Omg why does aliens have so much hate

Not really anything but a slightly above average action film.

Two words: Bill Paxton.

I'm going with the Alien pair.

Well, it is basically a rehash of Alien just without the tensity and 30 extra minutes of explosions. Kind of like Home Alone 2, but at least that had Tim Curry.

Yeah, but Curry's awesomeness is completely negated by Rob Schneider's appearance in the film.

This is actually pretty tough but I'll opt for Aliens.

The ranking of the films for me goes

1. Alien


2. Terminator

3. Terminator 2

4. Aliens

So the Alien series has the best and worst movie. I think it is best by a pretty significant amount though. Terminator and Alien both succeed in creating an atmosphere that the other films lack (indeed I'd say Terminator is Cameron's only film with superb atmosphere) but Alien is on a ridiculously high level in this regard. Terminator may have more interesting characters overall but Ripley herself is definitely more interesting than anyone in Terminator and combined with the ship and Ash gives Alien an edge. What also makes Alien great is how the characters just seem to interact so normally. But the real gem is the cinematography and score which are just absolutely brilliant. I mean I've seen the film five or so times at least and I can still feel the terror throughout. And holy shit is the opening shot amazing. The way the ship is pretty much established without any people in it. And damn is that minimalist score so fucking perfect too. All of this together puts Alien as the only truly brilliant film of these four.

Terminator is close and its definitely Cameron's best. I actually think this is by far the best role and performance Arnold ever gave. I also love Sara Connor's character and Kyle Reese and think they have great chemistry. My favorite parts about this though are again the atmosphere which is helped by its very angular and dissonant score (something the more traditional score in Terminator 2 kind of detracted from). Everyone acts pretty believably in the film. If I have one quibble is that the city feels a little too empty at times but this is a great movie. The effects look a tad weak at times too.

Terminator 2 is less good than Terminator (and perhaps I really shouldn't have put it a step lower) but it is still a very good film (definitely one of the best if not the best action films of the 90s). The special effects are much improved and the opening 30 or so minutes (when the movie makes it unclear who the villain is) are perfect. The problems with this one are that even though it's always really cool to watch the characters aren't as interesting nor are their interactions quite as real. And the T-1000 while a very cool effect is not as interesting of a villain. The climax is also a little more straight hollywood. Still great film.

Aliens is the weakest of the set but I still like it quite a bit. It does have a pretty good set of characters even if they're mostly stocks and Ripley and the child do a good job to raise it a cut above what it could have been with all stocks. The effects are great and the banter is very fun. It's just that by having more xenomorphs it really takes away from the tension of the first film. To an extent they manage to recreate it near the end with the Queen when it's just Ripley alone and in the other brilliant scene when she's locked in the infirmary but they don't succeed nearly as much. And the film definitely is more lacking in the atmosphere department (at times it feels too big).

So with all of that said I'll opt for the Alien series and it's one brilliant film over the consistent greatness of terminator. This set also contains James Cameron's three clearly best films. Sad that he's gone downhill into schlock. Alien is of course at least Scott's second best film (there are times I prefer it to Blade Runner but Blade Runner usually wins).

Definitely worth a look. Terminator 1 seems to have the most divisive opinions on here. I'm with Wanta on it having fantastic atmosphere.

Alien 3 is the best of the films for me (best being used very loosely). Fincher at least tries to recapture Alien and though he's heavily plagiarizing at least he sometimes succeeds in creating tension. Terminator 3 is a very below average action movie that only has nice T&A going for it. But holy shit is Alien Resurrection a festering shitpile. What an ugly, stupid, ridiculous, series fucking piece of shit. Haven't seen Terminator 4 but I have no real desire to. So given all of that I think I'd still take Alien even with the festering shit-pile of Alien Resurrection because it at least has a legitimately fantastic movie and Alien 3 is a good cut above Terminator 3 (and presumably 4).

lol Alien 3 can lick my ballz

Yeah I don't enjoy anything in that film whereas there are things I enjoy in Terminator 3 at least. The Terminator sequels are superior to the Alien sequels, but Alien > The Terminator. That's how I've always felt.

agreed

It's a great looking film, and the alien looks fantastic, but the plot blows. Not a smart move to piss off the entire audience in the first five minutes. Pretty shitty to kill Ripley, too.

The Alien queen with a womb