Alien or Aliens?

[Swank]

FWIW, the "hokum" appears prominently in the first movie, as the main cause of the crew's problems involves the same company requiring them to land, special orders, etc.

You might be surprised to learn that I have seen Alien and am familiar with it.

I am taking issue with Cameron's over-the-top handling of the concept, and the many repetitions. It makes his films boring.

 

[KGeo777]

The first movie established that space travel had become very common-place. It's like an oil rig. Although you could say that it is a little extreme that Lambert is so emotional--surely she was hired for some capacity to be able to hold up under pressure--but whatever.
The problem I have with ALIENS is that the marines--especially Hudson, he did not act like someone who was qualified for military duty.
He complains about cold floors, he is used for wacky comedy with the knife, he asks how he can get out of the outfit (in deep space). That is such a stupid line when you think about it.

Die Hard 2 had an elite soldier unit--and they did not goof around. It felt more realistic.

Cameron has a clumsy grasp of drama sometimes--especially when he wants to moralize.

The scene with Sarah Connor narrating about fathers and parenting is such a massive groan sequence.
"In an insane world, it was the sanest choice."

 

[paeng]

There's an interesting storyline being created about that by fans: several members of the platoon were going to go on R&R, and others about to finish their tour, like Hudson, which is why they kept complaining about the mission and were thinking that it was going to be easy to accomplish. This might also explain why Ferro was a Corporal (one wiki says she was originally supposed to be a Sarge, which meant that she would have outranked Apone) and why the original commander was replaced by Gorman (who also worked with Burke).

Both the military and the company needed a unit that could kill "bugs" (hence, the bug stomper logo), and in this case around two aliens reported by the colony (they didn't know about the hive), and right away with the least people knowing, which is why they used the Sulaco, which was about to be decommissioned, but whose captain and crew had already been transferred to a new ship.