Personally I think the Strause Brothers saved the film from Shane Salerno, the original script was total garbage. In the end though, I really liked AVPR, for a popcorn action/horror flick, it was pretty good. Everyone hated the setting, but I found it quite interesting. It reminded me of the old, cheesy "Aliens invade small town USA" movies like "The Blob."
Course I'd still like to see a proper AVP that takes place in the future with colonial marines, I think that's what everyone here wants at this point, or at least those who haven't lost complete faith in AVP as a film franchise.