Aliens Expanded, 2024.

Directed by Ian Nathan.
Featuring James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd, Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, Paul Reiser, Mark Rolston, Jenette Goldstein, William Hope, Carrie Henn, Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr., Robert Skotak, John Lee, Graham Hartstone, Alan Dean Foster, Mark Verheiden, V. Castro, Charles de Lauzirika, Derek Dafoe, Drea Letamendi, and James Dyer.

SYNOPSIS:

How much do you love the movie Aliens? If your answer is “It’s one of my favorite movies!” then the new documentary Aliens Expanded is for you. It’s nearly five hours (yes, five hours) long and features plenty of commentary from director James Cameron, producer Gale Anne Hurd, the primary cast members, and plenty of other folks. Highly recommended.

One of the great things about the modern era is the ability for people to be not only fans but super fans of whatever interests them, thanks to the Internet. If you’re one of those Aliens super fans, then you’ll want to check out the nearly five-hour Aliens: Expanded documentary, which plumbs the depths of the film in an exhaustive look at the making of it and its legacy.

Sure, we have Charles de Lauzirika’s excellent Superior Firepower: The Making of Aliens documentary, which has been kicking around on home video since the DVD days (and he shows up in this documentary), but I’m sure you’ll learn some new stuff here and there in Aliens Expanded. I think the running time just about guarantees it.

And even if you already know many of the making-of stories, there’s something to be said for just soaking in a lengthy discussion of a movie you love and revisiting the era in which it came out. I was a teenager when Aliens was released, so I can remember a simpler time when you could go to a movie, enjoy it, and chat about it with people afterward without getting distracted by the Internet, or even seeing spoilers online before you could get to the theater.

The usual suspects show up here, including, of course, writer/director James Cameron, producer Gale Anne Hurd, Sigourney Weaver and the rest of the cast, and some of the special effects guys. However, Aliens Expanded goes beyond that to serve up thoughts from people like Alan Dean Foster, who wrote the novelization (along with the novelizations of many classic science-fiction movies of that era), comic book author Mark Verheiden (he wrote a bunch of Aliens comics for Dark Horse that were, unfortunately, rendered moot by Alien 3), and even psychologist Drea Letamendi.

The documentary takes us through the making of the movie from its earliest days to its release and its legacy. James Cameron in particular doesn’t seem to mind giving his unvarnished thoughts on those days, including his low opinion of producers David Giler and Walter Hill and his observation that the British crew members at Pinewood Studios were “on a different wavelength.”

Cameron is also willing to put some blame at his own feet, however, such as his telling of the story of the tea lady and her trolly. (I won’t spoil it.) He acknowledges that he wasn’t always very diplomatic, an observation echoed by others; however, the consensus seems to be that he could be blunt because he was so obsessed with every detail of making the film.

There are plenty of other great stories told during Aliens Expanded, and there’s even a moment where conflicting tales pop up: Lance Henriksen says that he brought a case full of knives to England so Cameron could choose one for that famous scene, and when he was detained by the authorities, Gale Anne Hurd arrived to save the day. Hurd’s version of the story, though, is one where she was with him at the time but they both worried about the case being opened and were relieved when it wasn’t.

I don’t point that out to throw shade at anyone, of course. It’s now been close to thirty years since that incident happened, along with many others discussed in this documentary. Heck, I can’t always remember what I had for lunch the previous day.

I should also note that the two primary cast members no longer with us — Bill Paxton and Al Mathews — get the recognition they richly deserve.

The framing device for Aliens Expanded revolves around accessing computer files, unsurprisingly, with animations that introduce each chapter and provides bridges to side stories. If I want to pick any nits with this documentary, I’d say that sometimes the transitions between topics are abrupt, and sometimes a topic is discussed before segueing to something else and then looping back around to the original subject.

But those are minor issues. This documentary had to be a huge undertaking, and the fact that it simply exists, with participation from so many key people, is a testament to the filmmakers’ resolve.

The fans also got involved in this one, funding it during the development stage and getting their names in the lengthy end credits. Stick around through the credits to see clips of various fans talking about their love of Aliens.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★

Brad Cook

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist

1 of 5 | Glenn Powell holds onto Sasha Lane in “Twisters.” Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures & Amblin Entertainment

Five years later, Kate is working for the National Weather Service when Javi returns with a new project. His current team wants to place military-grade tracking equipment in the paths of Oklahoma tornados to create 3D models of the storms.

The actors in Twister movies bear the responsibility of shouting lines like “Go, go, go!” and saying just enough science to justify the catastrophic scenes. The backstories of Kate and Javi are so formulaic they make the divorce papers subplot of Twister look like Chinatown.

Kate has lost her edge since she feels guilty for putting her friends in harm’s way years ago. Twisters gives her a redemption arc so perfunctory it’s hard to feel inspired.

