Alien vs Predator

I like AVP. It may not even be as good as Alien: Resurrection, but it's acceptable and has some moments. Queen rampage is neat. Compared to TF2, you can actually see everything in the action scenes.

Now AVPR on the other hand is a joke. Some part of me died a little when the Alien appeared in the school. The only watchable stuff is everything that is in the trailer, everything else is a mess.

It is, like most of Anderson's stuff, beautifully shot mediocrity. Nothing more or less.

AVP was weak. Requiem was at least a BIT better. The mall stuff was kinda neat. It's basically what was promised when the first trailer for Alien3 came out. Good to see the franchise is dead now so we can get back to giving the two factions more breathing room. I like the Predator as a villain and not a human ally. I like seeing the xenomorphs as villains instead of fodder.

Fuck Anderson in his ass.

I don't hate AVP to the same degree that others do; Justin summed it up pretty well by calling it beautiful mediocrity. My main issue with it is that they had a perfect movie to adapt with the original Dark Horse comic and they ignored it, feeling that they had to bring it to Earth and create a mythology around the two species. This belonged in the future, not in the present.

AVP:R is utter and complete shit.

AVP is a masterpiece compared to Requiem. For everyone who hates Paul W. Anderson, Requiem proved that there are much MUCH worse filmmakers out there.

When I saw this movie, it was the first time as an adult I fell asleep in the theater. Such a bore.

I hated, HATED, those goddamn NFL quarterback-lookin' Predators. And their new faces, Christ.

AVP-R might be one of the worst films I have ever seen. It seemed like they took a script from a bad low-budget slasher film and shoehorned in Aliens and Predators, and then shot it with no lights and the zoom button pushed all the way in. Wasn't there even a skinny dipping scene?

Both movies were terrible. AVP was more painful for the simple fact that I had waited almost 15 years for a new Predator movie and was given this piece of crap. AVP:R had such an awful fucking script but from a production point, the music, sound design, and look of the creatures felt more authentic. It felt like a big-budget version of one of those non-cannon fan films they sell at conventions.

AVP: R reminded me of all those 80's sci-fi/horror flicks that Slither was paying homage to, which is why I enjoyed it somewhat despite it being horrible. The creature designs being slightly better helped, too.

Still, pretty bad.

I hated AvP-R. The problem is that AvP-R treated the Aliens and Predators like simple villains. They're not simple villains. They're at least half of what we came to see. Even in Alien, the Alien is treated like a character because there's only one. A movie like Freddy vs. Jason may have been focused on the other characters to a certain extent, but it treated the icons like the point of the movie, and when they started battling, the spotlight was entirely on them.

I kinda liked Alien vs. Predator, primarily because of Lance Henriksen and the interesting location/strong cinematography, and because it didn't commit the crimes that AvP-R ultimately would.

Never gave AVP the time of day. Was dragged to AVPR for an outing with friends and ended up dozing off for 3/4ths of it.

Well, that's the end of that.

I could actually make out the fight scenes in Alien vs Predator, so that helps.

Yeah, I still seething about AVP:R on this respect.

Atleast SciFi Originals let you see what's going on...

Finally watched AvP:R last night and, yeah, that's 2 hours of my life I'll never have back and a bunch of brain cells wasted. Utterly wretched on every level. It's like a terrible homage to Slither, which was--in turn--an awesome homage to Chuck Russell's The Blob and a million monster-from-another-world-invades-smalltown-America movies from the '50s.

Oh, can someone explain 2 things for me: (1) why was the predator fighting an alien in the power plant and then suddenly fighting an alien in the high school nadatorium and the suddenly fighting an alien in the power plant again and then suddenly chasing the alien through the high school? there was only one predator, right?!?, and (2) why is the alien blood acidic sometimes, but not others? I seem to recall it melting through deck after deck of the Nostromo, but, apparently this small Colorado town is built from better, tougher materials.

The natatorium scene is such a great example that the movie was made by people who don't know how to make movies. So we have The Hot Chick stripping to her underwear (and hey, why not? She's hot and she'll be on location for a few weeks) only to immediately put her clothes back on when her boyfriend comes. He tosses pizza boy in the pool and they have a big poolfight. Why not have the two guy and girl go swimming while the audience knows the alien is in the pool? Sure, better movies have done this kind of scene before, but it's way more effective than a pointless fight. You could even have the asshole kid jump in the pool to beat the fuck out of pizza boy only to get attacked by the alien. I dunno, SOMETHING over that stupid, tenseless scene.

My favorite AVP tidbit is that Paul WS Anderson wrote the script over eight years. EIGHT FUCKING YEARS.

AvP at least tries to do something different. It adds a huge backstory, although it comes across like a retarded Chariot of the Gods. It's in a setting, snow, we've never seen the Aliens or Predators in. The temple is also pretty cool. It has multiple Predators.

It's a dumb, dumb movie, and more gore, better looking Predators, and respect for the Alien life cycle would have vastly improved it (are we supposed to think these Aliens have been engineered to breed faster or something? Because that's a recipe for disaster...), but I still dig it.

AvP: R seems to have sprung right out of my 13 year old self's subconscious. We get a few tidbits I'd been wanting for years (an alien eating, Predator home planet, setting on Earth, Predalien), but it's just not a very good movie. I will give it credit, it establishes the connections between the townspeople and the geography of the town pretty well at the beginning. Unfortunately I don't give a shit about any of the characters.

The Wolf Predator, however, is undeniably awesome. I love how the situation very quickly spirals out of control, and he seems to get more and more desperate. With the context of Predators, I'm wondering if Wolf went to Earth alone as a "cleaner" because, maybe, the yellow Predators aren't supposed to be on Earth in the first place. Might piss the black Preds off?

This. The actual fights between the aliens and predators in AVP are pretty cool. The problem is that theres like 5 minutes of it in the entire movie. Anderson instead chooses to focus on the human component and create a truly ridiculous mythology and drops the ball on both fronts. Its nowhere near the travesty people make it out to be though, and I think it can be a lot of fun.

But fuck AVP:R. The obnoxious fanwank wouldn't bother me so much (hell, I really liked Predators), if the whole thing wasn't shot in total darkness. An incomprehensible mess, and any slack I'd be willing to cut it for delivering some gore is offset by the fact that I can't make out any of it. And that ending with Ms. Yutani really made me cringe. It felt like the worst kind of fan service. Anderson pulls the same shit in AVP, but for some reason it didn't bother me nearly as much.

Truly.

AVP is a "disappointing missed opportunity" situation.
AVP:R is a "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions" situation.

The creatures in the 2nd one may be better, but I only really know that because they're visible in the BTS features.

I recently watched both of these (along with the two MUCH better original Predator flicks) to whet my appetite for Predators. I agree with the consensus above. Both movies had some good ideas and scenes but that was completely overshadowed by all the crappiness in the rest of the film.

AVP
- I liked the snow angle but hated the stupid shape-shifting temple.
- Henrikson makes everything a little bit better. He's like bacon.
- With the exception of Lance the human characters are boring as piss. Not a single one was memorable or interesting.
- Liked the AVP fight scenes.
- Still hate the fact that it had to be on Earth. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
- Love the ninja air attack by the Predator at the end when he sticks his spear in the queen's neck. Cheesy but cool.
- Despise the fact that in these movies the aliens grow to adulthood in like 10 mins. Let's just fuck the mythology in the face why don't we?

AVPR
- I just don't understand the whole "let's shoehorn AVP into a bad early 90s slasher flick". Why? Who signed off on that?
- Loved the hot girl getting Glaived in the hospital, ha! Also liked the husband getting killed by the "monster" in front of his daughter. That girl is scarred for life now.
- How in the hell did the Predalien put eggs in pregnant women? What the fuck? Let's just ignore the whole facehugger backstory.
- Liked the bad ass lone wolf Predator. Hated the fact that when dozens and possibly hundreds of aliens started cropping up he just stuck to his original kill them one at a time plan.
- So many recycled scenes from prior AVP/P/A movies as well as other movies. Nothing original.
- Naming the kid Dallas was such a FUCK YOU to Alien and Skerritt.
- The Yutani shit at the end made no sense.
- Seconded on the whole "alien acid only works part of the time" bs. These Predators must have armor and skin made of adamantium.

