That's one hell of a man in a suit! And when ALIEN first played in theaters, we were never quite sure what we were seeing. Anyway, it totally worked.

ALIENS is a thrilling war movie that was pretty audacious for its time. Cameron did right by not trying to copy or continue what Ridley Scott did with the first one.

I always liked ALIEN 3 more than most people seemed to. To me, it tries to be more like the first one, only darker and more nihilistic. There are some very powerful scenes. I like the assembly cut better than the original--some of the stuff that was left out the first time seems essential after viewing it now-- but Ripley's final scene is much better in the theatrical version.

ALIEN RESURRECTION always struck me as pure pulp sci-fi done extremely well, and I enjoy it very much on that level.

(By the way, I like to consider ALIENS as a self-contained story and let Ripley have her happy ending with Newt and Hicks. ALIEN 3 exists in an alternate timeline to me.)

I don't really consider AVP to be an official part of the series despite Lance Henricksen's presence. I always thought ALIEN 4 should be about the aliens finally reaching Earth and invading the unsuspecting populace in large numbers (which is what the entire series seemed to be leading up to all along), with the ending of ALIEN RESURRECTION being the perfect setup for this. After having the first three films take place in mostly closed settings with smaller groups of people, the fourth episode of the "Ripley" saga had the potential of being an all-out aliens-vs.-humans war with Earth as the battlefield.
Legend, oh legend, the third wheel legend...always in the way.