4. Ripley vs Alien Queen, Aliens
So you think James Cameron can't develop a good story? Picture this: you pitched a movie with a vague description of various plot points and character sketches. Nothing is fleshed out except for the climax of the movie, wherein a woman in a machine that looks like the Transformers version of a gigantic Tonka trunk battles a giant phallic-looking alien with no eyes, but rows of teeth covered in petroleum jelly. Amazingly enough, this is what audiences saw when they sat in darkened theaters watching Aliens in 1986. Credit must be given to James Cameron for having the audience so invested in the story and characters that by the end of the otherwise ludicrous climax seems both entirely organic and a brilliant payoff. You know the story by now, it's Vietnam in space; technically advanced industrial soldiers being utterly destroyed by the organic species of a distant land they underestimated. Add to that some sly corporate intrigue and moving human drama and you've got one of the finest sequels in the history of film. The now famous fight between Ripley (the heroine of the Alien series, brilliantly played by Sigourney Weaver) and the Alien Queen (the trademark villain of the Alien series brilliantly played by Stan Winston) is not the merely spectacle for spectacle sake (as if the film needed one), but fits very well in the film as the icing on the top of a very well made cake. You cheer when Ripley appears in the Power Loader and cheer again when Ripley power slaps the Queen, you gasp at the whipping tail coming within an inch of Ripley's head, and you breathe a huge sigh of relief when it's is all over and the queen is defeated (spoiler alert: Sigourney Weaver, who appeared in Alien 3, didn't die in Alien 2). You watch Aliens and marvel at James Cameron's chops as a director (and writer) and wonder how in the world could he could ever produce trash like Avatar. Yes, I just went there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYzWUjxnESg