> Been a long time since I watched Aliens. The bad guys (the ones who
> kept taking chances with these monsters) were in the first movies were
> top military who wanted to weaponize them, and subsequently big corps
> and corrupt pols/mil in bed with them. Is my memory deceiving me
> there, or am I just forgetting another trope that went with it? If I
> remember right it was a populist narrative with all the flaws that go
> with certain types of liberal populism.
Well, in Cameron's "Aliens," the 2nd one of the franchise, the bad guy is Carter Burke, an up-and-coming corporate exec that sends a family of prospectors out to check on Ripley's 50-year-old data. The colony gets munched as a result, and when Burke, Ripley and the Marines get there, a complete route ensues because the Marine Captain is the least experienced of the squad, and completely inept. Burke's final plan to get a "bug" back alive (for his own profit) is to impregnate Ripley and the sole young survivor from the colony. But he gets munched 50% thru the film.
"Aliens" doesn't paint a very nice picture of corporate types or the military, but Ripley's "nuke 'em" revenge scenario isn't the best solution.
The movie hasn't aged badly unless you're tired of Cameron's thing. I missed _Avatar_, so I might be fresher than some...