Has anyone seen this yet?
Just in case, on the offchance, you thought it might actually be a good movie…
What exactly was in that featurette that led you to believe it wouldn’t be a good movie? Was it the enormous level of detail in the storyboarding, or the writer/director admitting to being an obsessive fan of both series of movies? They even have a convincing explanation for why xenomorphs aren’t running around on Earth; either they all get killed by the Predators, or the Predators nuke the site from … well, actually from ground zero, but it’s still the only way to be sure.
I think I’m going to have to see it before I decide whether or not it’s a good movie. I can be funny that way sometimes, you know?
It’s the lame-ass plot, and the scene descriptions that sounded like all flash and no substance.
I looked at that before I started this thread. I couldn’t make up my mind for sure whether it would suck based on that so I asked.
I’m guessing a good director could do something fun with this, but a bad director would get lost in a string of gory battle death scenes and leave his hapless humans to stumble around as fodder with only the big breasted babe and/or her himbo surviving.
What I’d like is if the director tried to stay true to the Alien I & II & Predator II movies and forgot about the Alien III & IV & Predator I movies. Sorta.
What from that featurette makes me think it’s going to be a bad movie? Read my entire first post!! It was written as a reaction to the thing. But just to clear things up for you one more time:
The fact that it completely screws with the Alien continuity! We know that Predators have been coming to Earth for a while thanks to Predator 2, but the idea that xenomorph have been here before as well going back thousands of years, and the idea that Predators helped build the great pyramids by this guy’s logic…that’s just fucking ridiculous!
And if he is such a big fan of the Alien franchise, how is it he’s completely oblivious to the basic fear brought about in pretty much every storyline dealing with the xenomorph? That being, if these things get on Earth, the planet is fucked! It’s okay to have them on an isolated area like Antarctica, where they can’t get off and infect other countries (maybe…these things can survive space, I’m pretty sure freezing temps and long distances wouldn’t stop them from eventually swimming to South America or Australia, but that’s an argument for later), but the idea that some of these hunting parties may have taken place in possibly Africa or South America, or who knows where else and that one simple wrist detinator that couldn’t kill Arnie who was thirty feet away is pretty fucking unbelievable. All they have to do is hide behind a wall and the planet’s screwed. Especially if the Predator were the only ones at the time with any type of technology able to fight the things. I mean, could you imagine what a xenomorph hive would be like if it sprung up in Peru in 1350 A.D. in the midst of some Myan city? There’s no way a primitive society like that would be able to prevent the things from covering the continent within a year. And what happens if none of the Predators are able to use their detonator anyway? I mean, in the little storyboard drawing he had, two get taken down without having any chance. Hell, look at that drawing again and let me know at exactly what point the surviving Predator would have had time to punch in the activation code? He’d be xeno-chow long before he got the second button pressed!
And again, the idea that one expedition team is going to be able to provide enough fodder to create an army of xenomorph to fight against the predators? I liked the idea someone had earlier of other localized animals being incubated as well, but somehow I doubt Anderson thought that far in advance. he was too busy looking at pretty drawings and imagining how cool it would be in the Predators had throwing stars (what the fuck is wrong with the smart weapon they have, which is about 1000 more effective and efficient for projectile and hand to hand purposes?).
I don’t remember him saying he was an obsessive fan of the two series, just that he was a fan. And him claiming that is like me claiming I’m a huge fan of techno…sure, I enjoy it, and can beat box a bit here and there in my free time, but I have no idea about the history or complex makings of it to actually create any decent music of my own. And that’s how I see this guy. He saw the movies, thought they were pretty cool, and heard someone wanted to have the two fight and figured “Hey, I can do that!” If he was a fan, he’d have a better understanding of the two species, the histories of both franchises, and why so many were apprehensive about this film from the get go and would have done a better job with his story.
Aliens vs. Predators = great idea for a movie
Xenomorphs making their way to Earth = great idea for a movie.
The two happening in present day time = stupidest fucking idea for a movie outside of putting them in the goddamn stone ages and having Fred Flinstone helping the Preds fight off Bronto-aliens. Actually, that might actually be enjoyable, because you’d know there was no way anyone would try and make it part of cannon. As it stands, the movie may have some fun aspects, but I sense it’s going to be accepted worse than Alien 3, and justly so.
The only movie I’d like to see ignored is Ressurrection. The first Predator set up the premise and was a good, fun action movie, and also helped give some good insight into the Predators (like they don’t kill unarmed, they’re here to collect, and they’re strong sonsufbitches!).
