Just saw AvP R today...

[Ten Tigers]

Yes indeed, this movie was sheer unadulterated badassery.

I absolutely LOVE all the new Pred toys.

A list of things that impressed me...

Spoilers R' Us

I like how agile they portrayed the Predator, especially in his final fight.

The Predator did what looked to me like a Dragon Punch with his wrist-com. My heart was screaming SHORYUKEN!!!

The Predator's hud. It was like something from a FPS. After scanning the area it showed the "level" and his position in it. Too cool.

The whip... Holy batshit what a beautiful weapon. Filet Minion anyone?

The Predalien, I am so glad they did this right. It was buff, it was tough, but it was slower than the drones.

The aliens themselves. It was nice to see them doing what they do best. I like the new rendering on them as well. There were subtle differences and I liked them.

The combat between the human soldiers and the troops. Sure it would have been nice to see some classic pulse rifles, but they did a VERY good job making me feel like I was watching Aliens for the first time again.

The darkness and violence. When the Predalien looked into the nursery all I could think to myself was "mmmm... Lunch." That was good cinematography.

The ending. When they said her name the following word hissed out of my mouth in a very Venomesque fashion "niiiiice...." Talk about hemming something up nice and seamless like.

I officialy forgive them for AVP1 and can't wait for AVP3. Damn, I already want this on DVD.

For those of you who are skeptical about watching this forget all the crap reviews it has been getting and go see it while it is still on the big screen.

I still have warm fuzzies from watching this.

[tatatank]

good to hear, i want to see it. I want a predator 3 or alien 5 more than anything AvP related. Gotta take what you can get though.

[ÜberJumper]

In my opinion, the movie was awful.

There were some good bits action bits though and it does somewhat advance the Aliens and Predator universe by introducing

Spoiler

the Yutani corp

.

[Noble]

Out of curiosity, was there any justification for the "Requiem" sub title or did they just tack it on to sound cool?

[Ten Tigers]

@UberJumper: With spoiler tags, what made it awful in your eyes? It should have been set much further in the future but barring the damage that has already been done I thought they did a good job salvaging the horror of AVP.

@Noble: Yes, this is a very dark and violent flick and without spoiling too much a requiem would be appropriate given the level of casualties.

[ehwhatever]

Advertisements made it look like it was a B movie on the uwe boll level and you can't fake that kind of suck.

[Dess_Aramea]

gads, how do i use spoiler tags?, I have some juicy bits to talk over : /

[Zir]

Utter balls.

[Ten Tigers]

@Dess: When you post a reply, you can highlight the text that you want to hide in a spoiler tag then click the little question mark in the speech bubble. It's on the far right hand side of the formatting tools. B is on one side [?] is on the other. Just highlight and click. You will be given the option to add additional text to the spoiler tag, if you don't have anything to add just click ok and leave it blank.

Easy.

@Cappa: At the risk of breaking your fingers by typing more than two words, what didn't you like about it? Or did you just want to talk about testicles?

[Robert Frazer]

Out of curiosity, was there any justification for the "Requiem" sub title or did they just tack it on to sound cool?

Well, Noble, some have postulated their own theories...



(Posted with apologies to Theatre Hopper)

However, I regret that I can't venture my own appreciation of the film, as I haven't seen it yet.

[Zir]

@Cappa: At the risk of breaking your fingers by typing more than two words, what didn't you like about it? Or did you just want to talk about testicles?

I was going to delete my post because it doesn't need to be there, but since you ask, it's just not my thing. I just don't see the point, and don't see what you or anyone else could get from it. So, theres a xenomorph from a great series, and a predator from a classic action movie, and they've thrown them together again breaking the story of both those other series', for no other reason than to show aliens going "RAAARK!" and spraying green blood everywhere. I just don't get what happens in peoples heads that makes them think "hmm, two idiots have decided to steal two alien characters and make them throw stuff at each other. I just HAVE to see what happens.". You basically give these guys the satisfaction of knowing you think what they've made is worth your time.

[Ten Tigers]

That's cool. Then again it's not like the parent movies were spiritually/mentally groundbreaking either.

Hell, in Predator 2 Danny Glover manages to kill a predator in melee combat where as good ol' Arnie couldn't.

[PaxTerminatus]

The sad thing is the idea of pitting the two alien species against each other, even if at it's core it is just for the sake of aliens going "RAAARK" and spraying acid blood everytwhere. If there were only a little effort put into the plot.

As far as I can see, it's moved from a disgustingly cheesy action movie amalgamation without *enough* true violence and blood to make a story true to the preceeding works, to a violence-for-violence's-sake style horror/gore movie with no real point.

