Alien vs Predator

[Blind_Prophet]

I saw somewhere that AvP was pg-13, when all the other alien movies and preditor movies were R rated and really bloody one of the reasons I enjoyed them so much so i wanna know if AvP will meet my violence quota. [img]graemlins/gore.gif[/img]

[Timber Loftis]

Hey Blind Prophet, I think the violence quota can be met -- PG-13 is more risque these days than in the days of Bill Paxton's incessant "Game over, man, game over!" whining.

I saw it with a group of approximately 20 guys as a preamble to a friend's wedding in Kentucky. Boy, were we annoying to be in the theatre with. It was pretty hokey, but a fun flick to see. Some neat, if implausible, background story to bring the two movie worlds together. Good CGI and special effects. Highly silly storyline, but at least the humans get made into meatsickles pretty quickly, as one would assume would be the case.

And, Bishop's in it. And, it's set in 2004.

[pritchke]

<font face="Verdana" size="3" color="#00FF00">Hmm! I have heard that reviews were bad to mediocre. However people I know who watched it really enjoyed it. I am thinking it is probably a fun action movie, with lots of special effects, but not big on story telling.</font>

[ 08-17-2004, 11:29 AM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

[Cerek the Barbaric]

Originally posted by pritchke: <font face="Verdana" size="3" color="#00FF00">Hmm! I have heard that reviews were bad to mediocre. However people I know who watched it really enjoyed it. I am thinking it is probably a fun action movie, with lots of special effects, but not big on story telling.</font>

<font color=plum>That's a pretty good assessment, <font color=lime>Pritcke</font>. The producer "played it safe" and basically combined the best elements from Aliens and Predator 2 into this movie. If you liked the 2nd movie in both series (and I LOVED Bill Paxton's character in Aliens "Hey man, in case you haven't been keeping up on current events, we just got our ASSESS KICKED!!!" - I always love that line) then you will probably like this movie too.

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I agree the back story is a little incredible - but still fairly plausible given the fact that they are explaining how 2 alien races end up in a ritualistic hunt against one another.

I was pleased to see that they did remain true to the characteristics of both races. Since this was "Aliens vs Predator", I thought the humans in it might end up being sideline spectators for the most part (with the exception of the obligatory casualties), but the humans fared about as well in this one as they did in all of the other movies with these two alien races - they served as fodder that was used up quickly.

The one part that bothered me the most was the end scene. It was VERY reminiscent of Predator 2, with one small exception. Our lone human survivor is standing in the middle of ANTARTICA!!! - NOT L.A. And she is basically stripped down to nothing more than a heavy sweatshirt - and she doesn't so much as shiver. Excuuuuse me, but the whole "set up" leading to the Big Hunt was the fact that it was in the middle of an ARCTIC WASTELAND where "the temperature of the water would kill you in 3 minutes" - not in Upstate NY on a snowy night.

As for Bishop, I thought that was a cool addition (and at least a mediocre attempt at a "tie in"). Did anyone else notice on the cover of the magazine that he was "the world's foremost expert on robotics?" (or words to that effect). In the end, though, this version of Bishop was all too human.

I was actually surprised by the "twist" at the end, although I know I really shouldn't have been. And THAT does bring the storyline "full circle" and sets up the beginning of a new Alien-saga with the Predators being the main course instead of humans next time.</font>

[Morgeruat]

http://www.hackwurld.com/tandemthespoony/Rant-AvP.htm

I found This review to be most informative. (sorry about the florida joke Z)

[Cerek the Barbaric]

Originally posted by Morgeruat: http://www.hackwurld.com/tandemthespoony/Rant-AvP.htm I found This review to be most informative. (sorry about the florida joke Z)

<font color=plum>BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HA!!!!!!!!

That was absolutely hilarious. I liked the movie myself, but I have to admit this guy is pretty much "dead on" with his analysis and criticisms - especially regarding the horrid lack of continuity...not just with the other movies, but even within this movie itself.

