Aliens (special edition)

From Tysto commentaries:

James Cameron blasts you out of a cannon (after loading you and packing you with powder for, like, 40 minutes) at a whole host of aliens (which you don’t actually hit for another 35 minutes) in this sequel to the timeless monster movie Alien. Join me as I examine the special edition and its themes of motherhood and self-actualization and blowin’ sh*t up and corporations are bad.

I compare the film to the original and to various other films by Cameron and others. I go Wierzbowski hunting. I imagine Jerry Seinfeld in place of Paul Reiser. I call it “nearly perfect”, altho I lament the concept of the alien hive with a queen. And I call out all the little Cameron-romance moments (“We’re gonna die! I kind of like you!”).

At no point do any of these female characters need rescuing. … Even Newt doesn’t need to be rescued! [laughs] There is a different version of this movie in which Newt becomes the one who is in charge. — Tysto Commentaries,
Aliens @0:55:45

I think of Paul Reiser as a very wimpy, reedy, little New Yorker … kind of a person in real life. [laughs] And I assume that he doesn’t have any internal fortitude at all and therefore would not go on a mission like this. — Tysto Commentaries,
Aliens @1:06:07

This is one of those moments that I treasure in film. … This slow realization that everything you’ve been doing up to this point has been a terrible, terrible mistake. — Tysto Commentaries,
Aliens @1:13:58

[re: Hicks and Ripley] It’s a James Cameron romance, tho, right? ‘Here, let me show you how to operate this gun.’ — Tysto Commentaries,
Aliens @1:44:59

We’ve found ourselves some 1980s ventilation ducts. They’re so big that people can run around in them just bending over. — Tysto Commentaries,
Aliens @2:00:33

[re: weird ventilation fans] I don’t know what this thing is, but why in the hell would it be built this way? [laughs, then as Weaver's character from Galaxy Quest] This episode was badly written! — Tysto Commentaries,
Aliens @2:02:13