[Shaun]

quote:
why didn't the Alien skull bleed acid blood everywhere? Case in point when she wore it on her arm.

Quote:

The Predator poured something on the Alien Skull to the neutralize the acid. I can't believe how many people missed that.

Norm,

The Predator poured drops of acid on the Alien head and then on the floor to show that acid burns through everything but the Alien's bodies. The Predator was doing this to show that the Alien head can be used as a shield against acid, since their bodies are impervious to acid. This still doesn't explain why her character can stick her arm inside an Alien's head without it burning her arm off.

[DavidPla]

Quote:

The 25% drop for AvP on Saturday is telling.

To be fair, a drop on Saturday was expected considering all of the fans would rush out on Friday. Same thing happened to "Freddy Vs. Jason".

[MickeS]

[qThis still doesn't explain why her character can stick her arm inside an Alien's head without it burning her arm off.[/q]

I just assumed they poured the blood out.

/Mike

[Tino]

I too thoroughly enjoyed Alien vs. Predator

Unlike obsessed fanboys or those with an intense personal(?) hatred for Paul W.S. Anderson, I went in with little expectations other than seeing a cool sci-fi flick with some AvP action. That's what I got.

The FX were great, despite rumors to the contrary, and the look of the film was very cool. The production design, creature effects, sound design, etc. were all top notch.

The story was fine and suited the film well, as did the actors. Nothing extaordinary, but I wasn't expecting that.

Every once in a while, a film comes along that is turned into a whipping boy for fanboys and critics alike. AvP is that film, imo. People who haven't even seen it are trashing it, which always amazes me. Is it really that much to ask that you see a film before passing judgement on it. This seems to be happening more and more here at the HTF unfortunately.

This film had some great visuals, entertaining AvP fights, and was never boring for it's entire 90 minutes or so.
I also predict it will be a bigger hit on home video once those who were scared off by the bad reviews check it out.

Not the best in the series, but far from the worst, and is by far Anderson's best film to date, although I agree that's not saying much.

See it for yourself. You may be pleasantly surprised....and then again, perhaps not.

[Garrett Lundy]

I already gave my review in the review thread so I will write on a few things people questioned.

*Predators getting guns inside the temple.

I'm gonna go for a stretch here. Lets say that predator-monsters are like intergalactic samurai. Like a samurai is lost without his sword, so to is predator much less predatory without a ranged weapon. After much hand -to-hand training neophyte predators are allowed to the testing pyramind where they will gain their signature weapon, and be forced to prove their skills in battle.

The predators have been shown to be highly ritualistic (especially with human kills) and a bizarre death-trap hunting lodge would seem kinda normal for these people.

*The moving pyramid walls.

Yeah, this was stupid. And why are there heirogylphs at all? If I built a hunting cabin, I wouldn't write the known history of mankind on the walls. I'd have other things called "books" to write my history down in. I'd decorate the walls with antlers and bison skulls & stuff. (I'd put some graffitti in tho "Fumbuck the warrior was here 8/13/1904" just to be funny).

*What if the satellite didn't see the heat-bloom? would there be no test?

Puppet please This is a highly advanced alien species that has superior technology which includes interplanetary travel, invisibility, and making engines quiet. I think they could manage to snatch a few mongolian sheepherders if they needed human sacrifices as so they wouldn'y have wasted a several thousand light/year trip.

*Did you see the predator cut the aliens head off? That was badass!

Yes, and the whole "I'll cut you and watch your head fall off 30 seconds later" special effect has been done to death since Highlander in 1986, and its really not very special.

*How did the lead stick her arm inside an alien skull and not suffer acid burn?

This is called a plot hole. If you'll notice this film was directed by a man named Paul Anderson who is certainly not well known for his intelligent films or rock-solid stories. I'm pleasantly suprised that the character of the African-American ice climber was not also a Kung Fu expert. Appearently Mr. Anderson has at least a little self restraint.

