I'm just gonna talk about James Cameron for a sec because Aliens is one of the things he's done that I liked.
I have a really ambivalent relationship with James Cameron's work and I wish he was less successful. Not because I wish ill upon the guy, but because I think there is a direct correlation between how much he is reined in by outside forces and the quality of his work. T2 & Aliens things held together because he understood and ruthlessly leveraged the way audiences tend to quickly become protective of family units, even if it's one as impromptu as Ripley-Hicks-Newt* or the Connors and a killing machine who can't act.** But you get into human relationships less clear cut or world building more complicated than that and suddenly the dude gets lost up his own asshole. I really wish he had a wider emotional palette than that because honestly, nobody frames a shot better than Cameron. The only one who disappoints me more is probably David Fincher.
I know I'm in the minority on this though given that people watched Avatar and Titanic like 80 hojillion times for some reason.
*Mind you, Aliens was hardly a tearjerker or character study, but that didn't stop people from being super pissed when A3 killed off Newt & Hicks in about the most cavalier fashion possible. Cameron and Biehn certainly didn't care for it.
**Actually, I unabashedly love Ahnuld, but it must be said that Conan and the Terminators were perfect for him because they openly played to his limitations.