I enjoy Aliens for what it is, but it’s barely a sequel to Alien.
barely???
In terms of tone Aliens is more in line with films like Predator and the Terminator (no surprise considering James Cameron made that one) than the first film.
Alien is filmed in a matter of fact sort of way with a more consistent visual effects quality and with superior score and a more epic looking aspect ratio. Aliens is in places very tatty (like ROTJ and Temple of Doom), it’s quotable and fun action, rather than grim cosmic horror in vein of H.P. Lovecraft or the Demeter sequences of Dracula.
The Queen is amazing in Aliens and Sigourney plays it straight but then you have balance that against possibly the most annoying child actor performance in a major motion picture (Jake Lloyd’s antics are actually more tolerable than Carrie Henn’s mostly painful line delivery… mostly and her awful screeches) and James Horner recycling his other score (kept expecting the Klingons to turn up) and John Williams’ (as the atmosphere processor goes boom you can almost see Tarkin stroking his chin).
I like Aliens but it’s a very different film and yes barely feels like a sequel.