And I’d really like for all the people who hate Alien 3 to watch it again with an open mind. It’s probably the most ballsy of the series, it’s got great atmosphere, it introduces the idea that a xenomorph can come from any living thing (again, I really like the idea of sealion and penguin aliens for AVP 
), it brought a wonderful end to Ripley’s legend, and really helped bring home exactly how deadly just one of these things is. Pretty much all the comics and storylines to follow Aliens has been just that…a continuation of Aliens. There’s always a hive, there’s always a swarm, and it’s never a single group. So, they seem easier to kill because it’s a bunch of marines against an oncoming hoard of critters. But when there are fewer of them, they get sneakier. They really are cunning and smart and insanely deadly. I was always curios as to why the one in three did nothing but kill almost constantly, but even that fits in great with what Ridley Scott apparently had in mind with the xenomorph…that they were apparently used to seed a planet and kill off all indigeonous life, so that their creators could then come in, wipe them out, and take over the planet. They’re supposed to be nothing but super intelligent, super vicious killing machines, and three really brought that home.
Plus, all the other scripts for the movie pretty much blew
Ressurrection annoyed me, because it basically stated that since three, there hadn’t been another encounter with the xenomorph, and they’re whole reason for cloning Ripley was a big pile oh pooh. I mean, am I the only one that remembers the exploded xenomorph corpse scattered all over at the end of three? Tons of xenomorph DNA there to fiddle with, but nooooo…oh well, whatever.
I agree. That pyramid/ancient civilization thing is stupid sounding. The Predators like to fight other warriors & collect trophies as part of their coming of age ceremony. I don’t think they care about civilization building unless it’s with an eye towards creating more formidible warriors for them to fight in the future.
True, Ripley was willing to sacrifice everything to keep these things from getting off planet. As far as she knew, if these things got on Earth we’d be fucked, but she didn’t know about Predators who have experience with containing outbreaks of these things.
This is part of the reason I think they should ignore Predator I. We saw in Predator II these guys take their warrior ethics pretty seriously and they don’t blow the place up everytime one of their guy gets his ass whuped. That punk in Predator I that got a bloody nose from Arnie and then blew everything up? Stupid. I imagine the other Predators thought he was stupid too. They only entrusted him with an explosive large enough to take himself out but he tried to use it to take out Arnie too. Pussy.
I hope the real Predator method of containing out of control infestations of Aliens is more complicated than a little wrist activated blow up device.
The Predators are a sort of Klingon type warrior class and they probably figure it’s boring and unsporting to stand off at a distance & blast things. Gotta get in there and get your hands dirty once in awhile. Maybe they’re not even allowed to take trophies from their victims if they didn’t mix it up more or less at close range hand to hand (throwing star)?
I’m curious how Predators handle Alien acid blood though. It would be pretty hard taking an Alien head as a trophy if the acid ate through your suit & hands, wouldn’t it? Maybe they have a neutralizer?
I’ll admit it right now…I read most of the first AVP series, but not much of the others. From what I read, though…they weren’t that skilled at controlling the outbreak. I mean, the main plot of the comic is that the Predators got in a little over their heads and had to deal with a huge instalation full of xenomorph when I think they were planning on creating just a handful.
Watch Predator 2 again. The Predator there tries to blow himself up while on a rooftop hanging from Danny Glover’s Arm ™. That’s how Glover was able to get ahold of the Smart Weapon…the Predator was using that and Danny to stop himself from falling off the building, and let go to set the detonator. Glover cut his arm off, and the detonator in half, and that’s why it didn’t go off. Apparently, warrior code still means “when little man starts fighting back, blow his ass up”.
I wouldn’t really compare them to Klingons. They don’t seem so warlike, just, well…predatorial. Again, aside from the movies and a couple of issue skims, I don’t know all that much of the Predators, but if you look online, you can find a lot of fansites dedicated to them with some interesting break downs in their social systems (again, where this information comes from, I’m not all together sure…I believe the third AVP series had a lot of commentary from a human female that became a member of a Predator pack, and so most of it probably comes from that, so if you’re really interested, pick that up). Still, from Predator it seemed all your prey was hunted from a distance, unless it seemed like it would be incredibly worthy to take them out. Kinda like shooting buck are alright, but if you really want to make that 8-point something worth mounting, you gotta kill it with your hands. Hence the reason pretty much everyone gets shot from a distance and never gets to see the Predator’s actual face with the exception of Arnie and Glover…the two biggest baddasses they happen to come across in the movies (aside from the Indian guy from the first movie, and the Voodoo guy from the second one, but I don’t think either of them got to actually see the predator).
I believe the metal alloys that their equipment is made up of is able to withstand the acidic qualities of the blood, and I read on one website that something to do with the predator’s blood makes them somewhat immune to that of the xenomorphs as well. Of course, this was again a fan website, so I don’t know where they got that information from. I don’t remember seeing any Predators suffering from acid burns in any of the comics I read, but apparently they’re still rather suseptable to the ol’ tongue in the brain, tail in the gut approach.
Making it on Earth in the present day is a complete joke.
