Aliens

How do you follow up one of the most terrifying films of all time? By not trying to top Ridley Scott’s classic. James Cameron took the Alien franchise a whole different direction with this 1986 sequel, which featured action and lots of it. Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is teamed up with space marines to investigate a human colony on LV-426 (the planet on which they found the first alien) that the government has lost contact with. The film starts out slow, building character development and tension throughout the first 45 minutes. However, once on the planet, the fight begins, with guns blazing and acid blood flying. Enough cannot be said of Cameron’s talent of mixing a strong story and hardcore action, in particular Ripley’s epic battle with the queen alien.

The Dark Knight

As a lifelong fan of Batman, it makes me so happy to see his story told with respect and grace. Christopher Nolan continues his career-long hot streak with this comic book sequel, featuring Batman (Christian Bale) pitted against the clown prince of crime, the Joker (Heath Ledger). Drawing inspiration from Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke, the Joker in this film is cold and ruthless, unlike the Burton incarnation that was simply Jack Nicholson as himself in clown makeup. It says a lot about an action film when some of the dialogue scenes are as exciting as the car chases and fights, and the dialogue here can be intense as hell.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

James Cameron knows how to make sequels. Armed with a bigger budget and state-of-the-art technology, Cameron makes a revolutionary film. A terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) sent to protect future leader of humanity John Connor (Edward Furlong) is pitted against the T-1000 (Robert Patrick), a robot made of liquid metal. What’s most surprising about this movie is that even 17 years later, the special effects for the T-1000 still hold up surprisingly well. This is how you make an action movie sequel — take note, McG and Michael Bay.