This movie could have told the story of an epic freaking war with the predaliens taking it to the predator homeworld for some all out asskickery, even evolving to a point where they move beyond the perfect life form as aliens, into the perfect life form with a will to make an empire with the predaliens. a third or even fourth movie could have finished this saga with some large time jumps, allowing more leeway with human interaction instead of just the insert meat-sack for alien gestation here cliche'. The story could have tied into some of the holes in both franchises, what sticks out most being what the hell was the race on the derelict spacecraft and what were their signifigance. Are they all dead? are some still alive? have aliens killed everything in the timeline of Alien 3/Ressurection(OHGODHORRIBLEMEMORIESMUSTBLOCKTHEMAGAIN) except for humans?

So much possiblilty to be spoiled by the stupid populace that wants to see blood for the hell of it.

[Ten Tigers]

Pax, I think you are just looking at this in the wrong light.

In my opinion, the only thing wrong here is this all happens way too early in the human's timeline. There is no way to truly embody the graphic novels so there had to be some give and take. I just think the humans got gimped in the process.

Besides, this is SUPPOSED to be an action movie. I would rather focus on alien versus predator combat badassery than see some hack writter try to impress me with excessive storyline. Action can carry a story like this just as easily as somebody's love affair. Star Wars 1&2 anyone?

Hell, if I want drama I'll watch Titanic then blow my head off with a shotgun.

[PaxTerminatus]

...Okay, when is a proper epic war story not an action story. It can be fast paced action with a smart byzantine plot, or any derivative inbetween. I wasn't proposing that it be turned into Pearl Harbor.

It shoulda been either a 2 way brawl set further in the future with the humans being more than horror movie fodder, or a 3 way far future slugfest in-the-trenches war movie with space marines killing predators then being killed by aliens who are killed by more predators who are nuked from orbit by the Human ship (which is then blown up by the predators' fleet, who don't know that they have aliens aboard, etc).

The story doesn't have to be excessive for there to be one that engages you and tells a tale.

[Ten Tigers]

I can't really argue with that. Of course that's also why I said this happened WAAAAAY to early in human history.

As for the "all out war" thing, I would have to pass on that. The xenos don't wage war (at least not in the traditional sense), nor are they capable of space travel. The thought of xenomorphs evolving into a Starship Troopers style bug gives me the shits.

The story doesn't have to be excessive for there to be one that engages you and tells a tale.

Sorry, I just still have the dry-heaves from Star Wars' attempt at drama.

"I love you."

"No I love you. No I love you."

"No I love you."

"Dammit it's so unfair *sniff*."

"Your tearing me apart."

"I know, I do that from time to time."

[PaxTerminatus]

oh hell no, not starship troopers. I was just thinking of possibilities of the predalien. But the same kind of thing that happened on LV 426 can happen on worlds within the spere of influence of all three races.

Predators already live there. Human ship arrives in system basically dead, with crew in gestation. crashes on predator planet. Marines come following after distress beacon, find aliens and predators duking it out. they look for survivors from the ship or viable specimens of aliens to bring back to the company, get embroiled in a war.

i think where I lost you was trenches. i didn't mean literally, i meant a style of story that took place almost entirely in the field, in the action. maybe the husk of a predator city that they have been slowly blasting apart in their efforts to kill the really bad bug problem.

argh... blagh.. star wars drama, no no please. it burns precious. bad acting and worse direction divided by whiny adolescent love shit. ARGH!

[Ten Tigers]

Well then the war would be between the Humans and the Preds. The Xenos would be little more than a battlefield hazard/bio-weapon.

i think where I lost you was trenches. i didn't mean literally, i meant a style of story that took place almost entirely in the field, in the action. maybe the husk of a predator city that they have been slowly blasting apart in their efforts to kill the really bad bug problem.

Now that would work. Much like if there was a 40k movie of somekind. You would have to tell 80% of the story with the action.

[Captain Pierce]

breaking the story of both those other series

Technically, this is not true. An Alien skull was displayed on the "trophy wall" of the Predator ship in Predator 2, so nothing is broken there. I will, however, admit that it's a little annoying seeing this many aliens running around in what is presumably pretty close to the present day when nobody seems to know a damn thing about them in the Alien future.

As for Danny Glover doing better going mano-a-mano with the Predator than Arnie, remember that the one Danny took out was a kid, basically, a young Predator on his "test of manhood" or whatever you want to call it (and I'll presume that getting taken out by Mel Gibson's sidekick equals a failing grade ).

