Well it wasn't really trying to emulate the original movie, Cameron told that during an interview. I kind of agree that a sequel to a first movie should never try to be to much like the original, look at all those awful horror movie sequels you keep seeing at video rentals,

To me Aliens really hasn't done so many mistakes, many other movies tried to emulate it, I guess it doesn't work for everyone.
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Alien3 tried so hard to get back to the original it failed. The reason Alien was scary and enjoyable was no one knew what the alien was like. By 3 they knew everything about it and it was all about how the prisoners could go McGuyver on it's ass and so the horror aspect was lost. Fear of the unknown is the greatest part of horror. How many sequals to horror films are inferior to the original? All of them because you already know the sort of thing thats going to happen. Action films was the only way for the series to go.
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That is a very good point. The original did completely rely on the element of surprise and the fear of the unknown, and that really got your adrenalin pumping as you watched.

It wasn't until quite late into the film that we really got an idea of the scale and appearance of the alien. With just the face hugger and the small alien bursting from the chest shown until right near the end. And the scene with the flame thrower in the tunnels has to still be one of the best in any film of this type. The sound used for the scanner, speeding up as the alien got closer and closer. Brilliant. And that has been copied by so many films since.

Although Aliens did try to emulate some of that suspense and fear, especially at the start when they enter the complex for the first time, or when they are in the tower and can see all of the aliens closing in, the audience did already know what the threat was and how it would attack. So I can see the point you are making that it had to twist the style from one relying mostly on fear of the unknown and suspense, to one of all out action taking revenge out on the enemy.
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Exactly. Paul Anderson, along with Michael Bay, Eli Roth, and Rob Zombie, is the worst thing to happen to cinema in quite some time. Everything he does has been crap and everything he will ever do will be crap. MORTAL KOMBAT? Terrible. EVENT HORIZON? Groan inducingly miserable. AvP? Embarrasing.

For those of you that like the first film, ALIEN, I strongly suggest that you check out Mario Bava's PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES. The similarities are many. It's interesting to see how it influenced Dan O'Bannon and Ridley Scott in making ALIEN, which is probably in my top 5 favorite films of all time. It's a perfect haunted house story, set in space.
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I quite liked Event Horizon actually. Allright, it has its flaws, but I thought the direction it took was interesting (expected an Alien ripoff) and that it was fairly good overall.
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I enjoyed the atmosphere and the first hour or so of Event Horizon, but as the film built up to the end I really thought it could have been so much more. Potential wasted as it had a great premise.

As for Ghost's opening post, I agree 100%. Enjoyed Alien/Aliens. Loved Predator and even liked the second movie although I thought it could have been much better. The "vs" films pretty much killed both in my eyes.

The Aliens sequels - well I'll just state my opinion as we all know we're not going to change our minds on each individual film. I've never once in my life been able to change someone's opinion on a film - it's personal preference and no one can tell you what's right or wrong as you know you'll take offense if they do!!!

Personally, I thought Alien was a superb film and I enjoyed Aliens even more. Perhaps the action appealed to me as a child, but I absolutely love the atmosphere created in that film!

The first film was excellent, but the second was about humans having a little more teeth to fight back coupled with non-stop intense claustrophobic action - those motion sensors were truly brilliant! The model work of the ships and the armored vehicle - loved it! The small corridors with potential danger in all directions, the design of the Alien's nest - grade A! I'm thankful that film was made before the big push of CGI, as the natural look of all the scenery is fantastic.

The premise offered Ripley a chance to fight back after the first outing and continued possibly one of the best strong female character roles in any film. Today we have women supposedly throwing around and beating up men in order to be "tough" and appear strong. It's meant to be empowerment. Well I call it stupid, cheesy and unrealistic. Ripley is how strong female action roles should be - believable.

Alien 3 had some great moments, but I didn't like the direction that film took and never will. The whole thing stunk of a backwards step, not a continuation. More like a re-boot back to Alien. If I can forget about the first two films and just watch it with a blank canvas then I do enjoy and appreciate many parts of the film.

The forth didn't register with me at all - money making exercise and really just a stand alone entertainment movie with the hint of the Hollywood "by the numbers" & "bums on seats" cheesy attitude beginning to creep in. The same attitude 80% of films adopt today. In other words, it doesn't matter about plot holes, bad dialog, cheesy scenes or sub par acting. As long as we can tick the money making boxes and appeal to the largest demograph, the movie will go ahead.

So then we head to the AvsP franchise - total crap if we're talking about a quality film. AvsP was Hollywood cheese that has a flow and style better suited to cartoons than a movie. It does tick those all important boxes however, so for people who just want to switch their brains off and see some "cool" action then I can see the appeal.

Me, I was left cringing and rolling my eyes too many times. The "PredAlien" at the end had me balking....requiem I don't think I even want to comprehend.
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I think it was more along the lines of 'Cert: 18' to kid's cartoon in TWO easy steps... Now that's selling out!
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After writing in this thread, I was just having a think. Many adult movies today are suffering from some horrible setbacks:

The PG-13/12A rating.
The reliance on CGI over substance.
The insistence of studios to have "demograph" friendly content, no matter how cheesy.
The attitude that a "thinking" film is for the critics when a "mindless" entertaining film is for the masses!

I guess at least requiem isn't 12A. It's jumped to 15 (UK rating). Remember the Robocop franchise. From "18" to "U" in three easy steps! LOL!

EDIT SORRY v85rawdeal, for some reason my new reply ended up edited in my old one, so I corrected it! You are right though - definitely selling out!
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That 12A rating is the most annoying thing ever invented and it effects too many films these days. Being able to rate something as 12, but than also allow younger children to watch it with an adult is stupid. And why 12? I don't see a 12 year old as being really that much more mature than a 10 year old. They should have kept it to U, PG, then 15 and 18. 12A just forces the editors to cut out anything that could be deemed as Adult content, leaving esentially a childrens film.

BTW, regarding Event Horizon, I really liked that film. I can see why some might not, but I really enjoyed it.
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If i remember rightly 12 was created so that people could watch Gremlins (love those films). Event Horizon was watchable, not great but didn't suck either. The Robocop series was so good i know i've seen 2 and 3 but for the life of me can't remember what the hell happened although it was probably someone else built another cyborg to be either the next Robocop or defeat Robocop and failed.
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