Report Back From Comic-Con

Frequent AvPGalaxy visitor, Gr8kabuki, visited the San Diego Comic Convention last week and has just submitted his report on the event and the Alien vs Predator footage that was shown there. Here’s an extract:

“There may not be much human blood but there will be gallons of green and yellow pred and alien blood. During the battle a predator gets impaled on an Alien tail and it’s pretty graphic. The MPAA has always thought green blood is ok for the kiddies and it looks like it will be flying around by the gallon in this. I think that human kills will be masked with pred vision, etc.”

The report is very well-written and takes an insight into the negatives of the footage as well as the positives. Take a read on the next page…

—-Begin Report—-

The USA Today article was accurate in its description of the reaction to the film clips. The gigantic “Hall H” at the San Diego Convention Center was almost full so there were at least 5000 people in the audience. Many of these had stayed from the Resident Evil 2/ The Grudge panels (with Sarah Michelle Gellar in attendance) that had been shown immediately prior to AVP presentation.

Sanaa Lathan, Lance Henriksson, Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff all came out and talked about the film a little. They really didn’t say much that hasn’t been discussed before. Two scenes were shown (a) the exposition scenes where Weyland explains the nature of the expedition which then cuts to a verbal confrontation between Lex and Weyland in his cabin (b) the first battle between aliens and predators.

The bad:

1. During the battle clip, humans were simply knocked around by predators so there was no blood. I think that this is what can be expected throughout the movie. It would be nice to see blood flying but I don’t think that it’s a very realistic expectation from a business standpoint. This is a movie aimed at teenagers and the studio will not jeopardize this. It’s not Anderson’s decision. I don’t get the over reaction with the R starting from the internet community. Personally I like R movies due to nudity and blood but I don’t get upset if a film has less T&A and blood to avoid NC 17.

2. During Lance’s speaking time he over emphasized the supposed motivation of the character. “The guy is a billionaire, he made his money in robotics, he’s dying and what’s to be remembered for a positive contribution “etc. To me these are just plot details and indicates a weak script. What the character does is not motivation …why he does what he does and how he feels because of it is motivation. Lance is an awesome actor and intelligent man so I imagine he had to dig deep for something to work with and that was all he could come up with.

3. Alec Gillis stressed the fact that Anderson is a huge fan of both franchises who’s goal was to make a great action film. He also told me this prior to the panel at his book signing. I got the feeling he was already rationalizing why the film will not be groundreaking although he has not seen it edited

The good:

1. There may not be much human blood but there will be gallons of green and yellow pred and alien blood. During the battle a predator gets impaled on an Alien tail and it’s pretty graphic. The MPAA has always thought green blood is ok for the kiddies and it looks like it will be flying around by the gallon in this. I think that human kills will be masked with pred vision, etc.

2. The fight was great and ended with Scar kicking major ass. Aliens 1 predators 1 after the first round. There were about 5000 people in the audience and they went nuts. The only drawback was the cheesy cuts to human reaction shots. They were too long and too frequent.

3. The cast members and fx guys were also genuinely excited to see the clip. All claimed to have never seen the edited clip prior to it being shown there.

4. This was not a crowd of pro Anderson fanboys who clapped at everything shown to them. After an Anacondas: Hunt for the Blood Orchid clip, the hall was filled with boos. Before the AVP clips rolled people were screaming things like “Bring back Fincher!” but after the fight was shown everyone was pumped. This will be a hit for Fox.

5. Sanaa Lathan- Freaking gorgeous. I hadn’t been a big fan until I saw her in person and she is very, very hot. What’s more encouraging was how her performance came across on screen. Her acting was understated and believable. I had been worried because the trailers and novel have her coming across as some kind of bad ass super chick ( Like Milla J in RE2). Ripley only seemed this way to me in AR. In the other movies she acted and reacted like a real person. From the little bits that were shown, Sanaa made Lex seem believable.

That’s my account. Hopefully you can use it on the site. I was able to meet Gillis and Woodruff at the signing For the AVP Creature FX book. I asked them why there were no pictures of the Predburster and Gillis told me that Fox prevented some things from being used at the time the book was published. They then signed the book , an Alien 3 mask and a mini poster I picked up at the show.

—-End Report—-