The Chopper Predator is such a waste of a cool design

Started by ChanceVance, Nov 04, 2021, 12:20:45 PM

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The Chopper Predator is such a waste of a cool design (Read 15,299 times)

BlueMarsalis79

BlueMarsalis79

#15
Me and you had this exact discussion about Verheiden being potentially interesting ages ago.

SiL

Verheiden and Miller could've been interesting, but their antagonism was childish and they die pretty soon after they get any sort of development.

The most frustrating thing about AvP is it's very easy to see why it was made based on its ideas, but the execution is just not there.

The Necronoir

The Necronoir

#17
Quote from: SiL on Nov 07, 2021, 08:01:27 PM
Quote from: The Necronoir on Nov 07, 2021, 02:18:52 PM
I'm inclined to cut him some slack. He plays with our expectations as the audience, definitely. He's also burdened somewhat with getting the characters to a point where they can believably grasp exactly what they've gotten themselves into, while we as the audience know most of it from the title. It might come across as tedious, but then we have Prometheus to show what happens when you don't pay any heed to organic character development. I'd argue that AVP achieves more interesting characterisation with essentially the same premise and plot beats.

There's nothing terribly realistic or organic about AvP's characters (and this is the first time in 17 years I've seen anyone call them interesting). The problem is they don't develop despite spending almost an hour with them.

The plot sort of just happens to them and they have an epiphany and move on. Most characters are exactly the same when they die as when we meet them, with no greater understanding of them in between. Weyland is the only person we get anything resembling depth with.

It's 55 minutes of time spent going ultimately nowhere.

Not saying they have fully-fledged character arcs (except for Lex and Weyland), just that they're given at least enough individuality to ground their reactions to the scenario in some believability. As you say, some of them (like Miller) even defy what we're lead to believe about them to some extent, which gives them at least a semblance of depth.

I'm really only saying this in comparison to Prometheus though, so the bar is set very low. Charles Weyland, in particular, throws at least an interesting spin on the egomaniacal billionaire archetype, where Peter Weyland just leans right into the same old tired tropes.

Quote from: SiL on Nov 08, 2021, 04:05:29 AM
The most frustrating thing about AvP is it's very easy to see why it was made based on its ideas, but the execution is just not there.

Agreed. Overall, it's schlocky, but that comes with the territory when you're talking about versus movies. I'd take schlock with grand aspirations over outright schlock like AVP-R any day.

BlueMarsalis79

I still rate that first scene in Covenant for giving me a way more interesting Peter Weyland than half the characters in the entire film anthology.

SuperiorIronman

Y'all just made me sad that we don't have enough Weyland of either continuity anymore. I think it was Ridgetop that posted it somewhere but the audio log from AVP 2010 did make me appreciate they went somewhere with that version of the character. In the grand scheme of things for that continuity I think I can appreciate Chopper and Celtic getting wrecked as early as they did for the impact it had on Weyland even if his descendants don't have any context to how Weyland died. Maybe even having some foreshadowing to the companies' obsession with the Alien given his reaction to the fight with Celtic. Maybe he saw something he liked?

I don't know. Thinking about it now I'm kind of split on it even if I would've liked to see Chopper get his own fight scene.


Voodoo Magic

My only complaint with Chopper is his armor was not bulky enough.

[cancerblack]

Quote from: Voodoo Magic on Nov 08, 2021, 03:00:41 PM
My only complaint with Chopper is his armor was not bulky enough.

I like the lighter look actually.

Also the Prodos sculpt was kino:



My remix of that figure:


Voodoo Magic

Quote from: [cancerblack] on Nov 08, 2021, 08:46:56 PM
Quote from: Voodoo Magic on Nov 08, 2021, 03:00:41 PM
My only complaint with Chopper is his armor was not bulky enough.

I like the lighter look actually.

Also the Prodos sculpt was kino:



My remix of that figure:



I like the lighter look too. Just my attempt at being witty.  ;D AvP Preds are way too bulky for my tastes.