My bet is for Preadtor to win though. Cloaking himself will be what does it.
Yes, because making yourself invisible is such an effective tactic against a creature with no visible eyes. :rolleyes:
That was Ripley being hysterical to some degree. Yes, if a xenomorph got loose on Earth it would be difficult if not impossible to clean them out permanently, but it’s by no means as apocalyptic as she makes it out to be.
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Your beef here seems to be that he’s correcting a flaw in Predator.
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Unless, of course, the other two were covering him while he did it. How long did it take to input the code in the first movie - five seconds? Two humans could hold off a horde of xenomorphs for that long - bugger me with a Toblerone if two Predators couldn’t.
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Such informed commentary.
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The Predators have always carried and used knives. Perhaps you thought they were for paring their fingernails?
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“I’ve wanted to make an Alien movie since I was a boy” is a bit of a tell.
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You know what’s funny? Every film that Anderson’s written has generally been well received. It’s the ones he didn’t write that people bitch about - Soldier, Event Horizon and to a lesser extent Mortal Kombat.
I actually read some of what is apparantly the script for this… thing some time ago. It was a sappy piece of shit.
Come on, people, is there even a tiny chance this may be watchable? No way. It’s just Hollywood fucking the corpse of another famous series (which is soon to be done with George A. Romero’s ‘dead’ series).
I hear a ton of people saying “it’ll suck but I’ll see it.” Why? I don’t want to get into a big whiney arguement, but if you keep forking up cash for shitty Hollywood films, Hollywood will keep making shitty films. We all know Hollywood is just a money-grubbing industry, at least make sure they earn your money with a good film (if one will ever come out).
The statement so nice, I quoted it twice.
Seriously. Take the above, blow it up, and post it on your fridge or your bathroom wall or the inside of your eyelids or wherever you aren’t going to lose track of it.
When you go to see a movie, don’t forget that what you’re really doing, as far as Hollywood is concerned, is voting. You are taking your money and you are putting it in a ballot box and you are saying, “Make more movies like this one.” The only difference between voting for political candidates and voting for movies is that you can vote for a particular movie more than once.
If you vote for shitty movies, you will get more shitty movies. It’s that simple.
If you absolutely cannot live without seeing AvP, wait for video or HBO. Then the crummy directors like Anderson will have to make their living in the far-more-appropriate direct-to-video market while the good directors have a better chance to enjoy deserved studio support. Think about it: If AvP is financially successful (and it will be, probably, because of the drooling fanboys who will dutifully line up on opening weekend), then Anderson moves up a notch in the Hollywood hierarchy, and before you know it he’ll be assigned to a legitimate prestige project like, say, the Amber adaptation (or something like it) that will inevitably follow in the wake of Lord of the Rings. Do you really want that to happen?
Have we forgotten so soon that Peter Jackson was “one of those crummy directors”? Nobody took him seriously until he did Heavenly Creatures - in fact, until LotR all his films did most of their business on video.
“We” haven’t forgotten anything. I’ve been a fan of Jackson since Meet the Feebles, which came out five years before Heavenly Creatures. Saw it at my local arthouse cinema, even.
I don’t think Peter Jackson was ever considered a bad director. Even The Frighteners is considered a pretty entertaining, if a bit dark, movie. Whereas Paul Anderson’s movies are far too often listed in people’s ‘biggest disappointments’ lists - i.e. so much potential, but completely arsed up by someone who really doesn’t “get it.”
Ok, I buy that. I was fixated on the honorable way Predator II ended, and forgot about how much these guys are really just predator/hunters rather than warriors. Sorta like big-game hunters in Africa, shooting zebras & gazelles & the occasional lion from a safe distance.
How in the heck did a human female get in with a pack of Predators?
That works. A bit convenient, but works.
I get the feeling that Aliens don’t depend a lot on sight, considering they don’t have visible eyes.
Maybe Smell, maybe some kind of thermal imagining, hell, maybe excellant hearing. None of which a cloaking device will likely mask.
I liked The Frighteners. The point I’m making, though, is that Jackson got zero respect from anyone who made a noise for his first three features.
Anderson’s movies, OTOH, are rarely IME lambasted for poor direction. Event Horizon and Mortal Kombat were primarily attacked for plots and dialogue that didn’t match the exceptional look of the films, and Anderson maintains that Event Horizon was screwed by the studio a la Highlander 2 and Alien 3. Even Soldier looks fairly good - it’s the script that was a disaster. And as I said, in all three cases Anderson wasn’t the writer. The films where he both writes and directs are maybe not regarded as great, but certainly they’re credited as being solid stuff.
So to get vaguely back to the topic: I’m not expecting Alien, or even Aliens, but I’m not expecting a complete catastrophe either.
In the AvP games, Aliens operate by smell, cloaking doesn’t help.