*** Official ALIEN VS. PREDATOR Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Thomas Newton]

Well, yes. If your Predators are acting in a group, as soldiers, to suppress an Alien threat (e.g., a breakout of the captive Aliens they keep as hunting stock), they're probably going to slaughter everything in sight.

On the other hand, the reason the Predators prize Aliens is that they are "hard meat" to kill in 1:1 combat. When a Predator goes 1:1 with an Alien, the Predator may toss aside some of its technological edge to make the fighting more risky and thus more "honorable". An Alien does not need much of an opening to seriously cripple or kill a lone Predator.

 

[Aaron Thorne]

Well, I finally used my free ticket that was packaged with Predator CE. The fight scenes between the Alien and Predator were enough to be entertaining. However, the story was horrible and the ending just sucked. If you picked up the Predator CE I say go see it, but don't waste any cash on it.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Estimates show the box office dropping 67.4% for week two, a huge drop.

 

[Chris Harvey]

I caught about 15 minutes (the beginning of the film) this weekend -- can't comment on the stuff I didn't see, obviously, but what I saw was some decent CG work, given the budget, terrible dialogue, boring characters, and bizarre plot development (the scientist has just seen a thermal image of the pyramid yet not only makes the conclusion that it's the first pyramid ever built, but that clearly it's based on three different human civilizations and that Anarctica used to be temperate..... and everyone else accepts it! too funny, and sadly, too indicative of where I suspect the film was headed).

Poor Lance Henrickson -- but then again, the man needs to feed his family.

 

[GuruAskew]

Yeah, throughout this whole trainwreck, I just kept thinking "poor, poor Lance Henriksen". The guy is a flat-out amazing actor, but he makes awful movies. I saw that "AvP" making-of special where he said something like "but when I talked to Paul WS Anderson and he told me what he had in mind, I said 'sign me up'". For a brief moment, I felt a bit of reassurance, until I realized that somewhere, along the line, Henriksen had said "sign me up" to the director of "Mangler 2".

 

[WillG]

Henriksen was never actually killed by an Alien, severely damaged yes, but never killed.

I wonder, if Bishop Weyland was in AVP then who was the Human Bishop that appeared in Alien 3? A great great great grandson, I suppose.

I saw this today, It was ok, but did have many problems. I think what bothered me the most was the Italian Archeologist who immediately knew everything and turned out to be right all the time. A director's cut may explain some things that others have mentioned, but with that guy it looks like this is the best we will get. I agree with the other things that have been mentioned so far as well. It is really too bad that they wasted Henriksen's Weyland character. They should have had him survive and establish that the company would venture into aerospace with a focus to somehow find more Aliens (it is never clear what Weyland does so maybe the new focus could be the impetus for a merger with Yutani)

I thought they wasted an opportunity when they waited until the final shot of the film to have the Predator chestburster appear. It could have made for an interesting climax to have to fight that at the end, but we need that sequel set up, don't we?

I thought that the Aliens looked decent and that Anderson did not seem to have the need to put his own distinct stamp on the look of the Aliens. I do wish that somebody, it the future, would adopt the look of the Alien from the original which was massive and much more biomechanical, but instead, they bulked up the predators.

I liked the scene in which Spud from "Trainspotting" is cocooned and manages to kill the face hugger only to pull back to several more eggs opening with facehuggers crawling out. I wish they would have made more of that though, I have always wanted to see, in one of these movies, the characters having to fight a swarm of facehuggers. Maybe next time.

 

[GuruAskew]

There's always been debate as to whether or not Bishop was an andrord or a human in "Alien3". In the theatrical version, it's certainly ambiguous, but in the "special edition", it's obvious that he was intended to be human, since his blood is red, although the effect of him having his ear torn off is so cheesy and fake-looking that some take it to be an indicator that he's an android. In any case, any intentional abiguity was crapped upon by Paul WS Anderson, who makes it impossible for Bishop's designer to still be alive hundreds of years after he was killed by a Predator. That is, of course, if any "Alien" fans would acknowledge the most recent trainwreck as canon.

 

[Tim-H.]

I agree with Jim Peavy. Wasn't FmW what the satellite guys were watching in the beginning? Think Anderson was acknowledging he's no James Whale-or Ridley Scott? I enjoyed it for (you got it) What It Was. Not a film that transcends genre, but a sub-genre piece. Now, if this was called Alien5, I'd be pretty mad...
I'll definitely check out a director's cut, too.

 

[Anthony_D]

I liked AvP...but didn't love it. I'm just not sure how much you can do with a movie of this ilk...the director certainly is a hack and has a bad track record, but seriously...have their been any better ideas out there for an AVP film??? Sure, the pacing could have been much better and the film lacked suspense, but I just think that people were expecting too much from this movie.

 

[Malcolm R]

Well, we survived "Alien Resurrection," and managed to still get a sequel that outgrossed most of the series on the first weekend. How much more skeptical can you get after that film?

