1. Alien 2. Aliens 3. The rest of them That isn't to be flippant; they are all decent movies that don't compare to the two great films. Resurrection was the first one I ever saw and Winona Ryder was one of my first crushes so that one is a little bit more ingrained in my memory.
Rewatched 3 today, the assembly cut, and it’s easily the worst; I’ll do Resurrection and the AVPs soon, but I know they’ll be on par or worse. Not including those, Alien is the top and I rate and enjoy the rest the same and equally.
I don’t mean this to be a hot take, and maybe it’s my own sensory issues, but Paxton (normally love him) drives me insane and grates on my nerves in Aliens. Not as bad, but similar to the kid in Babadook; it affects my enjoyment of the film.
It is the biggest part of the silliness and lightness that Cameron brought to the series. Aliens is very strong on its own terms but there is a reason the other films more closely resemble Alien.