Predators

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

So there's a new Pred movie coming out in July. Anyone interested?

Linkage here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igKKWJw88Kk)

It certainly looks good so far, almost a return to form for the Pred franchise. The lack of Xenos, crappy directors or money grabbing studio execs trying to make a quick buck seems promising. A decent cast this time, including Lawrence Fishburne, also helps.

So yeah, thoughts?

[Magus]

My only problem with new Predator movies, which I think was also a problem with AVP, is what do you bring to the table that is new about Predators? At best there is a new gadget or something. Aliens worked slightly better only because depending on what organism "gives birth" to the Alien they are changed slightly, which gave us the Predator Alien in AVP 2.

This looks really good, though, and like you said, it stars Lawrence Fishburne, is directed by Robert Rodriguez who is a good director (I mean, if for nothing else, Desperado or From Dusk Till Dawn), and looks to be taking the entire thing a bit more seriously than Paul W.S. Anderson and the AVP movies did. I'm skeptical of how nine people are supposed to survive against a dozen Predators given the prequels but if they do a good job of convincing me it won't matter.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Did you see the Pred hounds? Or the "Black Super Predator" as he's being called (presumably the big bad daddie Pred)? Yeah, there's a few new things in here. It's also a radically different change in tactics for the Preds, so who knows what new things they've come up with here.


And it seems the humans know much earlier on what they're up against, and are much harder to kill then a few cops or even the spec ops team from the first film, 2 of whom got killed off before they even knew there was an alien predator around. Those 2 facts should help them gain a footing and have a fighting chance.

So while there's more Preds, with new weapons and new tactics and new "pets" to hunt with, their prey knows what's coming, is is better trained and much more diverse in what they're all capable of, which at the very least should add some variety and keep things interesting.

[Amake]

I think all you have to do (and all you really can do) to switch up Predators is to have them hunt different things. There's plenty of different kinds of humans, even in the limited "can fight back" spectrum. . .I see this movie working. But you know what would be great? A Galaxy Geographic special following a pack of preds as they fly around and bust up various alien species. Maybe some completely superior races, maybe some low Int herbivores with impressive horns, maybe some that give birth to particularly interesting Xenomorph drones.

[Tev]

I forget isn't "Xeno planet seeding" what Predators do to get really interesting things to hunt? Like, they see a planet and go "those animals look fun to hunt but aren't quite worthy of my trophy wall.....drop a round of Xeno eggs on the planet."

Anyway, really I feel the chief failing of the first AvP movie was that it wasn't rated R. Every Alien and Predator movie up to that point was strictly R material and to make the big vs. match PG-13 was an insult to both. I can't comment on the second AvP because I skipped it. That said, this looks like a return what I expect to see when I sit down to watch Predators hunting humans plus some cool bonus material. I think I will enjoy this.

[Toast]

Anyway, really I feel the chief failing of the first AvP movie was that it wasn't rated R. Every Alien and Predator movie up to that point was strictly R material and to make the big vs. match PG-13 was an insult to both. I can't comment on the second AvP because I skipped it. That said, this looks like a return what I expect to see when I sit down to watch Predators hunting humans plus some cool bonus material. I think I will enjoy this.

I kind of a agree on the first AvP, it wouldn't have been too bad if they had set out to make it rated R like all the others. I think AvP 2 suffered most from shaken camera syndrome, and a little too much shock gore/grossness that didn't really seem to fit with the rest of the franchises. Also, the human characters were even more unlikable than usual, with one or two exceptions.

This does show more promise than the AvP movies, and I hope it's good and will spawn some future Alien vs. Predator action that's worth seeing.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

The problems with the AvP movies were; AvP 1, not rated 18, thus watering down the whole experiance and cheapening both monsters. Other than that, it was ok. AvP2 suffered from crappy directors not knowing what to do with the story, completely uninteresting characters, fight scenes that were basically just flashes of claws, blades and tails in completely dark environments making it impossible to tell what the hell was going on, plot inconsistences and lack of coordination between scenes (The Predator's in the woods! Now he's at a power station! Now he's in the centre of town in the exact same building where all the main characters are!!, all within the space of 2 scene changes). Oh and the complete over-use of gore for gores sake and the lack of explaination as to why a Predalien can turn unborn babies into Xenos.

In short, the 2nd movie was a terrible mess on all accounts and added nothing to either franchises' universes. The first at least had the decency to explain some shit about Preds and Xenos, had some characters you cared about, and at least 1 kickass Pred/Xeno fight scene.


But Predators is definately going back to the roots of the Predator series and taking aspects of what made the first film so great, which is why I'm more hopeful on this one.

[Magus]

There definitely seems to be a renewed emphasis on the "stalking" part of the Predators franchise, fear and tension, etc., instead of just fight scenes.

[Archbio]

AvP 1, not rated 18, thus watering down the whole experiance and cheapening both monsters.

I wouldn't say that the toning down of the violence is the only thing that watered down the experience.

One thing that stuck out a lot as significant to me is the kind of timetable that the movie operated on. How much time is suggested to elapse between the fodder/characters arrive on the scene and the time the first "xenomorph" is born? It seems to me like the movie operates in real time much like an episode from a run-of-the-mill television series should: the subject is compressed to watch.

That doesn't work to create tension and atmosphere.

All in all, I'm very dubious as to the idea that either series can recover their luster.

[Amake]

If it was up to me I'd do a straight adaptation of the first AvP comic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliens_vs._Predator_(comic_book)). It's the only time the concept actually worked, and I doubt there's anything more than can be done with it.

(Until, of course, time travel technology is perfected so that we can have Schwarzenegger and Weaver at their peak.)

[Mirai Gen]

When did the Sci-Fi channel get the Predator license.