DuracellEnergizer said:

I personally would have liked Aliens better if most the soldiers hadn't been colossal douchebags and the xenomorphs themselves had been depicted as possibly sentient creatures rather than as giant, instinct-driven bugs.

Well, I don't mind the soldiers so much as I always saw them as an analogy for the hubris of man and all that rubbish, how bravado is insufficient in the face of a true threat and blah blah blah.

But the xenomorphs were just kneecapped by the script and they lost a lot of their threat. It was a great movie and I love it, but I think it really hurt the franchise.