I don’t think I would be wrong in stating that the closing scene of The Predator was not a very popular moment in the film. While a lot of the specifics regarding the behind-the-scenes story on The Predator is still unknown, it seemed fairly obvious that it was a last minute studio addition.
And we recently learnt that it could have been much, much worse than it ultimately was with some completely unexplainable cameos from Aliens’ Ripley and Newt. It turns out it’s not just us that felt that way. Responding to a fan’s comment on his Facebook page, The Predator co-writer Fred Dekker revealed that he also hated the scene.
However, most of his comment was related to the reception that The Predator has received as Fred was replying to a viewer who had reconsidered his opinion on the film after watching it on home release and now liked the film more. In response, Fred Dekker said:
Thank you, Stephen. This means a lot to me. We live in a culture that’s so cacophonous we sometimes cling to our opinions as our only voice in the din. Or we’re so married to our childhood memories of things we love that when the formula is contradicted, some feel betrayed by any attempt to take a different approach. In all candor, I have lots of issues with the movie (I also hate the super-suit ending!), but I spent three years on it and to have it trashed by toxic fans who don’t have the first clue how hard it is to get anything on the screen, well…that hurts. So thank you.
Fred Dekker on the set of The Predator in the Stargazer base.
I typically avoid expressing my own opinions in my reporting (I like to leave those to the podcast) and while I agree that toxicity seems to just be apart of fandoms these days, I also think it is never as simple as fans just being jerks who don’t know how the industry works.
There are certainly elements of The Predator I really enjoyed and elements I strongly disliked, but it never came down to being about The Predator taking a different approach to the material. If anything, that was something I really liked about it. Predator is such a versatile property and it was great to see someone exercising that versatility.
That’s not to say some fans may have disliked The Predator because it was trying to break the formula but ultimately it wasn’t just Predator fans that had issues with the film. The Predator didn’t sit well with the majority of critics either. As of writing, the film currently sits at 44 on Metacritic and 33% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Thanks to HN Entertainment for the news. Keep checking in with Alien vs. Predator Galaxy for the latest on The Predator! You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube to get the latest on your social media walls. You can also join in with fellow Alien and Predator fans on our forums!
I think it's a disservice to the fans to claim that they don't understand the difficulty of getting a film made. It gives us little to no credit, and comes off as whining that the problem is the fans, not the movie.
It's somehow become alright to blame fans for not liking a movie/product, rather than the product not being what the fans/audience/customers want.
Nothing I've seen, read, or heard in the original sciript convinces me that Black/Dekker did enough research into the lore or touched base with the fans to make sure they were making a movie the fans would want to see. The fact that they had the well made suit predator quickly killed by their "awesome" Upgrade predator is evidence of this. That scene alone was enough to turn many viewers off of the film.
I'm sure Black/Dekker worked hard on the script, but there were reactions and criticisms of said script way before the filming commenced. They could have taken said criticism to heart and course corrected, but they chose not to, as was their decision. The reception the film received is directly on them, not because of so-called toxic fans.
A wise director/writer would use this experience to develop/improve their craft, rather than make excuses.
That's my issue with AvP. If I could say one positive thing about Requiem, it's that it didn't touch the Predator lore as much as AvP did. Still much prefer it to the latter, but if they instead tried to focus on the original storyline instead of adding in the cooperative civilization stuff between humans and Predators...
Actually i was referring to the first Resident Evil movie
I mean if your benchmark is Alien, you're not gona like many films.
Have to agree. It's been many years since I've seen Event Horizon, but I can only remember it for its 'disturbing-ness' and nothing else.
It was quite solid for what it was, hell raiser kind of clone in space. But there's a nice thesis on design that refers to the use of the rotating captains chair which makes no sense whatsoever and the hamfisted use of some special plugging device was ill conceived as well.
Compare this to how subtle Alien looked while doing essentially the same.
It's just not a very good film, but just entertaining enough to be quite forgiving.
Same applies to AvP: it flows so much better than Requiem, it has better use of characters, it references the classic comics for the predators to a degree.
It just f**ks up the timeline and established lore for both franchises, all to try and reinvent the wheel.
Absolutely not. Never saw a more soporific movie at the time.
I dunno, there's not much like it, spooky ghost ship in space. Good acting, disturbing scenes, it's got proper jump scares too.
Rez evil movie's are constructed exactly like AVP, the concept is good, but it's ultimately let down by bad editing, bad shots and average acting. The first encounter in AVP is a good example, it's kinda hard to tell whats going on, you've got 19 foot Alien tails, something happening with the net, weird flashes of stuff happening.
That pyramid they were in genuinely felt like it was about the size of a Caravan.
After that though all of Anderson's movies had that cheap B movie Jason Statham feel about them. Event Horizon in hindsight was probably just a fluke.
