Aliens (Definitive Edition) > Reviews > Lock N Load

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Good
How does it compare to similar films?	Good

Advantages:	Superior release compared to previous editions
Disadvantages:	None

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

From the minute you look at the packaging of Aliens: The Definitive Edition you know you’re onto a winner. In its stylish metal case (made from recycled materials) it sticks out like a rather pleasant sore thumb. Unlike a lot of metal cased DVD’s the Definitive Edition DVD’s make full use of the boxes natural colourings, this gives each one a lavish look.

Aliens is the 1986 sequel, to Ridley Scott’s Alien; this time with Terminator director James Cameron at the helm.

The last remaining crew member of the Nostromo flies into earth territory the first time in a great many years. Having been awoken by a rescue crew they must get to grips with the fact that they have been travelling for far too long, and that everyone they knew including their family are all dead.

Knowing this remaining crew member had nothing to keep them on Earth, Carter Burke (Paul Reiser) approaches them for help. The planet that they found the alien on in the original movie has now been colonised by Earth people; however having recently discovered an alien spacecraft on the planets surface they have lost all contact with the colonists.

The last remaining survivor joins a team of cracked Space Marines to return to LV428, where they now find the colonists all dead, the victims of a war with the aliens.

Although I enjoy Aliens immensely, for me it does not have the depth that the original movie had; relying more on the action, than the horror or the psychological feel of being alone in space. It’s a much larger effort, with gigantic sets, and breathtaking special effects. At times however the alien effects fail where there are so many aliens you can quite often look at some of them and say “that’s just a guy in an alien suit”.

From a very claustrophobic movie with a limited cast we are now presented with nearly 3 times the cast going literally into war. This casts opening encounter with the aliens leads to a terrible bloodbath with a sizeable chunk of the marines annihilated with not one alien casualty. This is like a very profound statement from the producers of the movie to say, “Hey this is much different from the original” and despite my initial statement change is good.

Aliens is a much longer movie, and with the addition of over 20 minutes of extra footage not seen in the original release of Aliens, this is very much like an epic, with a runt-time of a little under 3 hours. While the remaining member of the Nostromo gets their bearings on a space station floating around Earth; you are teleported to the planet LV428 to see the lifestyle of the colonists before they are all wiped out.

With the action moving at a very dramatic pace, there is not the time to develop attachments to the crew. However personally I really feel for the character of Bishop played by Lance Henrikson, for certain reasons our survivor finds it particularly hard working alongside Bishop. While Bishop offers kindness and compassion, all he gets in return is hatred. With the exception of Rebecca the last remaining colonist the rest of the cast really are just there as bait for the alien. Like the original Alien movie you have absolutely no idea who is going to meet their maker and when. A strong contender initially for survival is picked off during the first encounter with the alien, so again you have that feeling that nobody could be safe, even though you feel in your heart that the survivor from the original may live again.

This movie is just great, mixing a variety of genres together to create the ultimate lasting effect.

Special Features

• Introduction from director James Cameron – Here Cameron welcomes you to the extended version of the movie. He touches briefly on how the movie is close to his heart.

• Audio commentary – This is a really interesting addition, here James Cameron talks with a great deal of respect for Ridley Scott’s original, where as for years there have been rumours of contempt for each other over Aliens (Cameron allegedly claimed Scotts, version was awful). Cameron talks about the way the original movie made him feel and how by respecting Scott’s version of the movie by keeping certain elements, in order for the franchise to move on he felt their needed to be changes. He also talks about who scenes were cut for its cinema release and how that made him feel.

• Fascinating featurettes – A series of features that include Alien design, set design, finding the right cast and persuading an original cast member to make a return. A nice features is also hear on sound, showing what it takes to give a movie that impressive larger than life feel.

• Galleries – The return of the boring feature, a series of images from the movie.

• Photo archives – Again more images this time from the other side of the camera, regarding behind the scenes, special effects and publicity material.

• Easter egg (hidden feature) – If you can find it, and its part of the fun finding it this never before seen addition to DVD is something that a fan of the movie will be bowled over by. Something to put the movie in a slightly different context “Sounds, good eh?” The last part is a clue!

The Fox DVD Definitive Edition prints are enhanced forms of the movies. They come in two disc sets with the first disc being the movie only with no special features. This is so the movie can get the ultimate image representation. It looks as good as a HD format release. And the sound is just amazing, its as if they have taken THX sound effects to a different level.
Disc 2 contains all the additional stuff, again reproduced for the first time in an almost high definition quality.

This is by far the best of what seems like many hundreds of releases of the Aliens movies. This edition, gives me a little bit of the feel I got when I first saw the movie 20 odd years ago.

You can get Aliens: The Definitive Edition from high street stores from £12 upwards, alternately you can purchase it for £9.99 from play.com this includes delivery.