Alien vs. Predator

[AndrewTS 0]

"I mean, what do I criticize? Anderson giving the fans what they wanted?

 

(edit)The shoulda said *trying* to give fans what they wanted. Hey, I was tired... "

 

I don't think you speak for all the fans, and I don't think "the fans" wanted PWCA on the project in the first place. He's no hack (despite what some may say), but he's far from gifted and lacks vision, and I wouldn't consider him a good candidate to handle such a difficult-to-do project.

 

Anyway, FYE has the Predator DVD special edition for a red-tag $14.99. I picked up the full-screen, but it was the last one. A friend really wanted the full screen, so I gave it to him for the same price. Ah well. I guess I'll try to pick it up somewhere else, hopefully before we see AVP tomorrow.

 

Heh--anyone seen the Batman/Predator or Batman/Aliens crossover comics? How were they?

[Black Lushus 0]

Actually I had the Batman/Predator comic, though i can't remember it that well...i do know it was interesting and he ends up getting like a sword if im not mistaken from the Predator brood for killing one of them...

[the pinjockey 0]

Well, I am glad I got the free coupon from the Predator DVD.

 

It was a decent enough action movie until the last 15 minutes.

 

The movie lost me, though, when the Predator started teaming up with the human. What the hell was with that? As soon as she killed one of the Aliens, shouldn't she have become a worthy opponent and someone for the Predator to kill? And if not then, when the Predator and her were alone, outside, once they thought it was over, shouldn't it have killed her then? I get the whole respect bit, but who freaking cares. Predators are hunters, a human that can kill an Alien is worthy prey

[starvenger 0]

"I mean, what do I criticize? Anderson giving the fans what they wanted?

 

(edit)The shoulda said *trying* to give fans what they wanted. Hey, I was tired... "

 

I don't think you speak for all the fans, and I don't think "the fans" wanted PWCA on the project in the first place. He's no hack (despite what some may say), but he's far from gifted and lacks vision, and I wouldn't consider him a good candidate to handle such a difficult-to-do project.

What I was trying to say (and doing it quite poorly, I might add) was what people want is for Aliens and Predators to throw down, and that's what you get. But you're right - I'm not fanboy enough to really know what people want to see for this. Me, I just wanted to be entertained for 90-odd minutes.

 

Heh--anyone seen the Batman/Predator or Batman/Aliens crossover comics?  How were they?

Batman/Predator was pretty good. Stormwatch/Aliens was probably the best Aliens crossover that I've seen, mainly because it's in continuity and ties in with The Authority.

[Downhome 0]

I just got back from seeing it, here is my short review.

 

I didn't hate it, I didn't like it, and I'll forget about it in a few days.

 

I think it helped a lot that I went into this film with the lowest expectations, as I said I was going to do earlier. I expected a letdown, and a bad film, and it's what we got.

 

A totally forgettable film that sucked, then was just ok, then sucked once again. I wouldn't recommend the film to anyone, I couldn't do that in good faith especially to those who are huge fans of both Alien and Predator.

 

If I had to chose between hating it and liking it though, I'd go with hated it. But like I said, it's a throwaway film to me.

 

Here are a handful of things that I had against the film.

 

First off, as everyone should expect, this film is meant not for the fans of the Alien/Predator universe, but instead for the teenage crowd. It's a film that was intended by FOX from the start to be aimed straight at the younger people, towards the people who just want to see a few monsters get killed, video game junkies, and the WWE crowd.

 

1) The Alien gestation period in this film lasts only a matter of minutes, instead of days like we have seen established in past films.

 

2) Well, apparently the Predators are not that much more talented than humans, as they seem to run and jump at about the same speed.

 

3) We have the Predators teaming up with that bitch in this movie, and it made no fucking sense. She kills an Alien herself, and that should have proved to the Predators that she was more than worthy prey.

 

3) We also have a Predator P.O.V change, I couldn't believe that.

 

4) One of my favorite things about the Predators is the camouflage deal. In this film, all of the predators apparently forget they even have the ability as they almost never use it. They tossed it in a couple of times, a couple of very short moments, almost like they felt they had to sometime. Instead of using it as a plot element to help what goes on.

