Bingowings said:

I rather liked killing of Newt and Hicks at the beginning of Alien 3 it set up the bleakness of the situation (how long could Ripley realistically get away with being around those things anyway?).

I am not sure I think killing off Newt and Hicks was a horrible idea either, but it did really negate the second movie on many levels. And it was obvious that it was done as a matter of convenience. We've run out of story telling space for the little kid and Hicks, so we'll just write them out before the story even starts.

I am actually one of the only people I know who likes Alien 3. I saw it before Aliens, right after I watched Alien for the first time and I always kind of liked the atmosphere of it. Both Alien and Alien 3 had a sort of lonely oppressive atmosphere about them, but it was pulled off in different ways in each film. I kind of liked that. Aliens, which I didn't see until many years after my first viewing of Alien and Alien 3, lacks that oppressive, claustrophobic, lonely feeling which defined the franchise to me during the years between being introduced to it and finally seeing Aliens for the first time.

Ultimately, Aliens is just a style over substance sequel to what was a really awesome stand alone sci-fi film, which is why I am surprised so many people claim to like it better than the first film.