These two films really prove the adage that at times Hollywood has no clue on what kind of genre film to make. Forget for a sec the fact that Dark Horse comics did such a good job with both properties that could have been used as a basis. I would say that 90% of fanwank would have made for better stories and plots than these two films.

I agree totally. They focused the movie on the humans which was a terrible idea because we don't care in the slightest bit about any of them like we would in slasher movies. We want to see Aliens fight Predators. If they had focused the movie on the Wolf predator, it would've been better. He had a decent story going on. Also, like everyone else I wish it wasn't so dark. If someone could, I'd like to see a re-edited version that just took out the humans (except if they're getting killed) and brightened up all the darkness.

[QUOTE=JudgeSmails;2975144]
AVPR
- How in the hell did the Predalien put eggs in pregnant women? What the fuck? Let's just ignore the whole facehugger backstory.

Uh, pretty obvious since it was a hybrid and a young queen, that it had a wholly different reproduction method. So NO, they didn't ignore the facehugger backstory.


- Liked the bad ass lone wolf Predator. Hated the fact that when dozens and possibly hundreds of aliens started cropping up he just stuck to his original kill them one at a time plan.

Actually, that's a pretty smart tactic. Why let yourself get swarmed to the point your only way out is to self detonate? It's not like his weapons were designed to take out gangs of them. They were designed for singular kills like in hunting. True to the nature of the Predator if you ask me.

- So many recycled scenes from prior AVP/P/A movies as well as other movies. Nothing original.

Well that's not really true.

- The Yutani shit at the end made no sense.

Weyland-Yutani, the evil company from the Alien series. Hello!!! She's gonna use the pred tech. I just cringe at the other dude's line "This wasn't meant for our world"

- Seconded on the whole "alien acid only works part of the time" bs. These Predators must have armor and skin made of adamantium.

Since Predators have hunted Aliens for centuries, it makes complete and total sense some of their armor and weapons are acid resistant. Oh yeah, in some book series, Predator blood is shown to neutralize the acid to a degree.

AvP is bad

AvP:R is more entertaining, but a worse film. And I've only seen the movie on Blu, but the film wasn't too dark. No problem seeing what was going on at all...

I was never a big fan of the Predator physiology affecting the life cycle or the appearance of the Alien in such a drastic way. The dog alien from 3 didn't have a canine shaped mouth it just had the dog's skeletal structure in the way its hind legs functioned.

I do 'get' why they designed it the way they did, I'm just not a fan of that design I guess.

Radb's defense of these movies is so entertaining. I think I read his post three times. The best part? "Well that's not really true."

Preach on, brother.

I almost, ALMOST bought the boxed Blu-ray set of these two movies. I was convincing myself that it'd be worth it just to have every Predator appearance on Blu-ray (I'm a big Predator fan), but I changed my mind at the last minute (as in, I was already in line to buy).

God, am I glad.

The only movies I buy on Blu-ray are summer blockbusters I actively enjoy, and flicks I'd consider "desert island movies" that I want to see in their best video quality possible. So, buying AvP and AvP:R just for nostalgia's sake would've been a big misstep.

The gore in AvP:R (and the well-designed Preds) were enough to make me pick up the DVD of that (and the completist in me made me pick up AvP), but to hell with getting them on Blu-ray... DVD's the max they're worth.

I overpaid $2.50 for each movie. I managed to dilute the shittiness by also buying TORQUE, XXX: STATE OF THE UNION, and PREDATOR 2. Damn me and my Predator/Ice Cube kick.

The reason Aliens even look the way they do is because they're gestated in humans. In all the movies, the only time they were gestated in anything different was Alien 3. It would make sense being gestated in a completely different alien species would have the affect it does.

"Well that's not really true" ha, I never said the "original" scenes were "good". But stuff like the Predalien, most stuff with Wolf including the Predator planet, double plasmacaster kill, etc are original. Anything with humans involved was probably not original.

