Good, But Needs To Be Taken Down A Few Pegs

Rating: 6/10 (30 August 2014)

Alien was a suspenseful, sci-fi horror film. Aliens decided to add more aliens and abandon most of the suspense and horror in exchange for action. That'd be fine, if it weren't so meat-headed.
The first major problem is the film uses a large number of people as cannon fodder, nothing else. Nothing is more infuriating than when an action film has absolutely no respect for human life. These mercenaries are annoying jock stereotypes whose death has zero effect on me. Seriously, these wastes of space have no wonder or fear over monstrous aliens? Nuts to that. Those scenes sucked.
The other issue is how the action is shot. Normally, cinematography is not something I pay attention to. Its like controls in video games - its just assumed you can shoot stuff right. Maybe some rare talent can create something impressive. But its impossible to ignore how jumpy the camera gets when the action picks up. Gunfire, CUT, alien screams, CUT, guy fires again, CUT, guy gets bitten, CUT, show his face, CUT, back to his arm. Jesus Christ, calm down! You don't need to hide these special effects!
Once the mercenaries are decimated, and the camera decides to act normal, it gets better. Once again, the setting and effects are great. You truly believe we are on some different planet. And the aliens are as intimidating as ever, although some of their majesty is lost since they're killed so often. And the ending is pretty awesome. The characterization has improved, too. It could have been better, but I had a greater idea on who Ripley was. I'm iffy on Newt - she doesn't add much to the story, but she does provide a contrast between Ripley and Newt and the xenomorphs.
Aliens is far from a perfect action film. Even ignoring higher standards for art, some scenes destroy their own suspense. Sure, its pretty good. IMDb Top 250? I don't think so.