Good, but overrated and at times dated.

Rating: 6/10 (24 July 2003)

I enjoyed this film although I disagree with many who thought this was the best of the four. It doesn't touch the first. It may have been made 7 years after Alien but Aliens looks far more dated, probably due to the more frequent and more ambitious special effects. The aerial shots in particular look badly dated, I think that Cameron, unlike Scott bit off more than he could chew in terms of use of technology at the time. Alien has and will continue to stand the test of time.
In addition the dialogue is poor and is made worse by one or two sub-standard performances, in particular Bill Paxton who was unconvincing in his nervous, worrying, "what the f**K are we going to do" soldier role. Though I enjoyed Paul Reiser & Lance Henriksen playing the roles of the menacing Hicks and the inhuman Bishop.
Overall a good film, one of the few good sequel movies, though certainly not worthy of neither the 8.2 score on imdb or the #83 rated movie on imdb (at July 2003). 6.5/10.