Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 15+
Alien sequel is bigger, faster, scarier.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that the relentless, ravenous clawed monsters here are likely to give small kids (and others) nightmares. This is a violent feature, even more so than the original Alien. Besides the rerun of the grisly moment when embryonic aliens burst out of people (in reality and in dream scenes), we also see quick cuts of victims seared with acid, getting set on fire, and blowing themselves up with a grenade. Most disturbing of all -- or, at least, the most nakedly manipulative -- is the perpetual threat of ghastly violence/death/contamination being directed at a frightened, screaming little girl. There's also a plethora of swearing and lots of adoring fondling of guns and high-powered weapons.
- Families can talk about the military metaphor in the film; it's said James Cameron deliberately had Vietnam on his mind when he depicted a group of gung-ho Marines charging into tunnels only to get shredded to pieces by hordes of an enemy that keeps on coming. Do you think this applies to the Gulf Wars as well? What could the characters have done differently? Do you believe in the showdown between the bereaved mother Ripley and the monstrous mother alien "queen"?
The good stuff
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Positive messages: A corporate executive character who claims to be "an OK guy" is really murderous and treacherous in his greed. What little we see of the world of the future seems dominated by evil businessmen and bullying soldiers. The multiracial "Colonial Marines" are overconfident, swaggering braggarts. Ripley, on the other hand, turns from the fear-paralyzed victim of the last film into a tough, idealized action-heroine.
What to watch for
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Violence: Mostly in quick flashes, but still severe, as human characters are splashed with acid, torched with fire, or have little aliens bursting out of them. One man is literally torn in half, with the qualifier that "he" is an android, not human, with beige-colored blood and viscera. Gunfire, bombs, and flamethrowers are directed at the aliens. Much of the violence and lethal danger is threatened against a small child.
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Sex: Indistinct glimpses of pin-up pictures in a locker room. Some mildly suggestive banter between co-ed Marines.
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Language: "F--k" and "a--hole" in soldierly banter and anger.
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Consumerism: Not an issue
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Drinking, drugs and smoking: Social drinking.