Javi has a mysterious corporate sponsor with whom he has several secret meetings. By the time the sponsor’s true intentions are discovered, they are absurdly villainous. Yet it takes a minor screaming a mustache-twirling villain speech suddenly at the end to drive it home.

As Kate regains her storm-chasing fortitude with Javi’s team, they compete against Tyler Owens (Glen Powell) and his team of “tornado wranglers.” The wranglers pull stunts like launching fireworks into tornados and film it for YouTube, so the film can also incorporate webcam footage of Tyler speaking to the camera.

Tyler is a charismatic rival, if not outright villain, and the only character with personality beyond their plot function. The film becomes a battle of science vs. reckless sport rather than science vs. nature, yet the film is not interested in exploring either dynamic in depth.

Kate continues Helen Hunt’s character’s motivation to use science to create warning systems for advancing tornadoes, taking it a bit further to possible prevention. That was a thin way to adapt nature into a three act structure in 1996 and Twisters‘ screenwriters felt little compunction to update it.

Unfortunately, the storms in Twisters have less personality than the landmark sequences in the original. Now it’s just people running from wind, occasionally large objects drop near them and some get sucked away to their off-screen deaths.

There are no flying cows to distinguish the storms in Twisters.

Occasionally, the characters pause their efforts and stop to help victims of tornado disasters. It feels a little disingenuous when the film is disaster porn but purports to sincerely care for victims of catastrophe.

So Twisters is a faithful sequel in that it prioritizes spectacle over character and story just like its predecessor. Only now the spectacle isn’t what it used to be and the opportunity to improve was forsaken.

Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.

Given the ambition he showed with his Mad Max-meets-Dawn of the Dead B-grade genre piece Wyrmwood (and its respective sequel), it makes sense that Australian director Kiah Roache-Turner would continue his genre mash-ups for his follow-up.  What proves surprising, however, is that for Sting, an ode to the creature feature (and, fittingly, Australia’s fear of the venomous arthropods), he’s blended such a mentality with a family drama, resulting in an occasionally unbalanced, but no less enjoyably camp horror effort that backs its gross effects with some emotional heft.

At the centre of the eventual lunacy is Charlotte (Alyla Browne, recently seen in George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga as the younger iteration of the titular character) – and yes, that name is suitably on the nose given the actions that take place – an artist-in-waiting who’s taken a particular shine to her stepfather, Ethan (Ryan Corr).  Just why their relationship is as important as it is is one of Roache-Turner’s emotional pivots throughout the brisk 91 minutes, but more pressing is her unorthodox “adoption” of a rogue spider she comes across one night as she sneaks through the vents of the New York-set apartment complex overseen by her wicked great-aunt, Gunter (Robyn Nevin, clearly enjoying herself as the archetypal human villain of the piece).

The opening credits clue us in that this spider is alien in nature, which explains why in a matter of hours it increases in size, and how it’s able to vocally mimic particular sounds it hears; Charlotte is all too excited to showcase Sting’s “feeding call” to inquisitive downstairs neighbour Erik (a wonderfully deadpan Danny Kim), who, in return, is rightfully concerned about just what type of species she has willingly let into her house.

As much as Erik warns Ethan and Heather (Penelope Mitchell), Charlotte’s mother, about this 8-legged-monster-in-waiting, we all know it will ultimately be for nought as we eagerly await the moment it outgrows its containment and proceeds to feed on whoever (or whatever) enters its path; note, for those that don’t respond well to the idea of animals hurting other animals, Sting doesn’t play well with others.

The final act of the film is suitably exciting and squirm-inducing as Sting terrorises Charlotte and her family, but Roache-Turner wisely peppers enough gory set-pieces throughout so that we aren’t simply waiting for the horrific conclusion.  Some of the family drama works in between (the dementia setting in for Charlotte’s grandmother, played by a delightful Noni Hazlehurst, is sweet), but there are a few too many moments that stall momentum, which could potentially see audiences check out.  This is a knowingly mindless horror feature and Charlotte’s fatherly woes won’t necessarily hold interest to those who want to see a giant spider crawl into a downstairs neighbour’s mouth and then bust out of their stomach; there’s a reason such an example is specific.

Ultimately the good outweighs the bad when it comes to Sting‘s temperament as a film, mainly due to how much fun it’s having, how heavy its winks are at the audience, and that Jermaine Fowler (who was most likely still hanging around our fair country following Ricky Stanicky‘s Melbourne wrap) adds suitable humour as a put-upon exterminator.  A little Evil Dead, a little Arachnophobia, and a lot of gooey, practical effects, Sting is Roache-Turner’s most accomplished film thus far.  And if this leap in quality between the zombies of Wyrmwood and the bite of this is indicative of his directorial trajectory, his turn as a genre mainstay is only increasingly going to prove more exciting with every shed of blood he gloriously unleashes on screen.

THREE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)

Sting is screening in Australian theatres from July 18th, 2024.

Sting was originally reviewed as part of last year’s Gold Coast Film Festival coverage.