I don't really mind the buried pyramid/battleground bit, but surely they could have come up with a half-assed plausible explanation for part of the team being trapped in the Sacrificial Room and implanted, then trapped there for several hours until the incubation process takes place. The rest of the group could have returned to the Base Camp to figure out how they were going to save their seperated comrades, which would have given the newborn aliens time to hatch and begin to grow. The Predators could simply have delayed their arrival by two days and the continuity would have been held intact. In fact, DR even said at one point "OK, we're done for today." She then said they were going to return to Base Camp and come back tomorrow. But I guess the director then immediately forgot that would actually allow him to preserve continuity with the Alien incubation process. He could still have had the required number of "red shirts" get trapped in the Sacrificial Room as they left. After all, the French dude activated the Queen's "re awakening" by stepping on a pressure plate......and we know from hordes of mummy movies that pyramids are typically saturated with such pressure plates.

I also agree with the lack of continuity when the Queen spears the remaining Pred. In Alien 3, Ripley was spared by a drone because it could apparantly sense or smell the embryo she was implanted with. And if drone can figure that out, surely the Queen could too.

The fight scene between "Wayne" and the Alien was pretty awful. Just like this guy, I honostly couldn't tell what was happening through the whole "grappling sequence".

Having the Pred's weapons be affected by the acid once, but then immune to it from there on out was another major gaffe. Since this Ritualist Hunt has been occurring for thousands of years - and the Pred's come from an advanced society of Hunters - it's perfectly logical to assume they have found a metal (or developed an alloy) for their weapons that is immune to Alien Acid. I mean, geeez, the KNOW what happens when you stab one of these things....so it looks like perfecting the "non-melt-down-alloy" would have been pretty high on the priority list for the Elders who are sending the Chosen into this combat.

One point I disagree with the critic on is that I thought the spear and Alien-Head shield looked kinda cool (although I also wondered at how he Pred was able to completely wipe away ALL he Alien Acid Blood from he skull to prevent "DR"'s arm from burning off too.

One other scene in the movie that defies continuity is the "horde" of Aliens that attacked the final Pred. Exactly WHERE did ALL those Aliens come from. I didn't keep an accurate count, but there certainly seemed to be a LOT more Aliens than there were impregnated humans. I know the Pred blasted at least 4-5 Aliens with his shoulder cannon and DR killed another. Add the one which got it's head casually cut in half by Pred earlier, and you're already pretty close to the number of humans that were available for incubation. The Pred killed the one from Frenchie immediately after birth, but there were still 3 left to return to the Queen and sacrifice themselves so that her bonds would be melted away (again, WHY did it take the Queen so many thousands of years to come up with that plan...and WHY didn't the Pred's make her shackles out of the same Acid-proof metal most of their weapons were made of. After all, if the Queen does escape, their Ritualistic Hunt is totally FUBARRED....so it seems like making her shackles acid-resistant would actually have been an even higher priority than doing the same for their weapons.

Well, bottom line is that the movie was fairly enjoyable - but obviously had the potential to be SO much better as far as the storyline and action sequences go. Still, I guess I'll have to add this to the Guilty Pleasure Thread....a movie that has a lot of flaws but is still fun to watch.</font>

[Luvian]

Originally posted by Morgeruat: http://www.hackwurld.com/tandemthespoony/Rant-AvP.htm I found This review to be most informative. (sorry about the florida joke Z)

That review totally suck, the guy apparently is troling, or really didn't even get the main story elements and is trolling...

For example he ask why the predator don't use their guns, when we all saw the humans take the guns in an earlier scene...

He's also apparently surprised that an alien is smart enough to retreat from a losing fight to come back from behind, claiming they are only as smart as animals. First of all, about any animal that hunt to survive would be able to do as much, and secondly, aliens take on some of the characteristics of their host. That dog alien in Alien 3 was smart enough to do it, why not a human alien?

Sure, this movie isn't the best ever, but that guy is trying a little too hard to discredit it.

[Luvian]

Originally posted by Cerek the Barbaric: <font color=plum>I also agree with the lack of continuity when the Queen spears the remaining Pred. In Alien 3, Ripley was spared by a drone because it could apparantly sense or smell the embryo she was implanted with. And if drone can figure that out, surely the Queen could too.</font>

She was spared because she was carrying an alien queen, not just a regular. Why would an alien queen fighting for her life care about that regular embryo?