 

5) This film is PG-13, so they obviously couldn't do too much with it in terms of gore. We had scenes of someone getting killed, but you couldn't see it happening, then you'd see cheap ass blood flowing on the floor or on a blade. We had, if I remember correctly, ONE chest-busting scene, but what they showed of it lasted only a fraction of a second and looked more like a puppet barely poking it's head through a piece of paper.

 

You see, this entire film is built upon the concept that the Predators have Aliens here to hunt, and the Predators have it so the Aliens use the humans to breed. They made such a point of forcing that home, over and over again. It just seems to me that they would have made more of an effort to show more chust-busting scenes, as it was so important here.

 

Like I said though, there is almost no gore in this film.

 

6) I thought it was funny as hell when that one guy looks up and without even thinking about it, begins to read the entire history of the Aliens and Predators. He had trouble doing it in the past, taking time to read things very carefully and slowly, but when it comes to reading this entire long ass HISTORY OF EVER, he can do so instantly.

 

7) At the end when the Predators leave, why in the hell didn't they know that the one that was killed that they took on their ship had an Alien inside of him? They established earlier in the film that the Predators could see when an Alien was inside someone, so why didn't they see it in this one?

 

Oh I know why, silly me. They couldn't have had that cliched ending scene!

 

8) I think someone fucked up with the casting. The T-Rex from Jurassic Park did not pull off the part of the "Alien Queen" convincingly enough at all.

 

Seriously, I thought I was watching Jurassic Park there at the end. In this film the Alien Queen looks to be about 50 feet tall, and in the past it's been much less than that.

 

9) From the moment we saw that one chick, well at least for me, I knew that she would be the last survivor. For this film, I thought that they might leave it open, but here they did not.

 

10) The fight scenes between the Aliens and Predators didn't come off that great in my eyes either. For all that could have been done in respect to the fight scenes, and all that they had to work with, they really dropped the ball in this movie here.

 

And these are just a few of the plot points that I hated. It doesn't take into account various other aspects of the film that was poor.

 

Had I went into this film expecting anything other than the worst, I more than likely would be pulling my hair out right now.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Re: Why the Predator let the human live:

 

Predators are bound to a code of honor. If the Predator is hunting an Alien, and another entity helps in the destruction of said Alien, then the Predator is bounded by honor to not kill them. Sure, it's a cop-out way to have the human character survive, but this has been true since the first AvP comics were published in the early 90's.

 

I have both Batman/Predator and Batman/Predator II. They're both extremely good titles, with the sequel the superior in my opinion. The gist of the first one is that a Predator comes to Gotham City to go hunting, and Batman is pissed because it's killing off innocents and scumbags left and right (similar to in Predator 2). So Batman hunts it down, and it breaks nearly every bone in his body. He recouperates, and develops a new suit made mostly out of armor that amplifies his strength and speed, making him a suitable foe for the Predator. It ends when Batman beats the living fuck out of the Predator with a baseball bat in the woods, and then the Predator kills itself in dishonor while others watch him do so, record it (using whatever technology they have), and then honor Batman with a sword from the 1600's.

 

Batman/Predator II builds off of the first one very well, as a young, hotshot, renegade Predator views the footage of Batman defeating the first one, and sets out to hunt Batman down. A team of Predators are dispatched to apprehend him, as Batman has been proven an honorable opponent, and killing him would dishonor the clans. This new Predator is vicious, dishonorable, and will kill anybody that comes too close: armed or not. I forget how Batman kills him, but it's quite a solid read.

 

AVP sounds quite a bit as if it were influenced heavily by the original AVP series. In that, a woman is identified as the human hero, the Alien problem gets too out of control for the Predators, and the woman aids them in the destruction of the Aliens, thus proving herself to be an equal to the Predators. She is accepted into the clan, and provided armor, technology, training, and devices to aid in her breathing of alternate atmospheres.

 

Like I said: a cop-out? Yeah. Sensical? Yes.

[AndrewTS 0]

Thanks for clearing that up, Corey. At least there were some consistencies there.