Lot of good rips on this movie at Rotten Tomatoes; my favorite was the one who said, "If your only problem with the first one was that there wasn't enough explicit violence, this is the movie for you." There was another guy, though, who had a good point--maybe this is a franchise that only works in the comics...

[DatonKallandor]

There was another guy, though, who had a good point--maybe this is a franchise that only works in the comics...

Maybe it would work if they actually did one like the comics instead of doing god awful present day camp. The original AvP2 script was utter win, in a very Alien(s) 2 homage style. And they need to bring Giger in again. His latest Biomech designs are scarier than you can imagine.

[Dess_Aramea]

Ok here goes:

Spoiler

ok the chest buster breaks free of scar and begins to massacre a PREDATOR ship only to have some pred fella blowing tha shits out of the ship to have it crash back on earth minutes after taking off? no, just no gad dammit. I thought chest busters took at least a couple of hours to mature before they started wreaking havoc?

Spoiler

I mean cmon, this guys are tech advanced, did they not have cameras watching scars body or sumthing? I thought this was a plot hole

Spoiler

I heard some dude going off about how this film failed to advance the plot of the whole series. I so wanted to slap him with my coke straw and enlighten him that he should not expect any plot advancement this early in the timeline. Its a case of the foooture! to be honest i just went to see this for the blood gutz and friggin glory, which was a win in my case.

Spoiler

and I woulda thought you woulda had more preds incoming to clean up such a mess, oh well at least the lone pred did kick ass ^^

[KON Air]

A quite off topic question;
Am I wrong or there was a comic where Predators and Humans were at war and Humans kicked Predators ass just because they were well organized and Predators were insisting to go solo? Or am I making it up now?

[DatonKallandor]

It's quite possible. Future humans in that universe are arrogant but they are incredibly cruel and smart.

[ÜberJumper]

Ten Tigers:

The story tried to much to be dramatic, to much like a campy horror movie.

The "horror" was more attempted gore-shock than suspense horror. Everything was telegraphed, nothing truely scary or shocking.

[ZimZum]

I know next to zero about the universe in which this all takes place, and haven't seen AvP2 yet so feel free to enlighten me, but

AvP1 & 2 chest bursters

don't we see a rookie Predator in AvP casually plucking a chest burster out of the air and killing it with his thumb? How does the chest burster in AvP2 wreak havoc in a ship full of them? Is it explicitly shown to have matured?

[Ten Tigers]

Yes it matured.

If it consumed enough organic matter it could probably hammer through it's growth cycles but I will admit that was rushed.

Then again I noticed the aliens in this series of movies are fast gestating. In the original movie Alien it took around 24 hours for that special moment. This breed must be fed miracle grow.

[Stripe7]

It is possible that the Aliens from the original movie were a runt branch that gestated slowly due to the genetic material from the previous hosts that were consumed in that crashed ship that the Nostromo found. It is also possible those were natural aliens and the ones the Predators use for sport hunting are a genetically engineered faster maturing breed. It could also be that the one in the Nostromo had a harder time finding food so it took it longer to mature.

I liked AVP2:R, especially at the start where they managed to merge the sound from the original Alien movie with the sound of the Predators.

[Glubtrak]

I don't know. The whole AvP thing fails to impress me somewhat. It seems like it doesn't do the Aliens justice. I really enjoyed the Predator in AvP2 but between the Predalien and the Humans who i had absolutely no sympathy for it just didn't work for me. The beginning was great, but then it just got worse and worse.

Spoiler

The whole Wayland-Yutani just seems tagged on for me. I would rather like a AvP movie in a future setting instead of this Teenage-present crap. I know main characters are supposed to be more resilient then red shirts but he takes a Alien tail through his chest and just walks it off! "cough cough, I'm alright." Ok...atleast his girlfriend got the axe.

I really hope they don't try to ultimately make a connection to Alien. That movie has be left on it's own. Makes the whole thing more believable.
*Dreams of a AvP movie that takes after the story from the AvP game*

[Tseng_Fox]

Well, the Predator genes could have super-increased the Predaliens growth rate and this could pass on from predalien to embryos.

[Stripe7]

Embryo's

The normal aliens gestated from the face huggers released from the crashed ship. Tho there was one shot of an opened egg in the sewers. Was there a queen that laid that egg?

[hiddensmoke]

Stripe7: When did you see that scene? I'm going to see this movie again and I'd like to see that.

EAT BABIES!

