First time watching this. Cool, but too cheesy

Rating: 6/10 (18 February 2018)

I have just finished watching Alien and Aliens(editor's cut) for the first time, and while I loved the first Alien (9/10) I find the second far too cheesy, for what could be a great movie.
Cheesy - The cheese starts when Ripley is "killed" by an alien coming out her chest - oh wait, that was just a dream. Cheesy, tho it did serve a purpose of her having "nightmares". Fair, let's give it a pass!
Predictable and badly paced - It continues with a slow pace where the movie "pretends" that Ripley is not going to go back to the xenomorph world when we all know she is going to. Let's just wait while the pictures move on screen. I guess I get what they were aiming for, the movie wanted to highlight her conflict again. Fair, yet boring. let's give it a pass.
Cardboard cut characters except Ripley - She meets the crew, they all act far too rebellious and "bad-ass" (as they put it) for my taste and what I think army should represent. Later on in the movie they will also act completely unprofessionally and the new lieutenant will obviously take the route of the Hollywood cardboard character and break under pressure. Cheesy, silly. The commercial ship from the first movie acted more professionally than those guys. The "panic" was there just to serve the movie's chaotic atmosphere and forcefully draw tension.
Bad intrigue - The company guy that went with them was a far too obvious "intrigue" plotliine, his story got nowhere interesting and did not even serve any tension (he just got eaten by the end) except being a reminder that "the company is bad". Alright - We got that from the first film already. The intrigue with "mother" was done so much better than this one.
Atmosphere - The atmosphere... Now that is my biggest problem. It felt like an action thriller more than anything. In the first movie It felt intimate. I felt as if Im with them stuck on that ship, it was tense, it was personal. In this second one, I felt like im just watching explosions layed out in a generic sci-fi hollywood fashion. Characters died in the order you'd expect according to how much the audience liked them, probably someone out there in the studio made a chart and thats the order characters were killed. No surprises anywhere throughout the entire movie.
The action was still very awesome and yeah in the end of the day I like explosions as much as the other guy. The actors mainly did a good job. I did feel stressed for Ripley despite knowing that she could in no way be harmed, same for the little girl Newt. I mainly felt stressed for their struggles and hardships, rather than for their lives.
Ripley is a very well done character. Writing good main is not easy and I do admire this character's arc. She is just flawed and human enough to be a great hero that we can not only admire but also relate to.
I did have fun watching this movie, pointing out all the wrong things i believe it does does not change it. All in all, how I feel is that this movie was just mediocre, I know this movie is very much loved, so you are welcome to disagree. Just had to spill out what i think.