 

Oh, recap of rottentomatoes' roundup:

 

Reviews counted: 31

Fresh: 3 Rotten: 28

Average Rating: 3.5/10

[Downhome 0]

Still doesn't change how fucking stupid they presented the entire thing. I had to just laugh at certain things after that happened, and many people in the theater did the same.

 

Either way, thanks for the schooling.

[starvenger 0]

7) At the end when the Predators leave, why in the hell didn't they know that the one that was killed that they took on their ship had an Alien inside of him? They established earlier in the film that the Predators could see when an Alien was inside someone, so why didn't they see it in this one?

 

Oh I know why, silly me. They couldn't have had that cliched ending scene!

A question I had was actually how did the little Alien survive? The Incredible Growing Alien Queen hit the Pred right about where that sucker would be incubating. Never mind that it was necessary for the "twist" ending.

 

Oh, recap of rottentomatoes' roundup:

 

Reviews counted: 31

Fresh: 3 Rotten: 28

Average Rating: 3.5/10

Yeah, can't say I'm shocked. Actually, check that - I'm shocked that it's not lower, since there were no press screenings for this movie. Critics absolutely hate that. Of course, the movie generally sucks, but that doesn't help.

 

Peter Howell in the Toronto Star put it best (in lieu of an actual review) - it doesn't matter what he and his fellow critics will say, it'll still be number 1 come Sunday.

[AndrewTS 0]

"Peter Howell in the Toronto Star put it best (in lieu of an actual review) - it doesn't matter what he and his fellow critics will say, it'll still be number 1 come Sunday. "

 

...unless Princess Diaries 2 beats it.

 

Also, doesn't mean it won't be a bomb financially. Van Helsing had a strong first week, but wasn't actually very profitable in the long run (of course, when it comes to video it'll make a little more, despite how crappy it is). The Hulk was successful for a weak or so, but because of the huge budget it still was a bomb in theatres, failing to recoup all those losses by a huge margin.

 

Anderson should stick to Mortal Kombat movies...

 

Then again, MK: Annihilation, which Anderson didn't helm, likely is far more entertaining for all the wrong reasons than AVP is. I'll find out tomorrow, I suppose...

[Downhome 0]

I don't expect AvP to make anywhere near the amount of money that they expect it to. With that said however, this film will spawn a sequel without a doubt. If I remember correctly, this film had a pretty small budget, so it will make it's money back and then some very easily.

[starvenger 0]

"Peter Howell in the Toronto Star put it best (in lieu of an actual review) - it doesn't matter what he and his fellow critics will say, it'll still be number 1 come Sunday. "

 

...unless Princess Diaries 2 beats it.

Yeah you're right. Never underestimate the drawing power of the generic young female actor...

[AndrewTS 0]

I don't expect AvP to make anywhere near the amount of money that they expect it to. With that said however, this film will spawn a sequel without a doubt. If I remember correctly, this film had a pretty small budget, so it will make it's money back and then some very easily.

I'm not too sure about that.

 

First off, getting a movie made cheaply and (fairly) competently is really PWCA's only strengths as a director--well, that and he does screenplays too.

 

However, once you begin employing moderate CGI, usually the budget heads closer to the triple digits. Even then, production budget doesn't including marketing budget. AVP has been pretty heavily marketed, after all.

 

Although to get a better idea, I'd need to know the production/marketing budget for AVP.

 

Another message board discussed the possibility of an "unrated" DVD version being put out. Meh.

[Downhome 0]

I take that back, I had my information wrong. The director was originally given a $40 Million budge, but he obviously went over that a lot.

 

I personally hope we don't get another one of these films, it just doesn't need to be done. Then again, after now seeing the finished project of AvP, we didn't even need this pile of crap.

[Damaramu 0]

That movie sucked and boy did it suck hard.

[Guest NaturalBornThriller4:20]

Spoil me...

 

Who dies and how?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PG-13 ? Paul "What the fuck does W.S. stand for" Anderson can burn in hell.

