I thought I'd list all the reasons AVP did as badly as it did:
1. Paul Anderson:
Not the right director for the Job. If you've seen any of his other work you'd know by now most of his movies lack any real story and the action scenes are extremely fast and the camera moves wildly like a caged animal(See Res2 for the best example).
2. The story:
The story should never have been set on earth especially in the present. We've seen aliens invade earth movies we don't need another one.
3. The PG-13 rating:
One thing all the Pred and alien movies had was an R rating. They are horror/sci fi movies not action/sci fi as Anderson tried to portray. Without the blood and gore the movies lack suspense and horror something all the past movies had.
4. The Alien/Predator biological and behavioral errors
Anderson made many errors concerning Aliens and Predators in the film.
The aliens tail was an example. Never before has the tail been as powerful as it was. Anderson explained"The Predators gave the Queen a type of steroid to make a better hunt". Bullcrap. That was his quickie I have no idea explanation. Another error was the Predator becoming best buds with the main character. No nono thats taking the Past pred movies and smacking them in the face. Despite any honor factors involved the Predator never becomes "friends" with the human even if it happened in the books and comics, this is a movie.
5.The weyland phenomenon:
Wtf? How could they have Weyland in the movie if he's in Alien3? I'm guessing this is a descendent of Weyland but, without that speculation it makes no sense.
Well those are my complaints. If you loved AVP don't get me wrong, There are many problems with the film but, I don't HATE it. It's just an ok entry in the Alien/Predator saga.
I don't like AvP, but:
1. In my opinion Event Horizon's direction would be perfectly suited to at least an Alien movie. He just needed a better script. (By the way, he didn't direct Resident Evil 2, just wrote it.)
2. Story actually got me pretty psyched for it. Setting it in Antarctica meant we didn't really have to worry about Aliens on Earth ... although the flash-back kind'a crapped on that :-[
5. Weyland's not in Alien 3. The person in A3 was the designer of the Bishop android - His name's never even made known (Although either the novel or the trading cards called him 'Michael Bishop'). They may look similar, but they aren't the same person.
I've only seen Event Horizon once. I should really watch it again.
event horizan was one of the better movies that anderson made! it actually scared me in some places :o
What movie was that? Sounds familier
It's about a ship that goes to hell and comes back, starring Sam Neil and Lawrence Fishburne.
Much as I think Anderson's an idiot, his idea of making the ship go to hell rather than be infested by space aliens was a stroke of genius and made for one of the most genuinely creepy concepts I've seen in a film.
EH was fantastic, so how he churned out the PoS AvP I don't know. Seriously, AvP's story was fantastic. It was such a great idea with the pyramid, being in Antarctica - "Predator's don't like cold". It makes things more challenging ::) This is supposed to be a coming of age thing, why make it easier?
It's just...he can't really write. Sometimes I wonder if Fox put too much onto PA. I mean, it was made really fast with a moderate budget. If they'd have given him time, someone to re-write his script properly and etc, it might have been better.
Plus, I think he'd be a great production design. I LOVE the sets.
I enjoyed AvP, alot and well, this is my opinion and all but... hey, everyone has their own opinion and all. Here are my reasons on why AvP wasn't as it was hyped up to be-- don't get me wrong, in my mind I thought it was a great film but it could've been so much better.
1) There were very few fight scenes between the Aliens and the Predators-- in the script, there were supposed to be ten Predators. Anderson reduced it to three.
2) No acid proof weapons-- this came to the conclusion that Anderson decided to treat the Predator's badly in the film. Watch the commentary in his DVD... he babbles more about the Alien.
3) Main reason: Predator's lost...
Thats just my view though...
-Rakai'Thwei
They should have gotten the EH writer, since he did write a damn good story, which Anderson directed well. a bit too well, since they cut out some gore. But the point is that directors mostly should not write their movie scripts. A good script and more leeway for Anderson could have allowed him to make a movie as frightening as EH.
Quote1) There were very few fight scenes between the Aliens and the Predators-- in the script, there were supposed to be ten Predators. Anderson reduced it to three.
Anderson lowered it from just five Predators, not ten. And removing the extra two was a mercy for the Predator fans: If the novel's anything to go by, all they did was die. They didn't even really get a chance to fight.
Pred fans weren't happy with
one Predator being killed without a fight - Three would've been overkill :-\
Quote2) No acid proof weapons
It's a test. It's not supposed to be easy.
Quote3) Main reason: Predator's lost...
The Aliens didn't win, either.
I thought it failed because:
1) Too fast-paced. A fast pace is good in some situations, but here it felt rushed. We never really cared for the people.
2) Too much cannon fodder. A whole bunch of people hanging around in the background just waiting to be killed by the creatures didn't sit right with me.
3) Two Predators dying so close together. That just felt cheap.
4) Bad acting and dialogue.
5) Stupid characters.
6) Exposition Boy de Rosa. I know! Let's explain
everything in the last twenty minutes!
7) Too damned short. It only really kicks in half an hour from the end, so people start dying stupidly quickly, and we don't really get any time with the creatures.
Good point SIL, I still think the movie would have been much much better with an R rating. It's based on a horror/Sci fi franchise for christ's sake, not an action series(unless you count Pred 1 which was big on the action scenes).
QuoteIf they'd have given him time, someone to re-write his script properly and etc, it might have been better.
It was re-written. By Salerno. Makes you wonder what it was like before or if he indeed made it worse.
For me, AvP failed with the rating and script. It's the fact the whole script/story was made for children. So of course the rating wouldn't have made a huge difference.
Also a good point. I'm still surprised alotta kids watch the Pred and Alien movies anyways. Well..I saw Preds 1 and 2 for the first time when I was around 5
Didn't he also re-write The Day After Tomorrow? Makes me wonder how long he got to re-write it.
No credit on IMDB for that.
Just says, he spent months re-writing AvP in Prague. I have a lot of doubts about him. I mean, the fact is, he wrote the AICN script. That draft was terrible even for a first draft.
huh makes sense considering he wrote that piece of crap Resident evil didnt he?
No, that was Anderson. ;)
I gotta know how he keeps getting work. I really want to know.
Who knows..maybe he has a good sense of humor :P ;D
probably like that guy Uwe Boll who keeps ruining video game movies. please don't work on Halo.
Some no-body director's working on Halo but, I think Peter Jackson is exectutive producer.
I don't believe they have a director for Halo as yet.
QuoteI gotta know how he keeps getting work. I really want to know.
AvP made money. I think the RE films did too.
As for why AvP failed (critically):
Any potential character development with Weyland and the Miller/ Verheiden relationship was quickly snuffed out. Lex was dull as was Exposition Boy.
No tension.
For more whinging check out the 'What did you think of AvP' thread.
Quote from: SM on Feb 11, 2007, 09:51:01 PM
I don't believe they have a director for Halo as yet.
It was someone called Neil Klomp-something or other.
Some guy I never heard of. Hopefullly Peter Jackson will give the Director some pointers or something because it'll really suck if we get ANOTHER crappy videogame movie adaption.
AvP did WELL because of the PG-13 rating.