I've tried to like Alien, but just can't get into it.

Most of the effects hold up pretty well, IMO.

You make some good points......for a person used to modern special effects, cgi etc.... ET is the same in that respect. Also, you could argue that movies of the time such as Superman, the effects in each sequel got progressively worse. As did the original Star Wars trilogy. Jaws, what more can I say.
If the effects drag away from the story too much for you then you are probably never going to enjoy it. Personally speaking I love the movie despite its' effects not looking so special these days. Much the same as I love Jaws.

I loved the movie primarily because of the feeling of it. The atmosphere was incredible, from the moments the ship wakes up to the landing on the planet. I loved the all the lights go on underneath the landing ship, and the elevator down to the ground, and then trudging through the alien landscape.

The monster, as a monster, and was certainly scary as hell, but I agree with you about the chest-burster scene. BUT, for me, I saw the lack of the special effects the way someone who was actually there would have seen it, and it seemed real to me. For example, when something so unexpected and disorienting occurs our brains are kind of freaked out and we are not thinking of perceiving right ... mind-blind was how Malcolm Gladwell described it. So that a tiny little rubber monster could be how that thing would be perceived, or any abonormalities in how it moved would just look like a track. Anyway, the point for me is that the atmosphere was enough to suspend my disbelief.

I did not like the acid-blood idea, I thought it was stupid. I did not like the fact that this thing grew so fast with nothing to eat, or that it was obviously much more ungainly than a human being and yet it was moving around in the air ducts. Also, the teeth were ridiculous ... but you just have to go with the story.

Oh, and I thought the idea of calling the ship's computer mother, and that stupid room with all the lights in it was ridiculous. But it was fun to see when it came out.

Can't make every one happy. Make the alien more realistic and people will complain about it being CGI and not practicle enough. I would have thought the pacing of the film is what turns people off the most about it.

The only effect I thought was lame was when the Alien was waiting for Dallas where the actor in the suit is clearly waiting for the dallas to show up. They are trying to make it seem like the creature was rushing towards dallas where it pops up and grabs him but its clearly a trick where the creature is there the whole time and springs up when the light is turned on like a spring loaded cat scare.

The scene where the alien decends like a spider from the landing gear is what sold me on the idea that the creature is stalking the crew and toying with them rather then out right outrunning them as it knows its clearly stronger and faster then them and will get them when its done toying with them.

When it first popped out of Kane I always assumed it was just first learning to use its muscle and vision as it peered around looking at the crew which is why its movments looked so contrived. I get what your saying it does look a little wobbly as it jets down a predefined track off the table as if it is going to fall overy sideways as its ripped down the track. I suspect they probably did do several takes as the creature may well have toppled over a few times.

Alien was a totally new kind of movie of the time. Most Aliens were portrayed as intelligent invaders prior to alien and gigers level of detail of another other worldly animal as well as the strange biomechanoid derelict and its unexplained pilot(prometheus didn't do the space jokey any justice regrettably). While a lot of aspects about Alien seem dated by today's standards thats merely cause Alien invented alot of the genre we're used to seeing today. I'm still waiting for another movie to give us a totally new experience the way Alien did in 1979.

I never liked Alien either. Aliens is way better. But that's maybe because I don't like horror movies in general. I find horrors silly and not scary, thus not interesting.

Do you like horror movies?

You know, I'd thought for years that I didn't care for it, and I gather I must not have when I was younger. I tried it again recently and thought it was better than I'd given it credit for. Still can't say I loved it, but it was entertaining.

The universe ... you are the only person in the universe that does not like this movie!

I agree that watching some films 20 years after their original release is not going to have the same(or even remotely similar) impact as when it first came out. Heck, I remember being very stressed out watching The Shining for the first time in 1980 but when I saw it the next summer in 1981 it already looked dated and almost unwatchable.
In short, some movies last the test of time, some don't.
Now, all this being said is Alien the best sci-fi movie of it's era?
Yeah.