[Guest Flyboy]

I have both Batman/Predator and Batman/Predator II. They're both extremely good titles, with the sequel the superior in my opinion. The gist of the first one is that a Predator comes to Gotham City to go hunting, and Batman is pissed because it's killing off innocents and scumbags left and right (similar to in Predator 2). So Batman hunts it down, and it breaks nearly every bone in his body. He recouperates, and develops a new suit made mostly out of armor that amplifies his strength and speed, making him a suitable foe for the Predator. It ends when Batman beats the living fuck out of the Predator with a baseball bat in the woods, and then the Predator kills itself in dishonor while others watch him do so, record it (using whatever technology they have), and then honor Batman with a sword from the 1600's.

 

Batman/Predator II builds off of the first one very well, as a young, hotshot, renegade Predator views the footage of Batman defeating the first one, and sets out to hunt Batman down. A team of Predators are dispatched to apprehend him, as Batman has been proven an honorable opponent, and killing him would dishonor the clans. This new Predator is vicious, dishonorable, and will kill anybody that comes too close: armed or not. I forget how Batman kills him, but it's quite a solid read.

 

After reading that, I must find copies of those two comics.

 

Oh, and after reading the spoilers I have no URGE to see AvP at all.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Just got back, loved the movie, yes it did have its flaws and they could have done better, but I wasn't expecting absolute perfection. Its worth checking out and it was a million times better than Alien Resurrection.

 

In response to Downhome:

 

1) The Alien gestation period in this film lasts only a matter of minutes, instead of days like we have seen established in past films.

 

Easy, they changed that so they could move the film along. Maybe the Predators altered the Alien Queen's genetics so that her children can be born faster to be killed faster. After all, the Predators are sportsman and don't like to just sit around and wait. I mean they did have the Alien Queen captured and they do have their technology, I wouldn't be surprised if they tampered with her in any means to increase the activity of their sport.

 

2) Well, apparently the Predators are not that much more talented than humans, as they seem to run and jump at about the same speed.

 

I'm assuming they were newbies as I got the distinction the Pyramind was used as a training ground.

 

3) We have the Predators teaming up with that bitch in this movie, and it made no fucking sense. She kills an Alien herself, and that should have proved to the Predators that she was more than worthy prey

 

As Corey said, its the honor code. I don't see the reason in your bitching about this one, they did the same exact thing in the comics AND the novels.

 

4) One of my favorite things about the Predators is the camouflage deal. In this film, all of the predators apparently forget they even have the ability as they almost never use it. They tossed it in a couple of times, a couple of very short moments, almost like they felt they had to sometime. Instead of using it as a plot element to help what goes on.

 

They did it with the humans so they can kill them easier and get them out of the way since they were interfering. According to the game, camouflage is useless against Aliens as the Aliens can still see them.

 

5) This film is PG-13, so they obviously couldn't do too much with it in terms of gore. We had scenes of someone getting killed, but you couldn't see it happening, then you'd see cheap ass blood flowing on the floor or on a blade. We had, if I remember correctly, ONE chest-busting scene, but what they showed of it lasted only a fraction of a second and looked more like a puppet barely poking it's head through a piece of paper.

 

Well duh, they did that so more people can watch the movie so it makes more money at the box office. Not a favorable decisions to hardcore fans like most of us, but a smart one by the movie company in terms of business.

 

7) At the end when the Predators leave, why in the hell didn't they know that the one that was killed that they took on their ship had an Alien inside of him? They established earlier in the film that the Predators could see when an Alien was inside someone, so why didn't they see it in this one?

 

Multiple guesses here: 1.) Predators are arrogant so I guess they figured "Oh, there's no way he could have gotten infected, he's a strong warrior!", 2.) The fact that his death alone probably overshadowed them thinking about that precaution 3.) Maybe that Predator's mask had that see through option that the other warriors lacked I dunno

 

10) The fight scenes between the Aliens and Predators didn't come off that great in my eyes either. For all that could have been done in respect to the fight scenes, and all that they had to work with, they really dropped the ball in this movie here.

 

I agree, I yelled "Bullshit!" real loud after seeing how the 2nd Predator was knocked off which pissed off quite a few of us in my seating section.

