Great movie regardless of your sci-fi orientation

Rating: 10/10 (23 January 2003)

This is a great sequel though James Cameron chucks the creepy Ridley Scott atmosphere for a more action-oriented format. One of the opening sequences shows an unaccustomed brilliance -- the scene where the face shot of Ripley dissolves/merges into the picture of the planet is of such loveliness, it's jaw-dropping every time I see it. This is much more than a typical "schlurp and munch" movie. Great action, great dialog, great plot pick up from the original. Yes, the Marines are rather stereotypical, but at least they're a fun bunch and have some depth and differentiation. Ms. Weaver got the Oscar nod just for her delivery of that classic line "Bitch!" line. Too bad she was up against Marlee Matlan for Children of a Lesser G-d.
BTW, I don't like the directors cut. The original actually removed superfluous scenes and there's no way to cleanly skip over them in the directors "restored" cut. Sorry; the studio got it right the first time and the movie is better without the extra scenes with just one exception: The scene where you find out about Ripley's daughter (to establish a more reasonable justification for Ripley going back for Newt). Otherwise, the other junk should be jettisoned.