Aliens and wine

 7 monkeys 

 

A sad state of affairs has come to pass. My back is playing up again.  Because it involves my work it would be wise not to discuss the; whys and the hows. But instead simply to say my occupation is killing my back at the moment. 

  

Why should this affect my blog? Well I am back on the meds. 

This news may come as a complete surprise to those of you that assume my personality is or should be restrained by chemical inhibitors. But the meds I am referring to are not Ritalin, but severe anti-inflammatories and pain killers which I have to take regularly with exercise etc.

Again you may be wondering, while sympathetic what this all has to do with writing? Well obviously it makes it difficult to concentrate when the pain is bad, but the most awful thing of all is that while my back is re-aggravated I am ceasing all consumption of wine until I am better.

Yes valued readers no more Pinot or cheeky cheap and cheerful glasses of Italian to help relax me as I type a way.  

The awful terrible inhumane tragedy of it all.

Still I will soldier on and bring you today's blog.

Aliens is  possibly is one of the best sequels ever made in my opinion. And the reason is quite simple. Alien is a horror movie, Aliens is not. Many sequels merely attempt to imitate the first film, to recapture what made it successful. Aliens simply continues the story but in its own way. Ripley Scott directed Alien, and James Cameron directed Aliens. Two different directors with two entirely different approaches. Sigourney Weaver reprises her role as Ripley with Michael Biehn , Bill Paxton and Lance Henrikson. 

So a synopsis!

Continuing from the first movie, Ripley is woken up from her cryogenic hibernation to find that several years have passed. On earth she discovers that Earth has built a colony on the same planet where Ripley's crew found the Alien. Despite her warnings she is ignored and cast aside by her employer. Until Earth loses contact with the settlement and are sending some Marines out to investigate. Ripley agrees to accompany the Marines and investigate. And then Alien Hyjinxs!

 James Cameron is a master of pacing and action as is readily seen in other movies he worked on; Terminator and more recently Avatar. As the writer and the director he takes control and crafts a grand conflict in space. The story is good, the performances are fun and the effects, for me are terribly dated.  But for all he does, Cameron remains true to the first film so that the viewer feels that Ripleys story is continuing. As I said a wonderful sequel.

Aliens has its place in cinematic history, for one I believe it is the first time in cinematic history which a movie depicts women soldiers in front line combat service. It won two academy awards and is one of those rare movies that is very re-watchable. There are two versions of Aliens, the director’s cut and the cinematic release. I recommend you watch the director’s cut. Although it adds around 17 minutes to the movie, you won’t notice. It adds important story points and dramatic pacing to the film.

One final note some trivia. As previously mentioned James Cameron also directed Terminator which had cameos by Bill Paxton, and Lance Henrikson and starred Michael Biehn, all of which star in Aliens. 

And Cameron's ex wife Kathryn Bigelow directed Near Dark which starred the above and Jenette Goldstein also from Aliens. Michael Biehn is the exception. He was meant to star, but he could not do the role and it was taken by Adrian Pasdar.

I recommend it for most viewers as good night in.