“If it bleeds…we can kill it.” is, though. I know, wrong movie, but Predator was just Rambo divided by Alien anyway.
I prefer Aliens as well, for all the stated reasons.
The best line is “Why don’t you put her in charge?!?!”
BTW I just recently saw the new (non-approved by David Fincher) version of Alien 3, and it was actually pretty good.
If you compare it to the version that was released in cinema’s you will notice that there is a lot more story in it and a LOT more suspense.
Alien is one of my most favourite films ever. Atmospheric and excellent directing and acting. Generally I don’t care for “horror”, but Alien avoids everything that annoys me in horror films while still being scary.
Aliens is a great movie in very different ways, but made even more scary (in a bad way) by an intrusive apostrophe.
I disagree. It makes perfect sense. The reasons Ash screwed over the crew was because he was TOLD to by the Weyland-Yutani corporation, not because he felt the Alien was a superior life form. The ship’s AI, ‘Mother’ didn’t appear to care one way or the other.
It did seem that he did get a smug satisfaction from his work though. This seems to be a subtle but constant theme across all the Alien movies - the robots (really we are only introduced to three - Ash the medical officer on the Nostromo, Bishop and the one in Alien Resurrection) seem to admire the Alien lifeform for their simplicity of function. Humans seem to be viewed with either contempt for like one would view a small irrational child.
Actually, I think it is quite brilliant. AIs in movies are always either insane or sociopathic, dream of being human, or simply appliances with slave-like obedience. I think that Aliens (and perhaps Blade Runner) is one of the few movies where an intelligent humanoid robot would act like I would expect it to act. They do their job because they are programmed to but you get just the slightest hint of condescendtion.
Example - Ash is so arrogant that we assume from the beginning that he is human. Bishop is a little more laid back and almost appears childlike in his compliance until you realize that it is the humans he is treating childishly - Reluctantly playing the knife game with Hudson, his occasional quips (“not bad for a human”, “I may be artificial, but I’m not stupid”), his desire to be shut down rather than refurbished, and of course his admiration of the Alien.
Anyhow, that’s my theory on the AI in Aliens that I just made up as I typed it.
Since Alien was perhaps the most idiotic piece of trash I have ever seen (the characters in Plan 9 from Outer Space looked like a bunch of Einsteins compared to the idiots in alien), I guess Aliens had to be better. I didn’t bother seeing it – I had already wasted too much time on the crap.
What in particular didn’t you like about it?
Aliens, for a couple of memorable scenes-
The queen alien impaling Bishob with her tail, and ripping him in two. I must have been 5 or 6 when I saw this, and didn’t pick up on the fact that Bishop was an android (or I forgot). That scene was just so gory it really freaked me out. I know sometimes the best horror is implied, but if done right, the in-your-face carnage can have a strong impact. I also remember later on watching the movie with my friend, and putting the VCR in slo-mo to see how exactly the Queen tore him in half (it was actually pretty cool, she wrapped her hands around his shoulder and hip, and sort of twisted him apart. Added to the fact that the scene is so sudden- up until then you think they’re out of the clear.
The Queen vs RipleyLoader. Very cool. Somehow I find it fitting that a giant alien must be overcome by an equally giant robot exoskeleton. 
Well, aside from feasting on Kane’s guts, the alien was discovered (by the unlucky Parker & Lambert) toward the end of the flick in the Nostromo’s rations supply room, with enough gunk spewed all over their stores to indicate it had made at least one other trip there before. (IIRC, Parker picks up a storage bin covered with gunk and says something like “it’s been in here!”) So, the alien was obviously snacking on the crew’s own ration supplies - in between snacking on the crew. (Why the dimwitted crew didn’t think to put an alarm on their supply room is another question.)
Aliens is good, but its goodness factor is dragged down by Bill Paxton’s constant whining. Alien gets the nod.
I think it’s interesting how Cameron likes to reuse actors - there’s the guy who played Kyle in The Terminator in Aliens, along with the aforementioned whiney Bill Paxton.
That’s Michael Biehn. The guy seems to have been typecast as the scruffy underdog.
Tripler
But I agree, Bill Paxton whines too damn much.
For my money, the whiney Hudson was a great character, and it worked because the other characters made no attempt to hide the fact he was getting on their nerves. In most movies, the whiner just groans and moans and the other characters ignore it, or there is one token scene of someone slapping him/her around.
But in Aliens, Hudson is treated realistically. Before the marines are decimated, he’s cocky and talks too much. After they get their asses kicked, he turns cowardly and talks too much, because he’s still the same guy without the bravado. He’s unapologetically selfish and cowardly, and his behavior and dialogue in the movie fit perfectly. And it’s obvious that his fellow soldiers are sick of him as a result. I’ve never seen a movie where one character gets told off so many times for being such a jerk. It makes Hudson and the other characters seem much more like real people, which in turn made me feel bad when they got taken out. (Another nice touch: Hicks mouthing Vasquez’s “There they are” line while standing behind her, followed by a tired half smile. He’s heard it a thousand times.)
So I for one felt bad when Hudson got dragged under the floor by the aliens – even though he was yapping the whole way down…
EZ
Aliens had so many good lines in it…
“It doesn’t matter when it’s Arcturian”
“Game over, man, game over”
“I say we dust off & nuke the site from orbit, that’s the only way to be sure”
“It doesn’t mean we’re engaged”
“Get away from her, you BITCH!”
I was going to say exactly what ElectricZ said about Hudson. He’s always been my favorite character in the movie, both for comic relief (he has some great lines) and for the added dramatic tension he brought to the human side of the film. Even better, though, was when he finally goes down, he goes down swinging. Despite all his pissing and moaning, when it came down to a fight, he didn’t run and he didn’t hide. He stood there and dished out hot pulse rifle death until the xenomorphs eviscerated his thorassic cavity.
Actually, what he’s been typcast as is the seasoned, highly trained professional soldier, preferably a Navy SEAL:
Terminator - elite soldier from the future.
Aliens - Space Marine NCO
The Abyss - SEAL Lieutenant.
Navey SEALS - SEAL Lieutenant.
The Rock - SEAL Commander