I know I am in the minority here, but here goes: Alien is a work of art, Aliens is a fun movie.
There is a subtlety of tone to the original film that is completely disposed of in Cameron’s film. The dialogue in Alien felt like direct cinema, like Casavettes, dare-I-say. In Cameron’s film, it is all “Game over, man!” Fun, yes, don’t get me wrong, but hardly believable.
I also don’t like how the “world of the film” is given such mundane specificity. “The Company” has a name and the Colonial Marines have US flag patches on their uniforms. What is so wonderful about the first film is that you have absolutely no idea about when this is all going down. Tying it down to the US Flag kinda cheapens it.
And the little girl is annoying. And the device on her wrist is hokey. (Actual line of dialogue, “We can find her with THIS!” as the prop introduced earlier as a TRACKER is re-introduced. Eeegads.) Frankly, even as a kid I knew this was idiotic. When Ripley showed up in that forklift skeleton and my friends shouted “Awesome!” I was thinking, “Eh, a guilty pleasure.” Yeah, I was an annoying 12 year old.
But it is fun to watch shit blow up. And fun to see the aesthetic of every single stinking video game get created.
