I don't really agree with most of his points in the video. The thing about the military being portrayed intentionally as unfit doesn't come across at all in the movie. He's reading into things that might not be there. It's not like in Aliens where they're shown overconfident and naive, only to later get their butts kicked and start panicking like crazy. That's a very clear critique about the army.
And he boils down legitimate critiques to a matter of taste like that doesn't matter. Then why do we even review movies at all?
If he can't find detailed explanations of why the Newborn design isn't liked by so many, then he hasn't done enough research.
I do agree that it's popular to really hate the less successful movies in the franchise. People do love having someone/something to hate. And yes, popular YouTube movie reviewers are definitely crazy biased and show extreme points of view cause they do live off of entertainment after all. BUT, lets not go overboard. Never insult an audience, the "masses" aren't blind sheep like the less fortunate like to believe. It wasn't super successful, critiques nowadays hate it (that's is profitable after all even when there are legitimate reasons), but I find that most people just don't like it that much. And when that's the case, there has to be a reason for it. People aren't stupid, when you make a good movie, you'll find your audience. It may not make enough money (like BR and BR2049) but it will become a cult classic over time then. That's not happening with A:R.
The points about Ripley's character arc are nice and I do love her portrayal in the movie, but that's only one part of it. It's everything else that's a mess to a greater or lesser degree. And the point about the movie being about outsiders? Yeah, that doesn't come across at all. It's not focused on that or developed enough at all. Then the way he says that if you've ever felt like an outsider, you'll like this movie sounds very arrogant to me (even if that was not the intention, it still sounds like "only the really special and smart people will like this movie"). And I couldn't disagree more with his opinion that the trilogy felt like it was missing something for the Ripley character and that A:R gives that. I, and maybe others, feel like that the trilogy rounded off Ripley's journey quite well, I don't care about the story archetypes even if it fits in well here (Ripley's story is more than just that, and if I'm not mistaken these women archetypes can fit in pretty well even with Arnold in the Terminator movies?). A:R started something new, potentially interesting and left it at that, we'll never see the rest of Ripley 8's journey.
And all of this I say as someone who actually really likes watching A:R. I recognize it has flaws, the Alien redesigns have more bad than good in them (I do like some aspects though of course), the camerawork is annoying, the humor and dialog just doesn't fit in well stylistically with the other movies (so much for a serious grounded universe) and I personally really don't like the crew of the Betty (though I have warmed up to them in time) and the story itself out of the bat is so redundant.
But also, the sets are beautiful, the effects are great, the movie feels really fun to watch, Ripley 8 is kinda awesome, I loved the crazy scientists and the universe setting it made wasn't too bad.
I used to watch it quite frequently, more then the other movies in the franchise at one time, because it just somehow felt more faster and energetic.
And yeah, A:R > AVPR (and I actually enjoy watching both)
