I'm still sifting through this set all these years after buying it, and I'm glad I didn't try to take it all in at once. Aside from being stuck inside for the three weeks or however long it would take to get through, I just get bored watching too much about one subject.

I didn't have the same take as the original poster. My take:

ALIEN is the best of the series. It has the perfect mix of original visuals, compelling story and believable characters. There's so much to talk about, but the thing I loved and still love about this is how we learn almost nothing about the alien. There's no time for an old-fashioned chat session--yeah, it's something we've never seen before, great, how the hell to we kill it???? I love the sense of total isolation at the climax--as Ripley's running to the engine room I thought, when I first saw this, lady, you are totally alone, and NO ONE is going to ride in and save you. Few times have I been so WITH a character in a movie. The creature looks great, I have no idea what the complaint is about a man in a suit--we've known it's a man in a suit for thirty years now, so it'd be a bit weird if anyone watching this didn't know that. There is also a camera taking these images, and real life doesn't have an orchestra playing in the background.

ALIENS is on my list of overrated movies of all time. I ain't getting into that again.

ALIEN 3, especially the assembly edit, is a magnificent science fiction horror film. I've been hearing complaints for years about the killing of Newt and Hicks and to me that's the divide between people who like Cameron-type films and their simple good guy vs. bad guy stuff and what Scott and Fincher were trying to do. This is a HORROR film, and not a "horror" film, and right away we're dropped into a nightmare situation--your 'family' is dead and you are among strangers who hate you. I thought it was a brilliant way to dispose of characters who would give the lead comfort--we're back with Ripley, alone, facing a horrifying situation. The movie is badly wounded by the secondary characters being vile and interchangeable for the most part; if only they'd finished the script before they started making the movie, but they didn't, and this is what we've got. I thought there were lots of missed opportunities and silliness, but every Fincher film has major script issues--I wish the guy had a strong script-savvy producer to help him out there. Having said all that, this is a unique film, and I always like that.

ALIEN RESURRECTION is too pretty for its own good. The characters are all "badass" caricatures, which might not have hurt if the New Improved Ripley had some reason for being. One of the worst movies I've paid to see in the theater.