A terrible plot made into a very entertaining movie

Rating: 5/10 (5 May 2015)

If ever a film summed up its director, this one is it. James Cameron is a shrewd producer, an excellent director... and a terrible writer.
I won't include any spoilers, but a quick internet search (or even just a visit to the IMDb "goofs" section) will return a list of plot holes and factual errors that takes nearly as long to read as the film takes to watch (and most of them are so obvious that you WILL notice them even when watching the film for the first time).
And yet, despite all those internal contradictions, despite the nonsensical science and moronic military tactics, and despite the almost cartoon-like characters (or perhaps partly because of them), it's still worth watching.
The action sequences are fast and exciting but still easy to follow, there are several memorable one-liners, and the final confrontation is as iconic as it gets. If only it didn't take itself so seriously, maybe its flaws would come across more as a self-parody (like in Verhoeven's "Starship Troopers") and less as Cameron's lack of writing skills.
It would be unfair to give it a very high score, but if you're willing to overlook the bad plot and implausible characters, you'll probably find "Aliens" a very entertaining action-horror hybrid.