I don't see Avatar as a remake of Aliens at all. Avatar is more like a remake of Dances with Wolves than anything else.

Except in "Aliens" the monsters are eusocial, cunning but unable to operate machinery and explode out of your abdomen. Also, there's there's none of this 'natural internet' crap, the planet has no significant natural resources, and NEITHER species is native.

I love that you included in this post a photo of Hudson bugging out.

I saw this on opening night with my father back in 86 ( I was 10) and it remains to this day the most batshit insane movie experience i have ever had.

What Urgutha said. Not a remake, or even close to it. However, you're right that Aliens is the far superior movie.

It doesnt say it, but at 2 hrs 52 min runtime, it looks like theyre screening the extended edition, which restores 17 minutes of footage. Most of which explores the events that lead to the demise of the colony on LV-426. Finding the derilic, Newts father being dragged back to the transport with a face hugger. Even has Captain Hollister from Red Dwarf as the mayor/leader of the colony.

@5 and the wicked auto cannon scene.

This movie totally traumatized me. I still believe Paul Reiser is a corporate gimp for Weyland-Yutani.

Side note: this movie has a bunch of quotable quotes which, "mostly come out at night...mostly."

Avatar and Aliens have non-earth settings, alien life forms at the center of the storyline, and made by James Cameron. Oh, Sigourney Weaver.

I'm thinking of anything else they have in common. Right. Nothing.

@8,

It also had some of the same technology.

It's too bad Avatar was such fluff. Had that corporation been just as evil as the one in Aliens, and the movie not nearly as cartoonish, it might deserve the hype.

For thems that are interested, the story of Mr. Cameron contending with/busting various film-making unions in the UK during the filming of this movie is well worth checking out:

www.slashfilm.com/how-james-cameron-put-…;

HUDSON: "Hey Vasques, have you ever been mistaken for a man?"

VASQUES: "No, have you?"

Greatest movie dialogue ever.

I think #5 is right, this looks like the extended cut, which I think is totally inferior to the original theatrical release.

The sentry guns scene is cool—and more interesting I thought was the scene of Ripley coming to terms with outliving her daughter, but for an already long-for-an-action film, I can see why it was cut. Introducing the events of the colony at the beginning of the films kinda blows it for the rest of the film though. Totally unnecessary.

I'm glad you like this movie so much too Charles, it's possibly the best in its genre.

An interesting thing, on a rewatch of Aliens, is seeing how much the entire FPS genre of videogaming owes to that movie. Ironically, my son was laughing at one point during Avatar, pointing out a VTOL spacecraft that the movie "ripped off from Halo"...

Aliens and Avatar share a theme of space marines being co-opted by a cartoonishly evil space conglomerate to exploit an alien resource. In Aliens, the military man is won over by civilian Sigourney Weaver and they team up to save the day from the evil executive. In Avatar, a rogue military man is convinced by civilian Sigourney Weaver to turn on his mission and save the day from the evil executive.

Ripley: "I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
Burke: "Ho-ho-hold on, hold on one second. This installation has a substantial dollar value attached to it!"
Ripley: "They can *bill* me."

Burke: (speaking to Ripley) "This is a multi-million dollar installation, okay? He can't make that kind of decision, he's just a grunt!"
(aside to Hicks) "uh, No offense"
Hicks: (deadpan, monotone) "None taken"

I love that movie.

@14: it is to my mind a huge injustice that Aliens somehow failed to make Michael Biehn into a huge star. His line delivery was never less than perfect the entire way through.

(n.b. it is not at all an injustice that it made Sigourney Weaver into a huge star. So we got that at least.)

Ripley: How long after we're declared overdue can we expect a rescue?
Hicks: [pause] Seventeen days.
Hudson: Seventeen *days?* Hey man, I don't wanna rain on your parade, but we're not gonna last seventeen *hours!* Those things are gonna come in here just like they did before. And they're gonna come in here...
Ripley: Hudson!
Hudson: ...and they're gonna come in here AND THEY'RE GONNA GET US!
Ripley: Hudson! This little girl survived longer than that with no weapons and no training.
[to Newt]
Ripley: Right?
[Newt apes a salute]
Hudson: Why don't you put her in charge?
Ripley: You better just start dealing with it, Hudson! Listen to me! Hudson, just deal with it, because we need you and I'm sick of your bullshit.

Hudson: [Knowing that the Aliens are close, Hicks and Vasquez are welding the door shut] Movement. Signal's clean. Range, 20 meters.
Ripley: They've found a way in, something we've missed.
Hicks: We didn't miss anything.
Hudson: 17 meters.
Ripley: [Checking the tracker] Something in the floor, underneath the plant, I don't know
Hudson: 15 Meters.
Newt: Ripley.
Hicks: Definitely inside the barricades.
Newt: Let's go.
Hudson: 12 meters.
Ripley: That's right outside the door. Hicks, Vasquez get back.
Hudson: Man, this is a big fuckin' signal.
Hicks: How are we doing Vasquez, talk to me?
Vasquez: Almost there.
[They welded the door shut, and stepped back away from the door]
Vasquez: There right on us.
Hicks: [Waiting for the Aliens] Remember, short controlled bursts.
Hudson: 9 meters, 7, 6.
Ripley: That can't be, that's inside the room.
Hudson: It's reading right man, look.
Hicks: Then, "you're" not reading it right.
Hudson: 5 meters, man. 4, what the hell?

Apone: All right, sweethearts, what are you waiting for? Breakfast in bed? Another glorious day in the Corps! A day in the Marine Corps is like a day on the farm. Every meal's a banquet! Every paycheck a fortune! Every formation a parade! I LOVE the Corps!

Awesome...

No one going to go for Hicks' line? "I like to keep this handy for close encounters." (as he grabs his pump shotty).

@13
In Starcraft, the Terran dropship pilots will blurt out "headin' into some chop" and something about flying 5-by-5.
There was another game that also quoted the shotgun line above, but I can't remember.