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Aliens

Mostly to watch the third film in the franchise for the first time, I recently went back and rewatched the first two films in the Alien series. They have a few constants - the great performance from Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley and the titular villain - but the two films are wildly different in almost every other way. Alien, from 1979, is a genuine horror film, providing us with seven characters who have next to no back story, a killing machine they bring onto their spaceship, and nothing else. Aliens, from 1986, proved that The Terminator, from 1984, was no fluke: James Cameron was for real. Whether you’re watching the original or extended edition (which is 17 minutes longer, making the film 154 minutes long), Aliens is an all-time action classic.

Like the original, the concept is pretty much the same: Ripley, with a group of fellow fighters, fends off drippy aliens who will stop at nothing to kill and reproduce, sometimes at the same time. This time, Ripley is joined by soldiers who are off to investigate the deserted colony where the aliens were first found. The colony has been decimated by a slew of the vicious creatures, headed up by the monstrous Alien queen. Once the soldiers and Ripley arrive, the action-packed terror begins. What surprised me watching the film again is how much time is taken before the action gets rolling, but once it does (about an hour into the story), there is no stopping. As proven with the previous film on this list, writer-director Cameron knows what great action movies need: awesome sequences, memorable and tough heroes, and just the right amount of dialogue in between set pieces. Aliens does this masterfully.

The Empire Strikes Back

Harrison Ford and George Lucas again. Yes, I know. These days, one of them doesn’t make many movies and the other…well, let’s just not talk too much about him these days, right? There was a point, though, as I’ve already mentioned in today’s column, when they were on top of the world. In the same way that most of the movies on this list are not just fun, not just entertaining, but also influential, so it goes for The Empire Strikes Back, the second film in the original and best Star Wars trilogy. How is this 1980 space opera more influential than its predecessor? Think of all the movies these days that are parts of trilogies. Think of all those movies, and think of how their second chapters have to end on a cliffhanger, on a down note. And remember that though it’s not first, it’s best: The Empire Strikes Back.

That the film was followed by 1983’s Return of the Jedi (which, while the weakest of the trilogy, has plenty of great action scenes, and Leia in a bikini came from that, so it’s not all bad) is a bit of a letdown. What The Empire Strikes Back has in its favor is a great romance between Han Solo and Princess Leia, memorable action set pieces (the snowy battles in the first half are epic), intriguing new characters, and one of the most jaw-dropping twists in film history. No, finding out that Darth Vader is - spoiler alert, for the none of you who don’t know - Luke Skywalker’s father isn’t as mind blowing as some twists in recent films, but for audiences in 1980, it was a huge event. The Empire Strikes Back laid ground for many great trilogies, and manages to still be great today, despite ending on a downer.

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