Why do some people prefer Alien over Aliens?

[razeak]

Aliens is also a really good thriller with some great horror moments on top of the fantastic character development of Ripley.

"Derp derp! It has guns! Action movie! Her der!"

It's stupid. Horror doesn't automatically get a pass over action as a genre.

They're both pretty much near perfect and to sit back and regurgitate "Alien is a good sci go horror and Aliens is a good Sci fi action" as if that is the only thing way to compare them has gotten lazy or habit. Or people are tired of the comparison lol.

[SiL]

Just another dumb, generic, pew-pew ripoff of Starship Troopers, right?

I've heard people try to say the film was a ripoff of the book and I knew those people had either never read the book or never watched Aliens.

[SM]

I rate Aliens alongside stuff like Empire Strikes Back in the 'Best Sequels Ever' stakes.

[Immortan Jonesy]

Precisely.

Just another dumb, generic, pew-pew ripoff of Starship Troopers, right?

I've heard people try to say the film was a ripoff of the book and I knew those people had either never read the book or never watched Aliens.

Some interpret the social darwinism in Starship Tropeers as a fascist concept. Aliens has nothing to do with it. It has more in common with the Vietnam War. It's like comparing Star Trek with Star Wars. Two universes with spaceships & aliens, and yet totally different. The similarities are superficial at best.

[Chris!(($$))!]

I absolutely adore ALIEN and ALIENS.

But I think as I get older I start to lean towards ALIEN. But it could just be a phase where I switch between the two.

For a long time ALIENS was my favorite.

But the sheer dread and mysticism of the first one has started to take more of my interest.

[SiL]

Some interpret the social darwinism in Starship Tropeers as a fascist concept.

Some interpret the fascism in Starship Troopers as fascism. It was not subtle.

[oduodu]

I absolutely adore ALIEN and ALIENS.

But I think as I get older I start to lean towards ALIEN. But it could just be a phase where I switch between the two.

For a long time ALIENS was my favorite.

But the sheer dread and mysticism of the first one has started to take more of my interest.

That exactly the way I feel. The sheer mystery of the creature itself the derelict and space jockey transcends time for me.

[judge death]

Alien I would say I prefer more as its more mysterious and horror and you are alone out in deep space with something deadly and inteligent creature that you have almost no knowledge about. These days its my fave bed time story

Aliens is like redlettermedia said: a movie that do what alien did beat for beat: cryosleep, both have motion tracker, both have a breakfast scene, both show the alien around 1 hour in, both have the end being a countdown to impending explosion, both have a boss ending where the alien is defeated in the same way: through the airlock. Both ends in the same way.
Basicly Aliens is alien but reshaped a bit and marines added to the formula.

[StrangeShape]

Reading the entries it's interesting to me to see that as oppose to few others, I originally didn't like or dislike Aliens, and was instead fascinated by the dark and mysterious feel of the first film. And that's another thing, few already mentioned that what they really liked about the original was the mystery and the untold. So did I. It wasn't until as late as maybe 2009 or 2010 (and Ive been an Alien fan since early to mid 90s) when I rewatched Aliens for the first time in years that it completely floored me and I passionately admire it just as much as the first film. What I love most about Aliens is the feel of it, the look, and the backlit imagery is just stunning

[Nrmiller]

Alien is high art, one of the best pieces of scifi cinematic art there is.

Aliens is one of the best pieces of entertainment ever made.

It's one of the reasons why the franchise, even parts of it the people dismiss, is so great. I can't think of other franchises so well known that allow filmmakers to depart stylistically so much from one another. 1 2 3 and Res are all vastly different and regardless of your opinion of their success they feel deeply like the people who created them. Which is pretty amazing for an on again off again tent pole series.

[SiL]

Alien is a lot of things but high art is a stretch...

[son_of_kane]

Alien is high art, one of the best pieces of scifi cinematic art there is.

Aliens is one of the best pieces of entertainment ever made.

I definitely think of Alien in those terms. A very sophisticated art house sci-fi horror. Very Kubrickian. You could almost replace "Directed by Ridley Scott" with "Directed by Stanley Kubrick". Aliens is a brilliant, brilliant popcorn movie and I love it to death. But I prefer Alien.

[SiL]

Alien is very far removed from a Kubrick movie. You could slap Kubrick's name on it, but you'd just have people being very confused at his abandonment of all of his vision and style.

And art house? How? It's an entirely conventional movie done well.

[BlueMarsalis79]

Often a number of successful popular art gets reframed as high art, as time goes on, Alien's one such example. High versus Low art's a harmful distinction anyway.

[Immortan Jonesy]

At least we can agree that monster design is based on art.