AR is an unintentional comedy, I mean, try taking any of that shit seriously. ALIENS featured comedy to break the tension, AR featured comedy because the very plot of the film was a joke from the start. The clone room scene was genius...pure ALIEN and a throwback to the unused egg chamber scene of the first film. Leland Orser was probably the best thing about AR by the way.
But, backing up....how old were you when you saw AR? Which film in the saga did you see first? I saw portions of ALIENS first as a kid and then saw the original from beginning to end. So, I was able to see how the series started, the formula from the beginning before it became a formula. Thusly I was able to watch the decline from the beginning.