Aliens (1986 film) = Finished

I first saw Aliens as part of a library DVD collection with the original movie. Alien blew my fricking mind. I still consider it one of the greatest movies ever made. A tense debut that used the practical decisions required by its low budget to full effect, I couldn't look away from the screen. I think it's the first horror movie I watched from beginning to end, and Alien instilled a love in me for the genre that continues to this day.

30 seconds after its conclusion, I had stuck in the disk for the sequel, and was watching laddish space marines make sex jokes in corridors washed acid blue as they mowed down the same villain that had enthralled me by the dozens.

Needless to say, I was a little biased against it.

Watching Aliens now, though, I like it a hell of a lot more. It's an exercise in constant, seeded worldbuilding, much like Starship Troopers which heavily inspired it. You can practically see the conventions being inscribed as shots go by. Cocky space marines, monolithic corporations, and beasts that swing between all-conquering monsters and cannon fodder. It synthesized previous material and wrote the rules all at the same time, using a personal story as an engine for its own, encapsulated world. It's an achievement on pretty much every level you can name--and this advancement is the same thing that makes it an artifact of the past.

See, Aliens isn't timeless. Can you enjoy it any time? Absolutely. It is a classic that holds up in 2018, and will continue to hold up ten years from now. However, it does not exist in a state that feels as fresh and relevant as the time in which it released--timeless, in other words. It is dated both by the immense influence it had on pop culture going forward, and by the elements that set it apart from the original so successfully.

The conflict at the heart of Alien is normal people against the unknown. We get that. It's simple. Primal. The violating unknown, the evolving unknown, the strange unknown. Ripley's struggle against this force is utterly human. In Aliens, on the other hand, the greatest villain of all is corporate ruthlessness. Another overwhelming force, but one less basic in its appeal. The conflict plays out with outgunned military forces fighting against an underestimated enemy, and in the process of defeating it, Ripley's efforts are superhuman. The technology in Alien is chunky and analog, unusually warm color grading contrasting the horror. Its padded corridors and giant buttons end up transcending its period. Aliens, on the other hand, is extremely...blue. Futuristic, but a definitive version of the future born from the 80s.

If anything, I am not only impressed by how great Aliens is, but in the absolute cohesion of the vision it presents.
A lot of times, when I watch an influential movie, I see the bits and pieces inside it that inspired people going forward. Aliens doesn't have pieces--it has everything. When people ripped Aliens off in Halo or any number of other franchises that would come along, they did it wholesale.

Aliens presented a vision of the future, complete, and completely born of its time.
We just ran with it.