Not as good as I hoped for, but not as bad as I feared.

Rating: 7/10 (1 June 2012)

Just came back from watching it a little while ago.
Could it live up to what we hoped for? No Was it as good as we could hope for/expected of it? Yeah, think so. So, no, it's not perfect, but I kinda liked it anyway.
The story? - clearly a lot of thought has gone into making it and it does make sense...mostly. Unfortunately is has the same thing that most horror movies also do - people doing something VERY stupid ...that doesn't make ANY sense - other than advance the plot and f00king things up even more for the characters ...and doesn't even bother to TRY to explain WHY. Unfortunatey it can't rise above that very basic stupidity and that's too bad. I'd hoped for more.
But a lot of things works really well too. Despite a few scenes that really rubbed me the wrong way for being a little too familiar compared to scenes from earlier installments - I like how it meshes really well with the already established universe. Mythology established in Alien 3 are here, and built upon, while setting up its own stuff...and even something that establishes something major from Aliens are set up here as well.
...and leaving it wide open for a sequel, naturally...which I hope we get. :-)
However, overall it suffers from being almost too slick. Like too many other "big movies" it has, what I call, a "hyper-optimised" script. It's predictable, unrelenting in its forward storytelling momentum, and nothing is there by chance - everything matters and the time of red herrings and "fun little things" are a thing of the past. We don't get "small insignificant things" anymore - only big plot holes that are unexplained and too big to ignore.
Visually it's stunning though. Nothing effects-wise to complain about.
Some negative stuff there, but how could I not mention it. But I loved it and I'm looking forward to seeing it again (and again). I won't splash out extra on 3D the next time, though. The 3D, while good, is in no way needed for anything and although it may add depth to the world, you won't lose anything by only watching it in 2D.