"Aliens" : Some nice effects, but actually kind've a crap film.

http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/greatmovies/alien.html

Because he's a COOL ROBOT!

Oh, there's no talking to you.

"ALIEN 3 is one of the best-looking bad movies I have ever seen. It is a triumph of art direction and a disaster of screenwriting, and the eyes appreciate it more than the mind. Watching it in the moment, we are absorbed. After it's over, we are disappointed, because what actually happens in the movie is so much less interesting than where it happens and how it looks while it's happening."

http://www.scifimoviepage.com/alien_20.html

The fat man nails it!

you can't tell me those flamethrowers weren't useful

http://www.planetavp.com/amr/films/a2/carriehennat22.jpg

Doesn't this picture make you just want to root for the aliens?

Of course they were useful. Flame-throwers are damn useful tools. Hell, I could certainly use one right now. But why would a space-age forklift come equipped with one? That's my question.

(Winona is at her loveliest in that movie, though.)

Space-age palette wrapping is a motherfucker.

I would argue that it's a great deal more difficult to make an effectively scary, suspenseful horror film than an action movie (wherein all you really need to please certain folks, as noted, are "cool guns").

I would argue that that's bollocks. While we're being reductive, we could just as easily boil horror movies down to "sexual guilt." Formulas are formulas, and they exist because they work on a base level. Your base level may be different than mine, but I wouldn't hold horror movies up as a higher art then action movies. In fact, just typing that seemed silly to me. Really... come on.

Then there's this:

Seems to me, at least, the first one was genuinely suspenseful and NOT FOR EVERYONE , whereas this one went for the wider audience buck. That seems kinda crass to me.

Alien was the third highest-grossing movie of 1979, right between Star Trek: The Motion Picture and The Muppet Movie. Don't argue that the second movie sold out. DON'T TRY IT.

http://www.fact-index.com/1/19/1979_in_film.html#Top%20Grossing%20Films%20of%201979

My point remains the same.

Aliens = Flimsy, cliche-ridden, poorly patched together whizz-bang blam-o action pic designed to sell popcorn. Bring the kids, hey, it'll be fun!

I remember sitting infront of a father who brought his FIVE YEAR OLD SON to "Natural Born Killers". WHAT PART OF THE TITLE, "NATURAL BORN KILLERS", MADE YOU THINK THIS FILM WAS SUITABLE FOR YOUR FIVE-YEAR OLD?

The ads for "Aliens" claim that this movie will frighten you as few movies have, and, for once, the ads don't lie. The movie is so intense that it creates a problem for me as a reviewer: Do I praise its craftsmanship, or do I tell you it left me feeling wrung out and unhappy?

It has been a week since I saw it, so the emotions have faded a little, leaving with me an appreciation of the movie's technical qualities. But when I walked out of the theater, there were knots in my stomach from the film's roller-coaster ride of violence. This is not the kind of movie where it means anything to say you "enjoyed" it. ..

I don't know how else to describe this: The movie made me feel bad. It filled me with feelings of unease and disquiet and anxiety. I walked outside and I didn't want to talk to anyone. I was drained. I'm not sure "Aliens" is what we mean by entertainment. Yet I have to be accurate about this movie: It is a superb example of filmmaking craft.

If it does this to a man who has seen 20,000 movies, what will it do to the average filmgoer? Or to CHILDREN?

Which made these (released prior to the second film) even more mysterious:

ihttp://www.toyzine.com/magazine/articles/alien/alien+box_lg.jpg

I'm sorry, but I'm a little confused. You still seem to be saying that the first Alien movie was "not for everyone," because... it's horror by genre? And the second one was more for... fun? The second movie is scarier and more traumatizing in many ways.

The first film was more of a classic horror film written with a degree of sophistication and unflinching, realistic gore (relatively speaking) that was inarguably not child friendly. The second one, though still violent and gorey, reads more like a western shoot'em up. It's not exactly Spongbob Squarepants but it's easier on the sense than the first one.

http://www.filmfodder.com/movies/reviews/alien/images/alien.jpg