[Ben Osborne]

I just skimmed the AvP review thread, and I grabbed a few quotes from the positive reviews. Here's a sample:

[*]"AvP is not nearly as good as the above mentioned films. But it's not bad either. I went in with hopes of liking it since I was a fan but deep inside wasn't expecting much. "
[*]"Certainly not the best sci-fi/action film I've ever seen and indeed has some real flaws, but it was kind of fun and cool at times."
[*]"I didn't think this movie was as bad as some make it out to be."
[*]"Not quite as bad as I thought it would be."
[*]"If you go in expecting this to be on the same level as a James Cameron or Ridley Scott (or even John McTiernan) film, you are going to be disappointed. It's not. But if you go in expecting a fun B-movie, you might find yourself enjoying it."
[*]"Now C'mon I went to see a movie called Alien Vs. Predator. I was'nt expecting Macbeth."
[*]"I thought this movie was pretty good and I really was expecting the absolute worst."
[*]"Not every movie is going to be an end-all or be-all classic, but that's not to say they're not fun."
[*]"Of course there's no character development. When the characters started talking about their kids, my friend Jeff leaned over and said "That guy's gonna be the first to die." And I laughed. This is a movie that was aiming to be nothing but a 2-star action flick for fans who want to see Aliens fight Predators. It's the sci-fi monster version of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. We should consider the minimal amount of character development to be a bonus."[/list]
That's fine that people liked the movie, but when the endorsements have to be so heavily qualified, I'm not going to give it the benefit of the doubt. The common theme of 90% of the positive reviews is, "don't have high expectations". I don't remember any other good action movies where people had to assure me that it's not supposed to be a quality movie, but that I should try to enjoy it nevertheless. I didn't have to lower my expectations for Die Hard, Terminator 2, Aliens, or Predator...

[Matt Stone]

Quote:

I didn't have to lower my expectations for Die Hard, Terminator 2, Aliens, or Predator...

Amen to that. What's with the backlash against those of us who didn't like it...jeez. I saw it, liked most of the action and hated most of everything else.

Quote:

Unlike obsessed fanboys or those with an intense personal(?) hatred for Paul W.S. Anderson, I went in with little expectations other than seeing a cool sci-fi flick with some AvP action. That's what I got.

Is that a slam against those of us who didn't like it? I've done my share of bitching about PwsA in the past, but I own and love Event Horizon and Mortal Kombat 1...and hell, I even like Resident Evil. I've never gotten into the AvP comics or video games, so I don't consider myself a fanboy. My expectations were low, and I still thought it was a dud.

Of the films released this year (The Passion, F911, etc), I didn't think AvP would bring forth such controversy among the HTFers

[Tino]

Not a slam at all Matt. Just pointing out that I had NO pre-conceived expectations of it.

I saw the trailer, it looked cool, I went to see it, I liked it. End of story.

[JasonWUC]

I am a very big fan of the Predator concept. I just love that theory of honorable, badass, intergalactic hunters. On more than one occasion, I would have liked to have seen the Predators walking around on DS9, Babylon5 or Stargate SG-1. With that being said: I went into this movie purposely keeping myself from reading any plots, or spoiler reviews. Despite this sinking feeling, I wanted to go into it and be surprised at how good it was. Even with my rock-bottom expectations, this movie failed to deliver.

The characters were very underdeveloped. I couldn't care less if any of them lived or died (all species). The first time the Predators and the Aliens meet, two of the Predators dies? One of them doesn't even get to raise his spear? WTF?

So the humans get to this temple and immediately start exploring. They don't even stop long enough to study the structure....and where's all the most high-tech; best equipment that money can buy? flashlights? oooooh wow. I'm impressed.

100 years, 10 months, 10 days. Where did 10 minutes factor into it? Metric system? If someone can do the math on that and figure out how our current calendar can be converted to a base 10 system, let me know.

Where are all the burst-chest corpses from the 1904 hunt? The corpses in the sacraficial chamber looked like they were from the Predator's good-ol-days. Everybody is wearing beadwork. Assuming that this was from the good-ol-days, these skeletons were thousands of years old and the climate was desert-ish. How come these corpses were't skeletons? They weren' mummified and the transition from desert to antatctic doesn't happen overnight.

The final scene with whats-her-face batteling the queen...she's wearing a long sleeved T-shirt. Um, OK. We are still in Antarctica, right? Where the temperature of the water will kill you in 3 minutes. Maybe the presence of the Predator ship warmed the area? Invisible space heaters?

Other that that, the movie was tolerable. If this was the script that FOX chose to run, I doubt there are many directors that could have made it work. It would have been a movie rivalling ROTK in length.

I did like the Predator's boomerang thingys, though

[Jim_C]

Well, I just got back and I was entertained. Then again, I had ZERO expectations for this and knew nothing of the, um, plot. I only went because a friend wanted to.

I was okay with the film, despite the weak plot and characters until it became a Buddy Movie with the Predator and the female lead (yes, I've already forgotten her name). Then it just became stupid.

The second I start thinking about the huge plot holes my head begins to hurt. Must stop doing that.

It does make me want to go buy the Predator DVD.