That's quite a read you've made into my statement.
Nowhere in what I said did I mention the absolute equivalence of the 1st installment to the 3rd in regards to the alien, anyone with decent eyesight could see that the alien was more dog like and even Ripley said it was somehow different than the one she encountered. Hell, it came OUT of the dog. That was never in question in what I said. What it did do is BEHAVE like the original: singling out and stalking its prey.
What I did imply was was that one alien is a lot scarier than a boatload and in that regard, the 3rd was more faithful to the 1st than the 2nd. Nothing more, and quite easy to follow.
The 2nd installment was a beefed up take on the first. Put all those aliens in Spartan gear and one could have called it '300 Aliens'.