I doubt Fox is worried too much about the US box office. All the "Alien" films have been huge overseas, so they'll be fine with the international grosses, not to mention DVD sales.

I just wish Fox would make one of these films where they give the director enough time, money, and control to actually make a decent film. The last three in this series (A3, AR, AVP) seem to have been compromised at the studio level by the "suits" who take over in the editing room, or feel that the release date is more important than taking enough time to get it right.

No to mention thinking that they can make these films "on the cheap" and expect them to perform.

AVP was an OK way to spend a couple hours in an air conditioned room out of the heat, but there were a lot of changes that I didn't like or that had me rolling my eyes:

--the whole life cycle issue that's been addressed here already. Just minutes from egg to full-grown warrior. Then again, the creators of these films have always played sort of loose with the life cycle issue. Anderson's "hormone" defense just sounds silly.

--the Queen. Assumedly, she's been chained up for centuries.

How do the Predators keep her sedated, or "shut her down" between hunts?

How do they "bring her back to life"? It seemed like via electrical shock or something.

After all these centuries of being "used" for the hunt, it's never occurred to her previously to utilize this strategy to get free? Pretty convenient.

And her romping around like a T.Rex was just too much.

--The chest burster from the dead Predator at the end was pretty predictable. I didn't understand why the alien Queen killed him in the first place. Previously, they've spared those that are incubating more of their kind. Again, Anderson's explanation about the Aliens "not sanctioning" the impregnation is ridiculous. If the Aliens didn't want to cross-breed, the face huggers would be instinctively programmed to only attach to certain species. Why waste an egg on someone/something "non-sanctioned" just to have an Alien kill them.

 

[Jim Peavy]

I'm one "Alien" fan that doesn't acknowledge the trainwreck that is Alien 3 as "canon".

 

[Tino]

I seem to recall the Alien Queen running the same way at the climax of Aliens as she does in AvP. I'll have to check.

If true, that's seven years before JP. So I guess we'll have to say that the TREX was romping around like the Alien Queen.

 

[todbnla]

Ok, finally saw this tonight with the family, since it was my wifes birthday, she wanted to see the P.O.S. Anaconda movie but luckily for us it did not show until 2 hours later, we bought tickets to Manchurian candidate but went into AVP cause it started 30 minutes earlier. Overall, it was not too bad, everyone seemed to like it ok. :star: :star: :star: out of :star: :star: :star: :star: :star:

 

[Lewis Besze]

I don't think he was human, I think he was a more advanced prototype to convince Ripley,he'll save her.

 

[Philip Hamm]

I saw this movie with the free ticket from the "Predator" SE. I thoroughly enjoyed it. My favorite line was when the female lead, realizing that she and her companion are lost in the pyramid and that many of her companions are dead or dying, says something like:I've read elsewhere that it was. Quite appropriate.

I believe that the queen knew that the chestburster in the Predator was already viable so she didn't mind killing it. The only thing I question is why did the predators start killing people off above ground, wouldn't they want to round them up to host Aliens for the "real" hunt?

And as for the so called "honorable" nature of the predators, I don't buy it. They pick off creatures much less powerful then them who can not really defend themselves for fun. See the first movie. They are intergalactic a-holes.

 

[Citizen87645]

The "honor" thing might have come out of the comic books. I don't know as I haven't read them myself. If the info were based on the Predator movies alone, then you are absolutely correct. After all, they ARE called "predators" not "sportsman."

EDIT: This is of course from the POV of victims. I'm sure among predators (alien and domestic) they consider themselves something else entirely.

 

[Steve Bjorg]

Finally got aroung seeing it. I can't imagine that anyone posting on these forums wouldn't come up with a better script in a heartbeat. The storyline is so incredibly ridiculous that it was distracting from the little action there was. Totally absurd. If anyone comes across this revived thread -- revived hopefully for a very short period of time -- don't let your friends convince you otherwise. Catch this pile of cinematic disaster on TV when it gets broadcasted, not a day earlier, if ever.

 

[Matt Leigh]

Predator honor was shown in the films. A Predator would not attack an unarmed foe in the first film.

I think it was Predator 2 that had the female lead being pregnant and the Predator wouldn't kill her though he had the oppurtunity. More babies, more sport for later I guess.

The creatures are not depicted as uncaring poachers.

 

[Citizen87645]

Good point, but despite having a rule about not attacking someone who is unarmed, the scales are so tipped in the Predators' favor - armed or otherwise - that "honor" doesn't really mean anything.

 

[Doug Miller]

It's funny, I remembered Predator 2 being beyond horrible when I saw it the first time. BUT, after reading about everyone talking about it I went out and bought it for $10 to give it another try. Surprise, surprise -- I liked it! The directing and a few character pieces reminded me of Robocop. Overall,

Doug