[ 08-19-2004, 01:23 AM: Message edited by: Luvian ]

[Cerek the Barbaric]

Originally posted by Luvian: </font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Morgeruat: http://www.hackwurld.com/tandemthespoony/Rant-AvP.htm I found This review to be most informative. (sorry about the florida joke Z)

That review totally suck, the guy apparently is troling, or really didn't even get the main story elements and is trolling...

For example he ask why the predator don't use their guns, when we all saw the humans take the guns in an earlier scene... </font>[/QUOTE]<font color=plum>I agree his review was probably overly harsh, but he has several good points. Yeah, the humans took the guns in an earlier scene, but his point was "WHY didn't the Pred's have their guns with them on the spaceship???" In the first two movies, the Pred's were facing a much easier prey (puny humans instead of acid-bleeding, spike tailed Aliens) and they came "loaded for bear" from the word go. In the first movie, the original Predator blasted several of Arnie's guys with his patented shoulder canon...so why didn't these "Chosen Champions" enter the "Arena of Combat" fully armed???

And the reviewer already said not to mention any thoughts about the Pred's having to "jump through hoops" in the Battle. Now, I don't totally agree with that. Surviving long enough to reach your plasma-blasting shoulder cannon might be a justified part of the Ritualistic Hunt itself...but he does have a point about it not being consistent with the first two movies where the Pred was armed to the teeth with hugely superior weaponry.</font>

Originally posted by Luvian: He's also apparently surprised that an alien is smart enough to retreat from a losing fight to come back from behind, claiming they are only as smart as animals. First of all, about any animal that hunt to survive would be able to do as much, and secondly, aliens take on some of the characteristics of their host. That dog alien in Alien 3 was smart enough to do it, why not a human alien?

<font color=plum>Point Well Made. Even the "regular" Aliens in the second movie knew when to conduct a tactical retreat. They were all over the Space Marines until Vasquez opened up with her machine gun. Then they retreated back into their holes and came out to attack from a different spot.

Besides, even animals know when to retreat from a superior foe. When male animals in the wild fight for dominance, territory or leadership...the loser usually knows when to quit the fight. Otherwise, every one of those battles would be a fight to the death (rams, lions, wolves, bears, etc etc), in which even the victor might be permanently injured or incapacitated.

So ,yes, even animal knows when to retreat from a fight.

In fact, I'm reading a book to my boys about Great White Sharks. Nobody is going to argue the fact that Great Whites are an "apex predator" with no natural enemies. Yet one of the questions raised in the book was "Why don't the sharks kill humans with every attack? Why do they often just take one bite and leave?" One expert has studied Great Whites in the wild and observed this same technique when the Shark attacks a huge elephant seal. It will rush in to attack and bite a huge chunk out of the seal, but then it swims off without attacking anymore. Why? Because the initial attack will eventually prove fatal. The elephant seal will eventually bleed to death. So the shark simply follows at a safe distance and waits for the animal to die on it's own, rather than continuing an all-out attack that might result in the shark being injured by the elephant seal as it thrashes about.

Makes pretty good sense when you think about it.</font>

[Cerek the Barbaric]

Originally posted by Luvian: </font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Cerek the Barbaric: <font color=plum>I also agree with the lack of continuity when the Queen spears the remaining Pred. In Alien 3, Ripley was spared by a drone because it could apparantly sense or smell the embryo she was implanted with. And if drone can figure that out, surely the Queen could too.</font>

She was spared because she was carrying an alien queen, not just a regular. Why would an alien queen fighting for her life care about that regular embryo? </font>[/QUOTE]<font color=plum>Good Point. I forgot Ripley was carrying a Queen (it's been a loooong time since I saw the movie). And I agree that a Queen fighting a Predator (the apex hunter of the universe, apparantly) wouldn't be worried about sparing the embryo he was carrying.

Touche', <font color=red>Luvian</font>. [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] </font>