 

In response to Corey:

 

AVP sounds quite a bit as if it were influenced heavily by the original AVP series. In that, a woman is identified as the human hero, the Alien problem gets too out of control for the Predators, and the woman aids them in the destruction of the Aliens, thus proving herself to be an equal to the Predators. She is accepted into the clan, and provided armor, technology, training, and devices to aid in her breathing of alternate atmospheres.

 

I was noticing that too, I was hugely disappointed she didn't go with the Preds / wasn't offered to join their clan.

[nogoodnick 0]

I saw it for free so I cant really be that upset. Definitley nothing special but I thought it was enjoyable. I would highly recommend buying the Predator DVD though. Atleast that way you get a good movie and get to see an ok one.

[Guest Bitterness the Star]

I'm ashamed to say that I haven't seen the original Predator and Alien, so the "I wonder what they'll do here" mentality isn't evident.

 

I've never been one to make a special effort to go and see the latest "blockbuster" at the movies anyway - the underground quirky comedy for me.

 

If I saw both original films I might have a change of heart, but hey, the fact that this movie's running time is 87 minutes should say something to you in terms of quality.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I saw and it enjoyed it once it got going, but there were some big problems that were already mentioned.

 

The main problem seems to be that, despite the fact the movie was staying pretty true to the source material as far as Predator / Human relations go, that doesn't stop the 14 year olds who think the movie should be everyone killing everyone from yelling out "Bullshit!" when they see the Predator align itself with the chick.

 

Also, I thought that slow motion heroirc side by side running that seemed lifted from the end of Batman Forever/And Robin with the girl and a Predator was mighty retarded, as did my friend and of course the teenagers who were already yelling out bullshit at things.

[Guest SpiderFan]

The Hulk was successful for a weak or so, but because of the huge budget it still was a bomb in theatres, failing to recoup all those losses by a huge margin.

Domestically, yeah, but if you take into account the overseas market, it made a profit:

 

Production Budget: $137 million

Marketing Costs: $35 million

Worldwide Gross: $245,284,946

 

Ditto for Van Helsing:

 

Production Budget: $160 million

Est. Marketing Costs: $50 million

Worldwide: $269,409,145

 

I have a free ticket, so I'll be checking out AVP next weekend. And I'll definetly be trying to find the Predator/Batman comics.

[bob_barron 0]

PG-13 ? Paul "What the fuck does W.S. stand for" Anderson can burn in hell.

He was probably contractually obligated to deliver a PG-13. So it's not his fault.

 

Van Helsing wasn't a collasal flop, but it was a dissapointment for Universal. They were hoping to start up a big franchise and possibly spin off a TV show to NBC. But with everyone and their mother hating it (except for Ebert) those plans are pretty much squashed.

 

Plus the movie opened at 51 million dollars- which accounted for 43 percent of its domestic gross. That's not very good. Universal probably made money off of it but it should've been so much better.

[Guest NaturalBornThriller4:20]

Troy also made alot less than I thought it would. But if you count overseas, then it wasn't as bad.

 

Sad thing is... it was an excellent movie.

 

Production Budget: $175 million

Est. Marketing Costs: $50 million

Domestic: $133,180,186

Overseas: $356,900,000

 

BTW...

 

A V P made $16.7Mil on Friday alone. Bah, it's PG-13. No old school gore, nothing.

[bob_barron 0]

But you can't blame the PG-13 on Anderson.

 

A v. P is definetley going to experience a Friday-Saturday drop like the Village did. It will probably have a 30-40 opening weekend.

 

Princess Diaries is kicking Hilary Duff's ass- her movie is officially done for

[Guest Vitamin X]

Anne Hathaway is much hotter, anyways.

[Guest wildpegasus]

Isn't PG - 13 these days like restricted in the old days when Predator and ALien were out? Here in Nova Scotia they now have movies as PG that used to be restricted. They're very lenient on their ratings here.

[bob_barron 0]

I never can get into Anne Hathaway. Her body is just weird looking and not nice to look at.

