Aliens Expanded Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Aliens Expanded Blu-ray Movie Review

"I remember something sort of happening to me... It was almost like a samurai getting ready."

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown December 27, 2024

Actor Michael Biehn/Corporal Hicks: "Without a doubt, Aliens is the best movie that I've ever been in. I just don't think there's a flaw. I can't find anything wrong with that movie."

High hyperbole from a leading man. Except for one thing: it isn't hyperbole. And Aliens isn't just the best movie Biehn has been in; it's one of the best sci-fi action thrillers of all time, a bit of praise with which few people would argue. With a masterclass ensemble, pitch-man extraordinaire James Cameron hot off The Terminator's surprise success, Stan Winston's creature work and a crew eager to leave their own mark in Ridley Scott's Alien universe, Alien 2 -- simply and aptly titled Aliens -- made a splash in theaters on July 18, 1986, quickly recouping its then-expensive budget; a tenth of the final box office tally. The film would go on to inspire an entire extended universe via novels, comic books, videogames and other media, pave the way for numerous big screen sequels and crossovers, and continues to light up the imaginations of new film fans every generation. Undoubtedly a timeless classic for the ages, Aliens has few equals. And so we come to the ultimate 21st century culmination of such a beloved film: Aliens Expanded, a four-hour documentary with interviews featuring Cameron, key members of the crew, the entire (living) cast, and a lineup of commentators, magazine/website editors, scientists and more. What could go wrong? Very little apparently!

Writer/director James Cameron: "Giler said, 'we got this other thing... nothing's really happened on it in seven years, but you can take a stab at that.' I said, 'well what is it?' He said, 'Alien 2,' kind of like dismissively. Meanwhile, my brain lights up like a slot machine in Vegas. It's paying off a million bucks."

Aliens Expanded gathers virtually everyone you'd like to hear talk about Aliens, its production and legacy (and some you didn't realize you wanted to listen to expound upon the film), including filmmaker James Cameron, producer Gale Anne Hurd, Sigourney Weaver (Ripley), Michael Biehn (Corporal Hicks), Lance Henriksen (Bishop), Paul Reiser (Burke), Jenette Goldstein (Vasquez), William Hope (Lieutenant Gorman), Mark Rolston (Drake), Carrie Henn (Newt, all grown up and decidedly not dead, as unceremoniously revealed in Alien 3), Ricco Ross (Frost), Cynthia Dale Scott (Dietrich), Colette Hiller (Ferro), Daniel Kash (Spunkmeyer), visual effects crew Robert Skotak, creature effects coordinators Tom Woodruff Jr and Alec Gillis, sound designer Graham V. Hartstone, Matt Winston (son of legendary creature effects designer Stan Winston), film producer Charles de Lauzirika, video author Alan Dean Foster, documentary filmmaker Ian Nathan, TV writer Mark Verheiden, "Empire" editor James Dyer, Derek Dafoe, Jaime Prater, Mike Siegel, Drea Letamendi, James D. Dever and Malachy Fergus Godfrey. Late actors Al Matthews (Apone) and Bill Paxton (Hudson) are also given quite a lot of screentime via fitting tributes to their performances, characters and careers.

I love these four-hour love letters to fan-favorite films. Can't get enough, particularly when the participants seem so pleased to be talking about one of the most classic movies in their careers and, in many cases, everything their fan bases are built upon. Story upon story, anecdotes flow like water, making for a fully comprehensive retrospective. Kudos to the documentary's filmmakers as well, who were tasked with working through hundreds of hours of interview footage to tell a streamlined yet detailed story of Aliens' production and legacy. It has to be terribly difficult to toss so much aside, but it seems they did so without mercy so as to deliver a still lengthy, never redundant, always engaging doc packed to the brim with memories good and (on rare occasional) ill, taking a scalpel to a film that's been dissected at great length over the years. I was not disappointed and I suspect most any fan of Aliens will be thoroughly satisfied.

Aliens Expanded Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Aliens Expanded has a similar look to other lengthy 1080p/AVC-encoded documentaries of its ilk. Talking-head interviews are peppered with archival photos, film clips from the original movie, unobtrusive overlays, a handful of silly CG transitions (that really need to be banned from these productions) and more, and without any glaring mishaps or visual distractions. There is some compression strain visible -- some infrequent banding and blocking -- but it's exceedingly minor. Vintage '80s footage (like fx tests for the Queen, filmed in the studio parking lot no less) are upscaled and look about as dated as you'd expect, but that's hardly a knock against the CreatorVC presentation. By and large, newly shot interviews are boldly contrasted and colorful, with lifelike skintones, vivid primaries and deep black levels. A handful of interviews were conducted in less controlled environments -- Herd in the documentary director's back yard and Kash in his home -- but it never looks too bad or out of sorts. All told, it looks pretty great. No big complaints here.

Aliens Expanded Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The lossy 192kbps Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track is disappointing, though. Granted, there isn't much to the documentary's sound design nor the audio for the interviews anyway, but film flips from Aliens are thin and under-supported, which is strange considering how much the doc's filmmakers openly adore the movie. I expected as much lossless audio love as they could heap on it. Ah well. Voices are clean and clear, and once you adjust to the stereo mix, you won't fret the small stuff all that much.

Aliens Expanded Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Inside Aliens: Expanded (HD, 75 minutes) - A roundtable Zoom chat between writer/director Ian Nathan, executive producer and CreatorVC CEO Robin Block and executive producer David Weiner in which the trio gush about the Aliens cast and crew, the dream come true of watching the documentary come together, and more.

• Deleted Scenes (HD, 6 minutes) - "The Story of the Alien$ Meeting," "Alan Dean Foster Meets H.R.Giger," "Neill Blomkamp's Aborted Sequel," "Alec Gillis on James Cameron's Sci-Fi Style" and "Author Mark Verheide on the Extended Universe."

Aliens Expanded Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Aliens Expanded is a blast; nostalgia handled properly and dispensed with care. Cameron and the entire living cast come together to remember and reminisce, and it's as entertaining and riveting as you might imagine. The only way it might have been better is if the filmmakers had also managed to deliver a full cast reunion, but beggars can't be choosers. I'll take as many of these "love letter to cinema" projects as CreatorVC and similar studios are willing to produce. The Blu-ray is a mixed bag due to lossy stereo audio and a decent yet slim supplemental package, but the video quality is good and the doc all but speaks for itself. Nab a copy and enjoy!