#25: Aliens
James Cameron is some sort of a film god, I'm not even kidding. Rarely is a director able to so consistently stick with action films, and so consistently get raving critical reviews for them, and then just switch to depressing romantic drama and sweep the oscars that year. He never became a Michael Bay or a later-career George Lucas, and his brand of action is such an amazing one that strikes that rare balance between finding extreme critical acclaim and a decadence of awards, while also bringing in millions or billions each time. The way his films are able to be beautiful, action packed, and even scary astounds me, and that's why the man is such an astounding feat of cinema. I just wish he would direct more films, instead of making another submarine.
Aliens does everything to help with that reputation. If you had time traveled back to the early 80s and told someone that the man who directed "Piranha Part II: The Spawning" and wrote "Rambo: First Blood Part II" was going to direct the Alien sequel and make it a critically acclaimed action film, they'd just laugh at your face for saying something that stupid. But oh, how Cameron did make that solid, critically acclaimed action film.A large part of that has to do with how Cameron handles the heavy, sometimes quiet mood he puts in his films a lot. There's just the fact that he even tries to make his films serious. He puts in a lot of violence, but there's a gritty and humanized world that surrounds it. Aliens is tightly paced and moves really fast, as action should, but he still occasionally takes the time to slow it down for a solid character scene.
Delving further, this idea of an unusually hushed tone to be set for an action film is handled really well, and contrasts the frenzy of the fast paced action scenes to only make them seem more exciting. Cameron doesn't try to drown the movie with melodramatic subplots that just lead to stiff dialogue and a feeling that the characters are just being whiny compared to the life and death stakes of what's going on. Instead, he keeps the slow dialogue scenes just dialogue scenes. There's a moment when one of the marines is showing Ripley how to hold a gun properly, and there's a bond established. It's a very subtle bond, without the aid of telling, overdramatic music, based entirely on how naturally this tough woman is with being taught by someone else and how comfortable they are just touching each other's arms and hands, without any stiffness detectable. Is it a friendly bond they share, is it romantic, is it important? The movie doesn't dwell on their relationship and neither should you. It's a scene that establishes a common ground, a moment of acceptance between the cocky marines and the woman they've been bullying up until that point. If the movie had dwelled on the scene and strongly focused on their relationship, it would have just felt like small potatoes compared to the aliens.
The more slowly-paced atmosphere also leads the film to be a bit of a horror film as well. In action, the pace is consistently quick, jumping from scene to scene to keep viewers on the edge of their seat. In Aliens, however, while there are quickly paced scenes, there are suspenseful moments, more resembling the build up to a scare in a horror movie. There becomes an interesting array of emotions to go through in Aliens because of how Cameron is able to so easily change the pace.
Aliens can get your heart to pound with excitement, then make it slow down in fear occasionally, and maybe make it drop down to your stomach with sadness if you grew to like some of the characters as much as I did.
Tomorrow: A horror movie that might make you shed a tear, before making you scream and jump back a bit.
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