The Alien's Intelligence

Really.....now that adds a whole new twist to...."they took out the power", "how'd they take out the power they're animals man".

Very interesting. Going to need more than a deck of cards then hahaha

they're also smart enough to OPEN doors, even electronic ones, as seen in ALIENS.

Maybe the camera moved and therefor it was attacked. 

Even with a certain degree of intelligence you need to know what a camera is and the concept behind it. 

I doubt there are any xeno-schools on Paradise. So where did it get the knowledge? The same is true for the "Power" in Aliens.

Anyone seen that clip with someone running round the ship and a phone is just hanging there? Looks like an engineer to me.

Tiwaz,

One of the concepts in Aliens is its knowledge is learned and passed down at a genetic level.  So what ever its host knew it knows.

Who's to say the vessel for gestation does not share some innate intelligence of some sort with the final product? Much in the way a salmon knows to migrate a certain way, etc.

Dont forget the queen in Aliens somehow figured out how to use the elevator............ they obviously have at least some sort of reasoning and problem solving ability, albeit somewhat primal

@Rick - I see...

Most animals pass down a basic level of knowledge.  Like an infant at birth knows it needs to suckle from its mother and the mother at a biological level knows it needs to feed its offspring.  These are very basic levels of understanding that are passed on genetically.  Take that to the next level with advanced understanding and problem solving skills of the Xeno/Protomorph and David's genetic tampering.

good points here... indeed its nice for them to show us the Xenomorph Intelligence and indeed a great display was in Aliens when they found out they could not get past the Sentry Guns and so they decided to take to the Space above the Ceilings.

I can see the point with how would they know about Cameras and how to turn off the Power... i think this is a oversight we have to accept rather than Plot Hole of sorts.... as well AC has many more than this.

BD - To the same point.  I also feel that the xeno's are also emotional.  I think the sentry part where they came in force and then got their asses handed to them was from over-confidence in their ability to over-run the settlement.  Then they had to fall back regroup and take a different tactic.  This is real strategic intelligence.