"They mostly come at night... mostly."

From Telkoth.net

I saw Aliens (Alien 2) today for what I believe was the first time ever. I have vague memories of an Alien movie from a long time ago, but only little scenes... someone at a table with an alien popping out of their stomach... the woman jumping into some fire...

Overall, Aliens seemed like a pretty decent sci-fi. I mean, Zach and I were talking about this: what if they made Aliens today? It'd be terrible! They'd have rolling 3D explosions, and holographic projection maps, and shower scenes with the ridiculously-sexy main character woman. But Aliens was old enough that they either didn't have the technology for it, or they couldn't get away with it. So what's left? A so-so sci-fi movie which has not made terrible by tawdry shower scenes and overused CGI.

It's like... think of Star Wars episodes 4 through 6 compared to, oh I dunno, episodes 1 through 3. What they didn't do with shower scenes they made up for with CGI and terrible acting [imagines Anikin's love poetry followed shortly by Darth Vader screaming "noooo"].

Or Back to the Future compared to that terrible... rendition of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine: The Time Machine.

I'm not saying all the new sci-fi is bad... or all the old sci-fi is good... but damn, there were definitely some better principles, or maybe it was just limitations, that could be learned from for application today.