review.
I know you probably think I'm a fan of action movies. It's true. But I have to single out Alien as one of the films not to be forgotten. Alien and The Terminator are among the movies that should not be touched and should not be remade.
Blu-ray Screenshots
Photos: Blu-ray Aliens & 1986 20th Century Fox
Original release of this article 13. May 2020 – Kritiky.cz
