Hi all, this tumblr mainly exists as a way of tracking all the movies I've been watching and some of the initial thoughts, and general feelings, I've had about them.
5/5 - Fantastic movies; movies which need to be seen and enjoyed by everyone.
4/5 - Movies which are very good but don’t have that spark which compels you to make others watch them as well.
3/5 - Average movies; watchable and enjoyable, but nothing which elevates them higher. The baseline all movies are given before watching.
2/5 - Can be watched but really bland and forgettable.
1/5 - Minimal to no reason to watch these films. It may have some redeeming factors e.g. it’s so bad it’s good or there’s one character that’s awesome enough to make it not a total waste of time.
0/5- Total waste of time. Nothing redeemable about these films.
As with every review blog/site, this is all my own personal opinion so feel free to take everything with a grain of salt.
Also I'm Scottish so all reviews will be in UK English. Get used to theatre, colour and words ending in -ised.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
#369/#86 Aliens
(Rewatch)
57 years on from the events of Alien, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is found drifting asleep in the ship’s escape vessel by a salvage team. Haunted by her interactions with the creature, and ignored by her unbelieving company she is grounded from further space travel until a terraformed colony, established while she was in stasis on the planet she first encountered the alien eggs, goes dark. Acting as an advisor to get her travel privileges reinstated, she and a team of marines go to investigate only to have their worst fears realised: There are aliens on the site, and there are a lot of them.
Where alien was a really good horror/suspense movie, aliens is a really good action movie. There’s still a little bit of the creepy atmosphere and dread that was so paramount in the original movie but the majority of the this film is dealing more with Ripley’s character development, various interesting set pieces and an kickass yet ultimately expendable group of secondary characters.
Much like in Terminator 2, the director James Cameron bucks the trend in traditional female roles by creating this badass action chick who also happens to have a soft side as well. It makes for a more rounded characterisation of Ripley, who in alien, is primarily just scared for most of the film. This movie gives her greater depths and allows her to evolve and change as the situation demands it.
Aliens also gives us another great android character in Bishop (Lance Henricksen). After Ash’s betrayal in the original film it sets up a great prejudice for Ripley to have against him and makes for a more interesting viewing experience not knowing where his allegiances lie.
While I ultimately prefer Alien to Aliens, that doesn’t mean I don’t also see what a fantastic job this film does with taking an interesting concept and expanding upon it. 5/5
