Aliens The Set Photography Review

Alien Intelligence

♦Tripwire’s editor-in-chief JOEL MEADOWS checked his stomach and charged up his blaster to review Aliens The Set Photography, by Simon Ward, published by Titan Books…

Aliens The Set Photography
Writer: Simon Ward
Titan Books
Coming seven years after Ridley Scott’s Alien, Aliens from young upstart director James Cameron, who had proven with The Terminator that he could create memorable sci fi on a shoestring, was a bold move away from its progenitor. The first film was a horror film set in space whereas Aliens kept some of the horror tropes but opened it to be part of the burgeoning Hollywood action genre that was so popular in the 1980s and 1990s. 2016 marks the 30th anniversary of Aliens and so Titan have commemorated this with this 144 page hardcover which includes a series of set photos taken during the film’s shoot.

It is easy to forget just how much Cameron and his effects crew moved on the initial concepts from Scott’s film and the increased ambition at play here. Where Alien was very claustrophobic and hemmed in, Aliens was widescreen action. The book covers the shoot and some of the key effects from the film and there is a decent cross section of photos here for the Aliens aficionado. The picture quality isn’t totally consistent but since this is before the days of digital cameras and images do degrade over the years, and also it is unlikely that the filmmakers expected there to be interest in the project thirty years on, so many of the photos were created just for posterity and to mark their own work. So this slight visual inconsistency can be forgiven.

So if you are a fan of Aliens or James Cameron, this is an interesting book, filled with a fascinating range of behind the scenes photos that offer a glimpse into Cameron’s vision on the movie. Titan have done a very decent job indeed of combing the archives and coming up with a volume that is a worthy tribute to a great modern sci fi movie classic.

JOEL MEADOWS

titanbooks.com