Out of Pod Experience

Completely understandable, as Vietnam had been our last major military action when Aliens was made. Did we need James Stewart type characters to make them like WWII-type Marines ?

If done now, and the movie were reflective of current military operations, they would just send in a bunch of drones, and no movie really to be had.

In short, I'm not understanding your reasoning at all for your "complaint".

Oh no. The xenomprphs crawling at you in the dark when that ceiling tile was raised was not scary at all.

Neither was the surprise appearance of the Queen before ripping apart Bishop.

Right. No scares at all. Did we see the same film ???

We did, I think Cameron tried too hard to make Aliens scary (which made Alien so terrifying) when its end result turned out to be a monster closet flick.

John Carpenter's The Thing scared me. Aliens did not.

I think there is more of the Lovecraft works influence in Thing.

'Prometheus' killed 'At the Mountains of Madness'

Now that I have watched the trailer and red the Rotten Tomatoes page (which was @ 80%), which usually means it will be a decent to good watch in my book, I feel like I can make a comment towards the direction of the movie towards a catastrophe movie. Hollywood does not, typically, give sci-fi flicks much range to work with. Mostly catastrophe/drama, horror or comedy. Since this movie looks like it starts out as a 'reality' movie, catastrophe almost seems like the most logical funneled end point, otherwise it would probably have ended up watching like a fakumentary...EDIT-- Which would not sell at all.

I don't know. For me, the first film was a Monster-in-the-Closet film as well, deliberately meant to be reflective of an old fashioned gotrhic haunted house film.

Aliens is certainly more kinetic. It's not as dark and "anticipatory scary" as the first film, but after the first one, we the audience know what the game was with the creatures. The scares come from just how many of the things there are and where they are.

I also liked the interjection of the emotional connection Ripley forms with Newt. It's a humanistic gesture missing from any of the other films in the franchise. And most other horror films as well.

To end, I liked Ebert's summation of it as (not exact):

"The supporting players are sharply drawn. The special effects are professional. I'm giving the movie a high rating for its skill and professionalism and because it does the job it says it will do. 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."

Havent seen Seven, but I remember having that reaction after watching Fatal Attraction....and eyeing my date suspiciously.