some observations of this and subsequent movies

Rating: 10/10 (15 May 2008)

Alien is a masterpiece, and the alien mythology is one of the most interesting in sci-fi. Aliens is equally good for different reasons. Alien 3 diverges from a strong storyline but is pretty good, and Alien: Resurrection is a disaster.
In alien we meet Ripley. She's an unlikely heroin to start out with, and nobody expects her to survive. She is scared throughout the film and survival and the destruction of the alien is her primary motivation.
'Aliens' starts with her character being the same as in 'Alien', but she's angry at being disavowed by the company and haunted by memories of the events in Alien. We see her transform from a haunted and angry woman to a badass by circumstance and the maternal instincts she develops after meeting Newt. The juxtaposition between her and the mother alien is nothing short of brilliant, and it takes the series, alien mythology and Ripley's character to a whole new level. There are very few ways to turn someone like the Ripley from 'Alien' into the Ripley from the end of 'Aliens', and the fact that they were able to pull it off and make it believable is awesome.
Alien 3 sees her character beat down, sick, and grief-stricken. She must use her wits to defeat the alien, as weapons are unavailable. Still, she is motivated in a different way, and although it isn't a direct continuation of the original 'Alien' storyline as 'Aliens' was, it is an interesting 'what if' film.
In 'Alien: Resurrection Ripley' is not scared and her maternal instincts have shifted largely to the Aliens. She is split between the human and alien camps, and because of this her motivations and the reason for her actions are unclear and her character is difficult to identify with. A weak plot line makes this movie forgettable. Hopefully, someday someone will make a movie that starts where 'Aliens' left off.
I always thought that a good reason for the different looking aliens in this movie versus "aliens" and the other films would be that not only do they adopt the traits of their hosts during development, they can also sense their situation and adapt to that (this would also explain a longer gestation period). For example, the alien in 'Alien' can sense that there is no queen or other aliens around and that causes it to develop into a 'rogue' alien - a bit more cunning and capable than the 'worker' aliens from 'aliens'. This alien's motivation would be to get things ready for when the queen showed up.
The 'dog' alien from alien 3 would be similar, but it also would like to chow down on its victims a bit more - that is, if aliens need to eat at all - which is still unclear. You never see the alien from the first movie eating anything really, just killing or abducting. In the directors cut there's a half-baked scene with dallas all bound up in goo, but that was taken out of the original version - which is a good thing because it convolutes the storyline.
Unfortunately, instead of unifying the existing parts of the alien storyline that were laid out in alien and aliens, with every new movie the producers, writers, and directors throw in new pointless wildcards that confuse the storyline.