To me the answer is obvious. Alien is better on just about every single level than Aliens. The film looks better, it works better as a whole (who doesn’t want to fast forward through everything leading up to the first fight in Aliens?), it’s got real human characters, and it’s simply got a better alien. Aliens was impressive for its time, and we should always remember that, but I do feel like eventually we’re going to have to realize that James Cameron’s macho posturing, filled with paper soldiers and tough one liners, can never match the elegant terror of Ridley Scott’s original.