Personally I loved this movie. The whole time I was for the lack of a better word Giddy. The Aliens were perfect, except they gestated in minutes and didn't seem to eat alot of food for it. But hell this movie did have horrible acting but they took the approach of... "Our actors suck but if we kill enough of them with brain sploding' action people won't care." And I'm glad they took such a violent approach to it because in most movies the kid that went hunting with his dad would of lived somehow and told the town... NOPE not in AVP, also in most movies the chick that worked at the Wendy's would have also survived... again nah huh. I love it.

Oh and finally a movie that makes a horror hospital right! That stuff was so fucked up.

Btw the next movie should be titled
AvP3: Whats worse then 10 dead babies in one trash can?

- hidden, going to see it again

[Dess_Aramea]

@Stripe 7, see below:

Spoiler

the predalien lays all the eggs in this one

[TheLoneKnight]

Dess, you have just eliminated any chance of me ever considering to watch the movie in theaters. My wallet thanks you.

My inner fanboy, on the other hand, wants to hunt down the director give him a well-placed punch to the diaphragm. That stuff just ain't right. Not even with the oblique fiction of the AvP franchise.

[roflmao]

Freddy vs Jason anyone?

[Dess_Aramea]

@ the loneknight: what? I didnt mean to...no really! you must watch it!! YOU MUST!!!

: /


Runs Home.

[Question]

Is it just me, or are the AvP movies going too far in making the predators look like wimps? I mean, with these kind of results, its a wonder they have any survivors from alien hunts at all, whereas the way they are potrayed outside the AvP movies, you would think they were some kind of serious bad ass who regularly hunted down Aliens for sport.

[Stripe7]

Possible Egg?

In the crash scene we see the face huggers escaping the ship, they also show many vats holding face huggers before the crash and broken vats after the crash. There was 1 predalien and the other aliens did not show the hinged jaw of a predalien, therefore they are all from the vats. In the sewers there is one scene where I believe 2 figures were in the sewer and from the audience POV we see what looks like a hatched egg, then webbing then the two guys in the sewers.

[Senn]

I haven't seen the movie, and I probably won't unless I can see it for free. With that in mind, I would hardly expect it to be a cinematic triumph. While I whole-heartedly agree that the AVP franchise would be better if it took place further in the future (say, a little after the original Alien timeline), these things really aren't taken into consideration when creating an action/fright flick like this one. I suppose the reasoning behind this one is that if it takes place during our time, we can better relate to it and this fact will make it more "terrifying," or some such. Certainly, if they got Ridley Scott to do the movie, it would be a whole lot better, but they didn't exactly have that kind of budget.

At least it can't be any worse than Hitman. If it is, I will have lost my faith in humanity.

[mattman1991]

i think the movie forgot its title

ALIEN versus PREDATOR
not aliens versus predator and humans

the humans should have had less of a role (even thought it was on earth)
and hopefully they make a avp 3 as in the end it was quite random.

But it was VERY VERY violent action movie

Why it was good

HOT blonde being killed by disk, stoners' heads being liquadated by plasma, predators laser trap things, and his like power fist, as well as the nuke ending oh man that was cool

[CrossOfFire]

The reason the predator's die is to advance the plot, because logically, the Aliens wouldn't stand much of a chance.

Nowhere, in any of the books I've read about AvP did the first one make sense with them having to find weapons on earth. The truth is that the humans would've been dispatched rapidly, as would have the aliens. This mistake would've been handled properly.

I personally loved the feel of the Alien series in the future. It added a whole new effect to me and wasn't so, associational to comfort us, in fact it was some very far fetched and developed ideas for the time. Most of the ideas you see in Alien, the first one as far as space craft, etc, haven't really been expanded upon. Science Fiction hasn't advanced that much beyond space craft, teleportation, laser and plasma weaponry and light speed. The only thing that differs is alien races.

Whereas Aliens was much more gritty and dark, it was a movie that absorbed you.

The way I can tell a movie is a good movie is when I forget I'm watching a movie, when you lose track of time and get enveloped into the movie, you get transfixed, forget about all of your worries, time and concerns and are enthralled in that movie. I find myself more and more these days, looking at my watch or anticipating what happens next and being right or many other things. I'm happy they're expanding upon the Predators, but the Alien's concept in my opinion needs an overhaul, it's just too simplistic for me, it works, but it's just too simple.

That's why I read the AvP series, seeking more information, and it just...eh, I dunno, it didn't exactly satisfy me, more of lost interest. I liked the last one I read the most. I reached a point a midst the first one where, I was reading intently and it just hit me, "This individual will not die, it will shut the story down." I was right. I dunno, the quality of stories just aren't what they used to be, we have some of the greatest technologies of all time available to us, as far as costume, design, CGI, but yet I still see paper thin plots.