But in all seriousness, these are agile creatures that can climb and jump from tree to tree, building to building, gracefully even. So I prefer something more streamlined like the below concept art armor from "The Predator".



And not something that leans more to this...


SiL

Quote from: [cancerblack] on Nov 08, 2021, 08:46:56 PM
Quote from: Voodoo Magic on Nov 08, 2021, 03:00:41 PM
My only complaint with Chopper is his armor was not bulky enough.

I like the lighter look actually.

Also the Prodos sculpt was kino:



My remix of that figure:


Anderson and ADI nailed the comic book vibe.

Nice remix!

Kel G 426

I've never cared for the Chopper blades myself. They don't keep with the stealthy hunter theme.

I'd like to say that maybe that was the point.  That Chopper went in with impractical weapons and was the first to get served, but I doubt they were thinking that far into it.

Samhain13

Samhain13

#25
It was such a waste it managed to disappoint my 10 year old self when I first watched the movie, I was like what?

One Predator already dead ? And why did the Alien tail grew to that size to that scene and then it went back to normal afterwards? Oh well at least the leader with the cool mask will avenge his bro... oh he died too. We only have 1 Predator left, maybe there will still be some cool fight scenes anyway, oh he got a kill, nice but now he decided to just throw a self destruct and leave the pyramid after adopting the wannabe Ripley as a pet. Oh a Queen fight, nice combistick hit, and now movie is over.

I get what Anderson was trying to do with the 40-50+ minutes of waiting before action, since it worked for Aliens per example, but then the movie was over 2 hours and lots of action afterwards so it was worth the buildup. While for AVP you get a little of what you are waiting for as it ends fast.

Not just a waste of the Chopper character and its blades, which would be interested seeing in action, even if it was just versus the humans on the surface, if he was gonna be the first to die they could have make him kill the mercs with those blades, would explain those human skulls. But then PG-13 rating, we can't have Chopper slicing humans with those blades. No. We can't let kids see that. But also the chance of seeing some Predator teamwork.

When I first saw there was gonna be 3 predators, I though about how cool and interesting it would be to see them working and fighting together, but like it was done again in Predators, they seem to act separate and wait for their turn to die instead of hunting effectively cus plot, budget restrictions whatever.

The Necronoir

Quote from: Samhain13 on Nov 12, 2021, 03:59:16 PM
Not just a waste of the Chopper character and its blades, which would be interested seeing in action, even if it was just versus the humans on the surface, if he was gonna be the first to die they could have make him kill the mercs with those blades, would explain those human skulls. But then PG-13 rating, we can't have Chopper slicing humans with those blades. No. We can't let kids see that. But also the chance of seeing some Predator teamwork.

I'm not sure why this jogged my memory, but we do actually get a (very) brief glimpse of a predator using an arm blade during the flashback scene where they're overrun on top of the pyramid, before setting off the self-destruct. It's the one on the left, impaling an alien up through the torso.

SiL

Chopper also kills the security team in the shack. We see the large blade outlined with blood below the wrist blades in the frame.

Samhain13

Quote from: The Necronoir on Nov 13, 2021, 05:03:45 AM
I'm not sure why this jogged my memory, but we do actually get a (very) brief glimpse of a predator using an arm blade during the flashback scene where they're overrun on top of the pyramid, before setting off the self-destruct. It's the one on the left, impaling an alien up through the torso.

I know but its like 1 second.

Quote from: SiL on Nov 16, 2021, 09:29:40 AM
Chopper also kills the security team in the shack. We see the large blade outlined with blood below the wrist blades in the frame.

Wat always thought that was Scar, will check it.


chopperXgill

I'm grateful we got the design, I remember leading up to the release the dropped the clip of him getting stabbed. I believe they also dropped it in comic con so going in I knew he was the first to go. Shame we didn't see him dice people up, yet only so much we can do with a PG-13 rating

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