I know some of you guys have been saying that in the alien movies people were retarded, but I don't necessarily think that's the case for at least the first three films.
First movie you got them dealing with something they have no knowledge about whatsoever. They're discovering what the hell this damn thing is, and they come up with a game plan and try to track down the chestburster, they even make a tracking unit and a cattle prod cuz they think it's going to be small. But then they start getting picked off. They tried to trap it in the air ducts because they realized that's how it was moving and Dallas goes into flamethrower it.
Right after that they decided they're going to get on to the shuttle and blow up the ship. That's not retarded whatsoever. That's why the movie is so good because they're dealing with the unknown and they make a rational decisions but it doesn't work out because they're fighting the perfect organism or whatever the hell.
Aliens is pretty similar other than the only really retarded move is when Gorman doesn't pull his team out after Ripley tells him to and they decide to take away everybody's ammunition, but that might be arguable because of the thermonuclear reaction shit. I mean they do sit and plan for potential entry points into the main base and set up the smart guns and everything. They come up with a plan to get the dropship down, there's nothing retarded about that. It's a tight movie that makes certain it doesn't necessarily just put retarded people into a scenario, because again the colonial Marines were dealing with something they didn't understand, and there wasn't a hive before.
Even in the third movie, Ripley explains to them what's going on, they don't believe her until the warden gets killed, and then they come up with a plan with what they got. Yeah you get some random kills here and there because nobody's got any weapons, but nobody was acting retarded.
However you get to the fourth film and everything after that, and I totally agree, it's retard Central and not the good kind.
The TV show is filled with retarded moments, and it's all just to advance the plot versus having challenges or problems to solve for the main characters like in the other films that competently does the same thing, but you're not left there questioning why in the world this particular character would do something so asinine.
The Doctor has spoken...