Anyway, that's my spheel.

[sporty]

After the first movie, I'd have to be a lot more gullible to pay money for a sequel.

The hanger for this movie is just too horrible to grasp. In AvP we see a Predator determine a man's heart condition, but a whole ship of them fails to notice a growing Predalien in the surviving Predator. And now the second movie starts with this Chestburster having wiped out the entire ship... no, just no.

A movie based on this can't be even half-decent. Repent, and do a proper AvP movie set in the future where the Alien series took place. Again, I'd have to be very gullible to believe they'd do this, so no thanks in advance.

[DatonKallandor]

Any movie that has aliens and is made now needs Gigers Alien 2.0. Even seeing the real scale model sitting as if ready to pounce is scary as hell. With Multi-jointed limbs, opposable digits and several inch long blades on each hand/foot it still manages to look horribly human.

[hiddensmoke]

bleh

Apparently from what I've been reading around the Predator ship that crashed had only one or two crew as it was a Recon ship that broke off from the bigger ship which is where the chest burster snuck onto it. Which later resulted in the predator shooting a hole in his own hull.

- hidden

[Kratos]

I actually liked this film very much. The film broke a lot common action move agreements, but I won`t spoil you guys on those.

@ Question, in AvP2 the Predator fucking rox, in AvP1 the preds were novices

[Dess_Aramea]

And yet:

Spoiler

its like the pred boys have a fatalistic knack for everything . I mean THEY ALWAYS DIE in the end somehow wtf?

Spoiler

oh yeah am having fun with spoiler tags! whooop!

Daton, got a link for the Giger 2.0 models? I would love to be horrified by them.

[DatonKallandor]

Sadly no link to the Giger models. And I don't know if they'd have the same effect if you just saw a picture of them - you have to be in leaping distance, so to speak.

[MardiGrasBandit]

I refuse to post on this thread, because Alien vs Predator and its sequel are a shining icon of everything wrong with Hollywood.

Damn it.

An AvP movie could only be good in two specific situations.

1. It stars Arnold and Weaver via nonsensical time travel ala T3.

2. Alien vs Predator vs Ash.

[Glubtrak]

Don't be so hard on it bandit. Comic books are the reason these "icon vs icon" things happen and they already have made the very best VS combination ever.

Alien vs Predator vs The Terminator

"Are you Sara Conner?"
*Alien screams*
"Obviously not"

[KON Air]

sdfsdf was that thing cannon?

The escape craft explodes and we are left with Annalee Call eulogizing Ripley in her final moments, ultimately ending her part in the Alien canon.

[The5thElephant]

This movie was absolutely awful. It appeared to be written by and appeal only to boys aged 12 to 14. Even my younger brother was appalled by the stupidity of the story, characters, dialog, and just about everything.

I simply cannot understand how a Producer or Director with so much money available to make special effects and buy fake blood, cannot hire a writer worth a 4th grade English paper?

The choices made by the characters are so incredibly stupid (did they seriously use the blond screams and runs away by herself plot device AGAIN!?) and so mind numbingly idiotic. Hmmm....two civvies and a police officer have gone missing, lets go search for the officer with just two police men....genius!

The improved visual effects were completely lost due to the constant lightning and rain (BOOOORRRRINNNNNGGGG), so everything was just a blur. Hell, you could see more of the aliens and how they moved in the Aliens than you could here. The Predator's HUD was awful. The only reason it was that blurry was because they couldn't make fancy graphics in the first Predator flick. I wouldn't want that HUDs up display at all, it is so freaking hard to see through with its utter lack of information (just a freaking lock on triangle most of the time) and completely horrible resolution. Modern human tech is far better in many ways.

Or how about the National Guard getting pwned by a bunch of aliens who sneak up on them, but a few civvies and one military chick can hold them off with weapons they are hardly trained with (oh they they never give the blond chick a gun, but they do give her new boytoy one, why is he more capable?).

The predalien was hardly developed beyond being scarier looking and killing some pregnant lady (what is with horror movies and infants these days? Anyone remember that stupid scene from the new Dawn of the Dead?), and the final fight between it and the Predator was lame at best (I'm so badass I'm going to take my helmet off because I can't see shit through it).

I am sorely dissapointed in both AvP flicks, and I want my damn $11 back (New York City theaters are expensive). Why can't we have people who make good horror movies make these movies? Why are these idiots given so much money? How the fuck did people who are less creative and less thoughtful than I, who has no training in film making or writing, get this job?

Bllaarragbhghghghghgg.