"Personally January 2008 was a great month for sci-fi with this sandwiched between "I AM LEGEND- Will Smith" and Cloverfield."
So true. I was in college at the time and still remember using the PC's before classes to get on youtube and watch leaked scenes from AVPR and Cloverfield. Ah to be young, and to have Aliens, Predators, and monster movies playing in the theaters. It was heaven.
"I actually like AVP-R and I probably have seen it more than any other ALIEN or PREDATOR film. Its a mixture of guilty pleasure but also some genuinely good film-making."
I agree. Guilty Pleasure is about the right way to put it. It was a bold departure from the first film, and gave me exactly what I wanted at the time. Predators and Aliens destroying each other in "R-rated" fashion with armed humans caught in the crossfire. I hope we get more AVP films in the future, hopefully one set in space. Perhaps now that Disney will be in charge, that dream may someday become a reality.
Funny thing, people always complain about how dark AVPR is. The dvd version is indeed horrible. However, my Blu-ray copy is fine. Everything is perfectly visible with zero eye strain, even with the cinema mode and power saver running. I was pleasantly shocked. Is the darkness still an issue with the blu-rays for anyone else?