What's Wrong With AvP?

Started by overthere, Dec 05, 2015, 12:25:08 PM

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What's Wrong With AvP? (Read 33,000 times)

Corporal Hicks

Corporal Hicks

#30
Wasn't it supposed to be because our IR had actually advanced? That IR in real life looked like that now? Not that that matters in-world.

HuDaFuK

HuDaFuK

#31
Quote from: TheBATMAN on Dec 14, 2015, 03:28:30 PMYeah I know. But that's the point. Why change it at all when it is such an iconic trait for the character?

Well, quite. My point was you can't really lay the blame for it on ADI. They always seem to get a bad rap for how things looked in AVP and I never really think it's fair. It was mostly down to the direction they were told to go and the relatively restrained budget they had to work with.

And they fact they aren't Stan Winston.

TheBATMAN

TheBATMAN

#32
Quote from: HuDaFuK on Dec 14, 2015, 03:39:13 PM
Quote from: TheBATMAN on Dec 14, 2015, 03:28:30 PMYeah I know. But that's the point. Why change it at all when it is such an iconic trait for the character?

Well, quite. My point was you can't really lay the blame for it on ADI. They always seem to get a bad rap for how things looked in AVP and I never really think it's fair. It was mostly down to the direction they were told to go and the relatively restrained budget they had to work with.

And they fact they aren't Stan Winston.

I wasn't specifically blaming ADI for the Predator vision, just Anderson and that design decision in general. But I do think ADI deserve all the criticism they get for the Predators in AVP simply because they look bad. There's no excuse for plastic wrist blades and rubber dreadlocks at the end of the day, and I won't even go into detail about Scar's face. Woodruff and Gillis talk extensively about how technology has improved in the making of docs and their book they released and yet their their final product is vastly inferior to something that was cooked up last minute in 1986.

Whether you blame Anderson or ADI, the bottom line is the Predators are practically unrecognisable from their counterparts they are based on. They have all the grace-like quality of a sumo wrestler and that was the saddest thing after waiting 14 years for their big-screen return. At the very least I can watch Requiem and believe Wolf is actually a Predator. I can't do that with Celtic, Scar or Chopper because they are too different in the way they look and the way they behave.


Liberator

Liberator

#33
I think the movie was okay.  I would give it 2 stars.  To me, this means it delivered as an interesting enough movie to watch through, from beginning to end, and stay interested.  It could have done much more, say if the plot had been developed more, and they took their time with the pyramid and the puzzles there.  They created a great environment, and then kind of just settled for a few cliché action sequences where the predators were portrayed much weaker than I would have liked or expected.  These can be disturbing problems depending on your point of view.  I didn't mind the alliance between the predator and the woman, though.  You take something like that in stride, with the predator regarding her as "brave", and to her credit, she kills one of the aliens.  The predators honor courage and strength.  They don't take away from people, just because they are puny or primitive.  It was an interesting concept how they said the predators were once worshiped by humans on Earth, but that was a problem for me, overall.  They could have done this movie anywhere, at any time, without having to suggest such a backstory.

happypred

happypred

#34
I enjoyed AvP-R more than AvP

Not because I'm sore that Grid kills 2 predators (Scar scores at least 4 direct xenomorph kills...so objectively, the predators do OK via Scar's passable performance)

My dislike stems from...

1. How bad the predators look...their faces, their bulkiness, their lumbering movement
2. The stupid pyramid culture thrust upon the predators
3. Inconsistencies...especially how the spear is perfectly acid-proof...but the wristblades melt like butter?
4. Cringe-worthy team up...was half-expecting a kiss between Scar and Lex

OpenMaw

OpenMaw

#35
I was looking at the Paul Anderson preproduction "pitch" that he did. I remember it like it was yesterday when that video first came out. It was very exciting.

Honestly, looking at his concept art, there was quite a bit of promise there. It had a very The Thing vibe, and there was quite a potential there. He obviously gave the thing a lot of thought, and he at least did some homework with regards to the source material. (I never take a director's word for that they actually are "big fans" though he did steal from Alien/s so much in his previous movies that it's entirely possible he is a big Alien/Predator fan.)

Biggest problem with the film is the directorial execution and the human characters. Paul Anderson really sucks when it comes to characterization. He also sucks when it comes to restraint in terms of his direction and editing. Way too many shots are done to be "cool." So much slow motion, and a lot of it does look incredibly dumb. Especially any shot with Scar and Lex running in slow motion. There must have been better ways to frame and shoot that. he also has a really bad problem with cutting wayyy too much. I know he had a rating limitation imposed on him, but even still he just shreds the tension out of a lot of the scenes by cutting every couple second and never giving the audience a chance to really immerse themselves in the atmosphere.

The Predators, again, in concept his ideas were actually sound. The idea of the Predators wearing more battle armor to fight aliens? Nothing unreasonable in that. It even originates with the original comic. So props to him on that. The problem is execution. In practice, the Predator's look bulky and squat. They lose most of their grace. The alien's don't fair much better. They're lumpy, gooey, screechy caricatures of themselves.

AvP has some okay moments, but honestly even the bread and butter of what AvP is all about - that being the actual fights between the two species - leave a lot to be desired. The only mano-e-mano fight is so up and down. There's some great moments, and then there are those moments that just look absolutely stupid and awful.


stephen

stephen

#36
For me it comes down to two things.  There are obviously others but these two things are what makes it bad in my opinion:

1.  Everyone has said it - characterisation.  Human characters are terrible and uninteresting.
2. Alien/Predator back story - this is the single most disappointing thing about this film.  Terrible Terrible Terrible.

Aliens_Diner86

Aliens_Diner86

#37
I agree. Its not THAT bad at all  :-X

Main problem With both avp films are the human charecters... Though this REALY conserns the second film more than the first.

THE CITY HUNTER

THE CITY HUNTER

#38
Its OK 5/10

whiterabbit

whiterabbit

#39
Oh come on, AVP is at least a 5.1/10.

Honestly I think it's a 6.5/10.It had a decent concept, as best as a AVP movie could have probably. It had decent production values and the acting wasn't bad. The poor thing just didn't do the vs part all that well. The Queen battle and team up, yea cheesy as hell was at least fun.

HuDaFuK

HuDaFuK

#40
Quote from: whiterabbit on Apr 21, 2016, 06:29:01 AMIt had decent production values and the acting wasn't bad.

Some of the acting was crap... The Italian guy as Sebastian was routinely quite awful. It didn't help that most of his dialogue was pants.

whiterabbit

whiterabbit

#41
Quote from: HuDaFuK on Apr 21, 2016, 07:49:07 AM
Quote from: whiterabbit on Apr 21, 2016, 06:29:01 AMIt had decent production values and the acting wasn't bad.

Some of the acting was crap... The Italian guy as Sebastian was routinely quite awful. It didn't help that most of his dialogue was pants.
Yea, but see it from my point of view as an American. That was the stereotypical portrayal of an Italian guy. It's the same with avpr awful acting, they nailed dumb hick town usa.

PsyKore

PsyKore

#42
AvP is f**king rubbish. Don't excuse it. Don't look back and think, "aww it's not that bad." No. It is bad. It's really bad. 0/10 is what I give it.

That Yellow Alien

That Yellow Alien

#43
I remember the last time I watched it being dull and boring.

SiL

SiL

#44
AvP is really hard to sit through these days. It's 55 minutes before the fights start and it's over 30 minutes later. Those first 55 minutes are spent with people we don't really give a shit about doing shit we don't care about and it just feels like the movie throwing roadblocks at us until the main event starts.

That being said, still more watchable than AvPR.

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