Brilliant

Rating: 9/10 (28 February 2011)

The Alien franchise passes to James Cameron, and gets done properly. This film is everything the first film should have been but wasn't.
Where the first movie spent over half its length on setting things up (and even dealt with that at great and tedious length), Cameron's film smartly sets to and makes exposition part of the story. And, once the Marines are back at the planet where Ripley first encountered the xenomorph, the action never stops.
The ensemble cast are well defined, there is sufficient audience identification and sympathy for the audience to by fully engaged throughout, the set pieces are well done, and there is at least one brilliantly quotable line (if you don't believe me, see "Paul").
Sigourney Weaver cements her place as probably the baddest-ass leading lady ever.
The only real criticism is that there is some grainy back projection work towards the end which is a bit unconvincing.