The first AVP had some good ideas, it was poorly written and executed as well.
The second one was ok, I enjoyed it, but they went too far in the homage to the comics, the predalien was a fucking abomination and never a storyline I cared for. Had they ditched the predalien and set AVP2 in the future on another planet, same essential story, it would of worked very well, as that is essentially the comic on which it was based and what the first film should have been. Fucking accountants though, no set it on earth it will be cheaper to film, c*nts.
2 is certainly better than 1 in a few respects, they went for a Ripley clone in Ailsworth, which didnt exactly work, but it was a good idea, they got the sound effects for the Aliens dead on the same as from Aliens, same Horner music as well, the Alien section of the film was Aliens as well, running about under red lights in heavy rain jumping in and out of APC's. Then they did the same sorts of things for the Predator bits, little bits of dialogue the same and what not, pissed myself when he shouts 'get to the chopper' Its funny because I liked those aspects about AVP2, that they did all those sorts of things, but its as I said it makes it like two films smashed together, rather than a single story on its own, so ultimately it doesnt work.
Finchers D-cut of Alien3 is well worth watching if you havent seen it, 10 times the film that the originally released cut is, its a totally different film in fact, Alien3 is very underrated, it is brilliant and a total revelation if all you have ever seen is the theatrical cut. It also suffered because of the weight of expectations, everyone expected it to be bigger and louder, more guns and explosions than Cameron's Aliens, which it wasnt it went back to the dirty claustrophobic feel of Alien, Scott is Finchers role model not that whore Cameron.