Today I was watching (…well hearing) someone play Dead Space, which brought me to an odd conclusion.
What I realised is something that has taken the best part of my life to figure out.
Firstly, I loved Terminator 2.
It mixed high-octane speed, explosions and lorry stunts to provide one of the best filmed car chase scenes ever. It’s a solid action film with a sentiment. The character development and relationship between the good Terminator and John Connor is not exactly the most touching, poignant or even deepest one, but it’s enough for a film where the protagonist is killed off at the end. Oh, spoilers.
The visuals are incredible and still look stunning today, despite the use of CG and the time travel story line is interesting if not ridiculous.
I hadn’t watched the original Terminator film until recently and pretty much most of his other films he has made I’ve despised. Titanic is sickly sweet romantic tripe and Avatar is a glossy Pocahontas/Fern Gully. True Lies is alright.
After watching Terminator, I realised that T2 is just a bigger and better film in every way.
But after the Aliens: Colonial Marines shitstorm, I decided to rewatch Aliens as I’ve only watched it the once. This time however, I thoroughly enjoyed it, unlike last time when I couldn’t get over what I saw as a complete bastardisation of the vision of Alien.
I disliked the “Lets add MOAR” sentiment so aptly expressed in the title and in the film.
More Xenomorphs, more deaths, more guns, more women. MOAR!
But I don’t think I realised until now, just how brilliant that is.
The addition of more Xenomorphs was not just a crowd pleasing stunt. It’s integral to the essence of Aliens. The focus of the many messages in the film work best as a juxtaposition against all of the MOAR going on in the film. The addition of marines allows a social, political and obviously a military outline to the world of Alien, something we had very little knowledge of. The additional marines, twinned with the preparation and forewarning of possible Xenomorph activity warrants the use of having more of them.
Ripley’s mothering as a result of the solitude of the Nostromo compares nicely against the most often considered “manly” desire to destroy found in the Marines.
However, what starts as yet another reinforcement of gender stereotypes is quickly alleviated by the presence of Vasquez.
Normally I would just claim that she is a typical stereotype herself, used as man’s desire to laud the stupidity of women by showing just how lame they can be when trying to act “masculine”.
In other words, most “Butch” lady characters are quickly shown to be completely incompetent, stupid and usually have some kind of dissociative or penis envy problem. It’s almost as if it’s a message to women saying “You can’t be tough, because Psychology”, all under the unconvincing guise of character development. What makes this worse is that it necessitates a man to go and sort out the crisis caused by the female’s inevitable breakdown. Those silly women!
But in Aliens, Vasque hasn’t got any mental issues, she doesn’t particularly lead the pack, but she doesn’t trail behind either. She is compassionate but not too warm.
She’s accepted as part of the group. Just like the female pilot is, who is not as aggressive, but not a pussy character either.
Basically there are MOAR women in this, but that serves as being MOAR better characters and a more equal measure too. They aren’t pathetic, neither do they feel like they are trying to overcompensate like Jack Russells. They match in nicely with the well-developed character of Ripley.
Something Veronica Cartright’s character didn’t do in the original Alien film, instead they opted to use her as the “loser rape victim” in need of saving by the man of the group.
Aliens managed to surpass an aspect that was pretty damn crucial (and one of my favourite aspects) to the success of Alien.
One of the things I have been blaming Aliens for, is exactly what I applaud Terminator 2 for doing. Approving on the original.
As its own film, Aliens took the franchise and character in a new and interesting direction. It even neatly rounded off the pregnancy/birth allusions raised in Alien and moulded them into motherhood. It uses a uniquely feminine experience and uses it to give further depth to the film without being patronising.
I still prefer the original Alien film, as the suffocating seclusion and weakness serves its purpose better in this film as opposed to Terminator.
Going back to Dead Space, I can hear only a single female character talking.
As the shit hits the fan, all I begin to hear from her is hysterical wailing.
So now a “rational man” has to calm her down.
Being reminded of Aliens by the setting and its clear influence on the game, I quickly began to form an accusation in my head, blaming it for the poor female design in the game. Only for it to quickly fall quite flat upon realising that its not Aliens doing. Dead Space has fucked this up all by itself.
Aliens has influenced so much of the Sci-fi genre and most predominately, games.
It’s clear now to me why this is and also why it won’t be easily beaten as the best Sci-Fi action film.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, I was wrong, Jim.
And maybe… a little bit sorry.
Yours… conditionally,
Michaela “Mike” Buckley
An open letter to James Cameron
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