But, Anderson didn't flat-out murder the entire thing like Black did with The Predator. I'll give him that. And at least Jeunet kept the humor under control. Granted, it still felt more like one of the novels than the other films. It was cheesy, but workable cheesy.
Personally I would rather have Event Horizon kept for posterity than the whole of Jeunet's output. But that is just an opinion
I may be in the minority here but i think the best part of Event Horizon is the script, which boasts some really great ideas, but not so much the execution.
At the same time AvP is pure gold compared to the absolute dumpster fire that is Requiem.
Jeunet, all the way.
"Hey, what's that? What's that on the ground over there? Is that the script?"
I believe both film's inherent problems go deeper than direction, but it is an interesting question for curiosity's sake.
As for Jeunet vs Anderson... That's tricky. Anderson made Event Horizon, one of the best space horror films, and therefore should be better suited to making an Alien movie. Jeunet is not someone who should have ever made an alien film, as it is not his oeuvre. I wonder what the movies would have been like if the directors were switched. Alien Resurrection directed by PWS Anderson, and AvP directed by JP Jeunet might have been way more interesting.
I suppose it comes down to the fact that Resurrection's more interesting,
(and much better Directed) and when it comes to bad movies:
Interesting > "Good"
That's why, for instance- I find Batman Forever INFINITELY
more watchable than TDK Rises, because Rises is not only
bad; it's dull and bad- making Forever, more entertaining.
I'd agree with you. AVP:R is a horrible movie but the Predator acts how a Predator SHOULD act. There's no overly convoluted attempts to redefine the Predator concept in that film like in The Predator.
No way, Resurrection is just the worst. Why, why, why did Sigourney sign up to do that parody? It's her equivalent to Arnold Schwarzenegger's Batman & Robin!
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is better than Paul Anderson's Gold-
and by the extension, the Strauss Bros.
Resurrection > AVP >
AVPR = The Predator
That i will never get over.
I also agree with the choice of Paul W. S. Anderson for the project. He seems to be an alright bloke from what i have seen in interviews, but man he sucks at his profession.
Yeah, AVP's great...
AVPR was a fun but dumb slasher popcorn movie with some really bad jokes, loads of clumsy fan service, and one memorable (but obvious) sightgag. It was never going to please people looking for a serious entry in the series. I didn't mind seeing it, but I don't revisit it. IIRC, the whole plot, including the ending, was in the commercial.
AVP is OK. There were some interesting ideas and RS recycled some of them for Prometheus. AVP has some good sequences, too. I don't think it deserves all the hate it gets. Maybe some of it...
Resurrection aged a little better than I thought. To me, it's a mediocre monster movie with beautiful production design and an underwhelming final monster. And loads of Glorious Door Reveals!
Covenant and maybe Prometheus could also be on this list.
I'll go even further than that.
AVPR* > The Predator
Alien Resurrection
AVP
*unrated blu
You are not alone.
We watched repeats on TV because they were what was on TV. There's currently such a huge variety of media available that (other than on specific retro channels) you don't tend to see old repeats. This gives a different experience to younger viewers.
Alien is an old property, and so younger people are less likely to see it because it's not targeted at them, and there's so much more choice now. Sad, but true.
@Predwars24: Not all young people think that way. But young people with fans for parents may end up being fans just because... Then they show their friends and... Voila! More fans!
Ask 20-something's and younger about Alien and Predator. See what they say. Most of them don't know what it is or think the originals suck. Trust me, these have been my peers for ages.
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I'm only 19, and I think highly of the originals, have watched them since I was younger and still enjoy them. I've read a few comics but not too many of them, and I'd love to read the novels. I'm not going to say I know them as well as I want but I feel like generalizing a certain age group and saying they wouldn't like something is a bit far fetched. Especially nowadays when they can research certain things on fan wikis and such, to such a huge extent.
I think the main problem is they clearly farted around so much that they didn't know WTF was happening by the end. You can claim studio interference, but they probably interfered because the movie was terrible.
The cast is good, the effects are passable, the director is solid, the story might have been ok... had they not just put 85 clips together and then called it a movie.
Makes you wonder what power struggles and politics are involved that they can take $90 Million bucks and just spray it against a wall.
Especially if you're going to blame fans.
Seconded. A lot of it probably stems from insecurity at some level.
Eh, I just think it's slow, boring, poorly written, and totally disrespectful of the fans and franchise. In my opinion, it's terrible as a film and sucks as a popcorn movie. That's all I have to say about that.
Sorry Fred
#ToxicFan
Maybe some people are insecure.
Reading what exactly?
I think most of the people here agree on a lot of your points. In fact I don't think you will not find a lot of people here who deny that the movie has issues or are patting it on the head. Most people,me included, are pretty dissappionted with the movie we got.
But if everybody is allowed to like it, i don't get why you give the people, who actually do, shit, claiming they are delusional or objectivly wrong for doing so.
I guess the Predalien and it's eggbarfing did not go over all too well back then?
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