 

They haven't changed how they rate PG-13 movies. I think it's done on a case by case basis. Though I think they're more lenient with the 'f' word now

[Guest Flyboy]

7) At the end when the Predators leave, why in the hell didn't they know that the one that was killed that they took on their ship had an Alien inside of him? They established earlier in the film that the Predators could see when an Alien was inside someone, so why didn't they see it in this one?

 

Oh I know why, silly me. They couldn't have had that cliched ending scene!

Simple. None of the Predators had their battle masks on.

[AndrewTS 0]

I've seen it. Friend liked it, I hated it.

 

When those GINO-esque digital green subtitles popped up, I was thinking "uh-oh." It's such a simple, harmless thing, but so many times it is a harbinger of crap.

 

There's plenty of things in the movie that simply do not logically follow...or if they did logically follow, no explanation was made about it.

 

Despite this movie being seemingly aimed at A/P neophytes, they did little to actually explain the Predator code of honor. Those of us only familiar with the movies who were unsure about the Predator's recognition of our lead female as an ally rather than prey is just one example.

 

Also, the fact that the movie practically puts a glowing red neon sign over her that says FINAL GIRL really hurts any suspense.

 

The expedition heads in COMPLETELY UNPREPARED on the flimsy premise that they have to be the first ones there. Of course, rather than simply establishing a base camp and working from there, Bishop insists they head on in, against all logic.

 

Assuming the heat signature was a deliberate lure to get the humans to enter the temple...isn't it a bit of a leap to hedge bets on the humans reacting that way? How would they know how many would enter--how would they be certain that they didn't have too many or not enough humans to breed the adult aliens? Maybe the Predators had some reason for the humans being lured there rather than putting them there themselves, but since the ancient human sacrifices did it without fighting off the aliens, it doesn't make much sense why they couldn't just abduct some humans for the purpose.

 

Didn't anyone think to refreeze the Alien Queen when she laid enough eggs? The Predators could do that from their ship, right?

 

The shoulder cannons--why would the young Predators HAVE to use *those*, and didn't bring their own? Aside from having some special religious significance from maybe being specially designated (which I have not heard anything about), there seems to be little reason for the Preds to blunder in there, unprepared to actually fight the Aliens.

 

A big deal was made about the Aliens not getting to the surface...even though no more full-grown aliens could be bred than there are hosts. The aliens likely wouldn't be able to swim thousands of miles to land in freezing waters, and face huggers wouldn't be able to do it.

 

Okay, MAYBE we'd have to worry about Penguin Aliens, but I don't know if penguins would be large enough to be able to breed Aliens, and if so, I don't know if the resulting Alien would live long enough to be any threat.

 

PG-13 rating...ugh. Yes, it was very watered down and very lame. The only actual splatter of human blood is barely more than if you cut yourself rather badly shaving.

 

The human characters were rather ho-hum. The female lead did well with what she was given, but she doesn't come across as the Ripley-type the movie needed, since she seemed luckier than skilled.

 

The fights sucked. The major one-on-one human Alien/Predator fight

we see is...well, take an Alien figure and a Predator figure. Smash them together as you shoot an XTREMECLOSEUP of the "auction." Do this in almost complete dark. That's what that wonderful fight scene looked like.

 

Despite two of the Preds being total greenhorns, one of them was pretty badass. In my favorite scene in the movie, we get that cliche-but-still-awesome scene where the Predator slices at the Alien with his razor disc...delay...and the bisected Alien head slides apart. YEEEEAH!!

 

Too bad it was so difficult to tell the Preds apart, since you could barely tell which was which, who was where, what was what, and so on. A lot of the flash was promising, but in the substance it was severely lacking. The quick running time also left me wondering "already? Geez." So there's very little action and payoff compared to what there could have been. If the in-action, building up, and capping off had been well done, that wouldn't be a problem. However, that's hardly something Anderson is gifted at depicting.

 

So while there's been arguably worse movies this year, AVP is a tremendous letdown, but I'd say it's far better than I actually expected. So, meh.

 

I did pick up the 1st Batman vs. Predator trade paperback, and it looks awesome so far. Plus in the back they have all the covers of the individual comics. I found it at Barnes and Noble, for those having a tough time finding it. Sadly, they didn't have the 2nd BvP one.