How much of AVP-R did the Strause Bros really have a say in? As far as the story taking place on Earth and the main plot points of the story?
Was some of that completely the decision of producers and they just had to shoehorn it in? Or were they given some freedom to decide where to go with it?
As far as I know, they picked the terrible design for the Predalien, the directing of the actors who made completely unreliable characters, dwelling on killing kids and visibly pregnant women in labor, and turning the lights down to the extent the movie was barely visible.
The execution of AVP had its problems, but the decisions weren't really as bad as the second one. It had nothing to do with budget in my mind. Great movies can be made on a shoestring budget, but they cannot survive terrible decision making.
The concept of AVP is one I have always felt was cool, since I was a kid in the 1990s, but the poor planning of both movies really soured everyone on it. Damn shame because I still believe that had better decisions been made, it could have been good. When the first one failed, the studio learned the wrong lessons. Crazy to think they were almost 20 years ago now.