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

[Dave Simpson]

Ticket sales dropped 25% on Saturday. Ouch. Way to kill two franchises in one fell swoop. Cheers.

DS.

 

[Shawn_KE]

Same here. They blast out of the tunnel on the sled and both hit the ground running without missing a beat or falling down. On top of that, Warrior Woman was keeping up side by side with Predator, who being taller than her, should have a much bigger stride. Then the next clique comes when they stop running right as the breaking ice stops.

 

[DavidPla]

Considering the fact that the film's opening weekend passed the ENTIRE gross of "Predator 2" and should passs Resurrection very soon... I'd say Fox isn't too worried right now.

 

[BretWeaver]

Sure, the movie was bad... but didnt everyone know exactly what they were getting themselves in for? I knew it was going to be bad, it was bad, and I enjoyed the flim very much... one of those movies like 'johnny mnemonic' and 'starship troopers'.

 

[Alex Spindler]

Steve, a couple of points.


The characters specifically say that the whaling rig was mysteriously abandoned in 1904, coinciding with the last hunt. It would have to have been set up sometime before 1904 and then lured down to the pyramid. Again, kind of a coincidence for them to establish camp right over the hunting grounds only to be lured down years later.


Holadem,
I know what you mean about the lead character. It's the dialogue itself, which I don't recall repeating any character's name other than Weyland more than one or two times.

 

[Andrew s wells]

Perhaps ticket sales dropped off due in some small part to the bad weather caused by the hurricane? I'm not trying to make excuses, but it is a possibility

 

[Michael St. Clair]

What has been destroyed is the potential of the franchise.

A profit in no way guarantees a sequel. When this thing drops off 65% in week two and has mostly poor word-of-mouth, the suits will rightly assume that any sequel will make a good deal less money due to skeptical moviegoers...

 

[Raasean Asaad]

I could never forget the lovely Sanaa Lathan

 

[Matt Stone]

She's no Schwarzenegger or Glover, and most of her lines are forgettable (aside from the one stolen from Predator 1).

 

[Scott Weinberg]

Alexa Woods

 

[Benson R]

I thought the movie was way better then my rock bottom expectations..... until the teamup with the female lead.

You cant have a female character go one on one with an alien queen without weapons. If she can hold her ground then shouldnt the predator be able to wipe the floor with it? Maybe if it was a character that has the invincible screen presence of a Schwarzanegger or a Stalone.

I thought the movie actually could have worked if at the point the lead killed the first alien, instead she got killed and from there on out it was just predator vs alien.

 

[Lewis Besze]

I'm not following you here,can you explain?

 

[Benson R]

I was saying I think the last act could have worked if they killed the lead character and from there on just had the predator battling the alien.

I also didnt like that the lead setup that they had to save humanity and kill the alien. Kind of took the possibility out that the aliens could win since you know they are not going to destroy humanity.

 

[Michael Harris]

I saw it today using my Movie Cash ticket from the "Predator" CE so only time was spent. For a summer flick for which I had no real expectations it was entertaining. Very silly, no real character development, pointless plot BUT I did like the set design and look of the film and the action was o.k. I kinda liked the team up at the end. I always saw the Predators as being a noble, honorable race to those who deserved it (something brought out in "Predator 2" and Alexa earned their respect. She was no Ripley but I liked her. I did like the closing scene at the end on the Predator's ship.

 

[Diallo B]

she is bangin. and totally unforgetable.

 

[SteveCallas]

Not the flashback when the predator detonates the nuke, there is a scene where a predator is standing on a pyramid and a slave is bowing before it. It is a desert scene.

Also, the pyramid in the artic has hyroglyphics from all 3 cultures on it, so you are led to believe that this land was once inhabited by humans, and was once warm. The predators probably only continued to use it because it was the last remaining pyramid.

 

[MickeS]

I saw it today and was THOROUGHLY entertained. I don't care if the scientific "facts" they mention in the movie (about pyramids, antarctica and others) are true or not, what I care about is that they made a kick-ass suspensful action-scifi-movie and they used mumbo-jumbo to help create it. Who cares? It's not like they pretended to have any connection to real science anyway.

Yes, it could have had a few less plot holes, and it could have had better dialogue in spots and it should have been quicker to get to the aliens... but I am at a complete loss as to why this has been so blasted by critics. Mostly I've read that it was supposedly boring. I was not bored for a second. The opening was cool, and all the stuff until the alien queen is "defrosted" was suspenseful and moved the story forward.

The dialogue could have been more inspired, and the PG-13 rating unfortunately did hurt it. But come on! Any movie where the heroine is gearing up with an alien tail for a spear and an alied head for a shield, where a fucking PREDATOR is fighting a goddamn ALIEN in the middle of a PYRAMID thousands of feet below the ice in ANTARCTICA is gonna be liked by me. Now if they had just thrown in radioactive dinosaurs somewhere I might have shit my pants in excitement.

Seriously, this movie kicked ass and I was entertained from the first frame until the last. This is not to say it is perfect, far from it. There is not enough gore by a long shot and there are hints of a much better movie there. But it IS entertaining on its own terms, and I think it pulls off exactly what it set out to do.

It didn't ruin anything in these franchises, by the way. Anyone who says so must not have seen Alien 4. This was WAY better than that piece of crap, and on the same level as Predator 2 (which I liked).

/Mike

 

[Lewis Besze]

Yeah, you remember the tagline? "No matter who wins we loose".That kinda forecasted that the human characters will be very expendable,even if the spieces survive. I also think most people went in with the preconcieved notion that the predators are superrior.Not to mention that they do this every so often and they almost always win.This is why I liked the fact that the first 2 of them got whacked early on,it made it more interesting.

 

[Torquil]

SPOILERS below:

I thought it was great. Clear that Paul WS Anderson KNOWS the Alien saga and the comic book material and for a hollywood director (as opposed to pure fanboy) did a GREAT job at pulling it all together - the Predalien nod at the end was a superb touch.

Having seen Alien Resurrection recently, I can only say AVP is way superior - anyone who complains about the dialogue here should go back and dig out their resurrection disk.

The Predator/human link-up was to be expected by anyone who read the orginal AVP stories - if anything it is the source material at fault here, not the director. The only thing that looked a little odd was the heroine running around with an alien skull strapped to her arm.

Now I'm sure I missed explanations for this but:
1) was the time line for Alien growth and incubation shortened dramatically?
2) why didn't the Alien skull bleed acid blood everywhere? Case in point when she wore it on her arm.

Anyway, thought about the the film much of the weekend, and still can't bring myself to dislike it. I thought it was respectful and imaginative, and was pretty much exactly what I was after - with some very cool moments IMHO.

I for one (and I await a good flamin') would love to see an AVP2, and will certainly get the DVD. I only hope there is a longer cut so we get a better view of the fighting scenes which were worth the price of admission alone.

When this gets to the UK, I'll certainly see it again.

 

[Michael Allred]

Since many of my thoughts have already been posted here, I won't repeat them.

However I will say that I enjoyed "AvP" a great deal and will look forward to the DVD.

Ranking all the films (from both franchises)

1- Alien
2- Aliens
3- Predator
4- Alien vs Predator
5- Alien 3 (even though it was a mess)
6- Predator 2
7- Alien Resurrection (which was total shit)

So "AvP" is in the middle of the pack. Sure that's not a home run but it's a solid double. Will it make $100 million? No but I would expect it to rival that of "Freddy vs Jason" (somewhere between $80-85 million), figure in strong DVD sales and FOX will be very happy.