Crazy 80's Project: Aliens

I'm surprised that more people haven't drawn parallels between Aliens and director James Cameron's most recent blockbuster Avatar. Besides obvious borrowed set pieces (the robotic machine both Ripley and the mad general in Avatar use for very different reasons), the two films share a common theme, albeit one that is filtered through different eras and ideologies. Avatar is a product of the Obama Era. Worthington and Weaver encounter aliens and learn to get along with them so they can co-exist as one while corporate blowhards are trying to exploit the aliens and their environment's resources for profit. Aliens, on the other hand, is a byproduct of the Reagan/Bush Sr. Era. Find yourself encountered by a strange race? Obliterate them. But, oh, don't forget to try to exploit the aliens for profit (I guess some things never change). Whatever you think of those ideologies, Aliens is still a kick-ass film. It's one of the few action films I can think of that has the ability to scare you shitless without becoming a full-blown horror film. Aliens also has a great sense of environment, namely the ability to draw you into its abandoned space station so that you feel like you're with Ripley and the gang every (terrifying) step of the way. Michael Biehn is surprisingly sexy, while Glamazon Sigourney Weaver steals the whole damn movie as Lt. Badass Ripley. She's quite possibly the smartest and ballsiest female action hero the genre has ever seen and puts many of our lame "action" heroes today to shame. If only Ryan Reynolds was half the man Signourey Weaver is in Aliens. A-