Sorry, no dice. I understand and can accept that the Predalien/Queen combo leads to a different hybrid, sure. But one that is 180 degress different in reproduction methods from all others? Every queen we've ever seen has "birthed" eggs that lead to fachuggers of some kind. And all of a sudden a new hybrid queen can regurgitate non-facehuggers but true baby aliens and only into pregnant women? Stupid...unless of course Predators give birth by throwing up in each other. Doubt it.

Well, yes it is. Let's see, where to start. Ok, we get the cheesy "le's pause the battle so I can sllloowwwwllly take my face mask off to fight the main alien". We get "kind of neat shot of alien swimming". We get "mean bully beats up wimpy pizza boy who is our hero". We get "Predator gets cut and has to use green glue and cry like bitch when he fixes the wound". We get "Predator gets alien tail in back during main fight". We get "super advanced technology just happens to be left behind and becomes the catalyst for the prior movies which take place in the future". I'm sure there are more but the video was too dark who the hell knows.

Yes, I recognized the name of course. I meant it made no sense in the fact that it was a cheap way to shoehorn the Alien mythology into the movie. Maybe if they had set it up with Yutani and her peeps closely watching the skies or monitoring radio transmissions for signs of the Predators. Or found a way to explain how she knew about what happend in P or AVP. No, let's just show our neebish US Colonel give her the weapon. Oh, and I guess Yutani either runs the US military or is powerful enough that after NUKING an American city they can also hide the fact that a super weapon showed up and they gave it to a non-military citizen.

That's a cop out. It's just an easy way to make the battles more kung-fu BS than to show the acid working as it usually does. Oh, and if they can use their blood or armor to stop the acid they just don't like to use that in their intergalactic spaceships they use to transport aliens? Genius.

My favorite bit related to the acid blood? During the climatic rooftop scene, Generic Hero Dude is gunning down aliens with the Pred's shoulder cannon. For the bazillionth time in the film, a character--in this case, Generic Hero Dude--looks up to find an alien crouched directly above his head. However, instead of meekly cringing backward like every other character except GI Jane, he shoots the alien who is, again, DIRECTLY ABOVE HIM. Now, you would imagine this would result in Generic Hero Dude being drenched in acid blood, right? Nope, because in the split second that the camera shows the exploding alien, Generic Hero Dude apparently teleported to safety some 10 feet away. Yep, Generic Hero Dude can apparently run faster than exploding alien bits and gravity. Great, great stuff.

Okay, have you ever seen a Predalien before? Then how can you say "Oh it makes no sense"? It injected the alien tadpoles or whatever directly in vs. a facehugger injecting them in. It cut out the middle man. Seems more efficient to me. Predators could reproduce by jacking off into their vagina mouths while watching Japanese porn. Who knows? That's right. No one does.

What was being said was that here was "no" originality in it. I simply said there was "some". Which I explained in an earlier post. And which movie did "mean bully beats up wimpy pizza boy who is our hero"?


See, it would make no sense if AVP:R was the first movie, but since they already had Weyland in the first one, it seems fine. We already got the first name on the company, let's see the second. I don't think she was responsible for the nuke. I'm guessing her company was a military contractor and they sent it over. If they considered her a specialist than it would make sense they would.

Because they don't use their intergalactic spaceships to transport aliens. They KILL aliens. They were never used for transporting aliens. So why would they acid proof it? I don't see how it's a cop out when if you're hunting something with acid freaking blood, it makes total sense to be equipped with at least SOME acid resistant armor/weapons. The Predators have access to elements we don't know about, I'm sure it's not the biggest feat in the universe to make some.

Yeah I never understood that either. You could say the plasma blast cauterized the wound, but they clearly showed acid blood. He was the Flash!

Yeah, I hated that "Predalien" shit. The idea that the Alien moves like its host is a far more subtle and to me, interesting idea than "Hey, how about if the Alien looks like its host species?".

Neither film is any good, but if i'm bored sitting at home and they come on cable i'll probably stop and watch. For whatever that's worth. Plus, AvP at least has Saana Lathan (sp) AKA the 'Hot Black Chick.'