It has been about 10 years since I've seen this movie and I've got say this movie has held up extremely well over the time since it came out in the late 80's. This movie is easily one of the best 100 movie ever made and would make my list of the top 20 movies of all time. I don't know what more I can say about it. This movie defines categorization as it mixes in all kinds of genres: sci-fi, horror, thriller, and action, to create a movie experience unlike any other made. It's one of the best sequels of all time and personally I think it's better than Alien even though it is differently made beast than the straight up horror aspect of Alien. It's a beautifully executed marriage of idea, concept, production, direction, casting, acting, and everything else that goes into making a movie.
Perfect casting along with perfect acting. Sigourny Weaver out does herself from the first film and embodies one of the first and best action women ever. She brings her character into a completely different world of motherhood as he battles the alien Queen doing the same thing. This idea of motherhood shouldn't have worked but it's believably pulled off. This movie also great at creating the characters of the marines in ways movies have been trying (and failing mind you) to recreate since this movie came out. These characters really come alive not just by the actors playing them but by a screenplay that treats them as characters despite not a lot of them having more than a handful of lines. But what lines they have breathe life into them and then the actors playing them just help to make them real. Their dialogue is immediately quotable and funny without seeming to be forced. And it flows with a familiar banter and intimacy among people who have spent a lot of time together - it feels genuine and real.
Pitch perfect pacing with never an out of place scene in it's over 2 hour run time, which is very unheard of with movies today, especially from thriller hybrid. Cameron pulled all stops on direction as he fully created a believable world with the help of a production team that completely complimented his vision. He actually directed the movie using camera moves that show cased the detailed job the production team did on creating the sets. They are sets but they never feel like sets and his camera movies around them in ways that make those sets come alive. Even today Cameron is not a person obsessed with the MTV style of editing or jumps cuts. He doesn't do this but I still felt like was extremely close to what was going on in this movie.
Lastly the Alien creature itself is my personal favorite of all Hollywood monsters as it has imbedded itself into my mind since I first saw these movie back-to-back when I was 15. That experience has never left me as I've come to love the design and culture of these "monsters". I hate the three sequels after this movie but I own them and will watch them from time to time just because they are part of the Alien series - that is the only reason.
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