What did you think of AvP?

[Mr. Weyland]

I thought the hive was in the sacrificial chamber, if not the Alien carried the new eggs they, so there closer to the queen, in truth i dont know, yet 

[topman]

for me it was dissapointing because this movie had so much potential and i really thought that anderson might actually pull this off and make a name for him self BUT NO it got ripped to shreds by the press and critics alike!
the movie did have its moments like the celtic pred against the grid alien but got killed way too easierly! but now a days they only make movies to make a quick buck if you know what i mean.

[yautja99]

The first AVP was LAME!

[Dachande]

Eh...AvP is a film to me that has two sides to it.

On one side, its essentially an action flick, with explosions, cheesy lines, slow motion running, and as an action film, its not that bad.

But on the other side, as a Alien/Predator movie...well..it makes the Baby Jesus cry >__>.
Aside from the already said gestation period, and antartic setting, i feel that the only thing that this film has in common with the originals, is that it contains the title characters, and is ultimately extremely disappointing. Especially with the 2 Predators being killed within 10 minutes of each other.

So overall, its good as an action film, but terrible as an Alien/Predator film

[SiL]

Could've been worse.

Could've been a lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot lot better.

But still, could've been worse.

[ArchangeL]

Yes, it could've brought the aliens across as cannon fodder.

It could also have starred Paris Hilton.

It could have speaking preds.

We should be thankful for what we got. All that's left now is to pray that AvP2 will be good.

[maledoro]

What did you think of AvP?

 

[innerchaos]

I saw it when I was 16, with no real subjectivity when it comes to film, and thought it was pretty good. Now I'm 18, with a broad taste for film, and little bias. So, reluctantly, I decided to pop this flick in two nights ago for kicks. HORRIBLE. Bad setting, bad designs for the creatures, horrible fight sequences that either ended too quickly or left a bad taste in my mouth, etc. etc. The only thing that can be excused is the acting. Whereas, it would be good for character development if you actually believed in the characters, but oh well, they're primarily there to bit-the-big-one anyway. As far as Lex, you're not going to find someone to replace a strong female role like Sigourny or Glover or Schwarzenegger, so forget it. Scar was acceptable to watch. Although it seemed Anderson made him out to be Mr.Crowd-Favorite-Hero (with a boner for Lex). Instead of the tight-fisted, alien-shredding monster he was in this film for. The most notable of moments occurred when the Queen was reaching for Lex while Lex was under that water tower and out-of-f**king-left-field comes scar with some kind of Steven Seagal back-spin that drove his spear into the Queen's head. Loved it. But all-in-all. 2/5. I give popcorn-flicks credit where credit may or may not be due. I just have better expectations for the sequel. 

[stickaround]

The AvP argument goes on & on ! Man, i can't beleive some of the statements, arguments, flaws etc people come out with !!

This is the first time i've ever been on a message board, but i've got to speak out about AvP ! & i apologise that this may drag on a bit !

I'm a huge aliens and predator fan, the first 2 videos (that's videos folks!) i owned were aliens and predator (and robocop, how that needs doing properly on the big screen again, but that's another story !) I collected the comics 15 years ago and started again on e-bay when i settled down with my girlfriend !!!

No-one, thats no one could have been looking forward to AvP more than me, especially as i side on the predators side and they hadn't been around since the kik ass Predator 2. My girlfriend thought i was crazy, i wouldn't watch the trailer when we went to see other movies, wouldn't read magazine articles etc and was like a kid at the start of the film, i was 31 !!

My verdict - i enjoyed it (it's nice to see i'm not alone there) the aliens and especially the predators were back and they kicked each others asses ! Yeah, it could have been better, but you're trying to top the 2 most iconic alien creature pics ever, which i feel will NEVER happen and your'e never going to please everyone.

How can it be like the first predator or alien, you can't have the build up to the creature and aliens and predator 2 were 2 of the biggest kik ass films you're ever likely to see, it had to be it's own animal and how do you blend the 2 ??

You've got to remember that neither franchise had been commercially or critically successful since predator (which was only a modest hit at the time) so the critics of the film who wanted it set on another world etc, get real ! there just wouldn't have been the budget. It's a miracle the film got greenlit at all - no stars, no a-list director, success based on fan loyalty (which doesn't always equate to good box office a la serenity)

I thought the general concept and idea for the film was cool, it looked cool, was fast paced and generally kiked ass.

You critics should be grateful that AvP2 is now upon us, this wouldn't have happened if AvP had failed miserably at the box office and we could get Predator 3 and Alien 5 so hears to good box office for AvP2.

Some of the criticisms too are so unjust, some people just don't know enough about the aliens or predators & what is it with the hatred of Paul Anderson?? I'm not a "gamer" but i think resident evil is a cool film and event horizon isn't that bad ?? AvP could have been a lot lot worse.

Back to the actual film and a response to a few criticisms :

1) The arctic setting (refer to comic Predator : Cold War !)
2) The speed of the alien gestation, it speeded things along dudes, it's a sci-fi creature film for fraks sake, it's like criticising John woo for using too many bullets or robo never getting hit in the mouth, these are reasons you like the movies even more !
3) Would seeing a chest burster come out made that big of a difference ??
4) Young predators getting killed early (beleive me i wasn't overly happy about this) But the aliens are nasty hombres and if all 3 preds had got their shoulder cannons the film would have been even shorter !!
5) An R rating would have been preferable but you can understand the need to meke more money, such a shame hollywood is just a business nowadays.
6) Look of the predators, i didn't mind them being bigger but didn't like the faces as much. Predator 2 definitely has the coolest looking pred.

Don't get me wrong, the film isn't faultless ! Sure, an R rating would have been better, who wouldn't want more alien and pred fighting, some better acting etc But dudes, in our lifetime we've got to see a predator and an alien face off big time and because that film was successful we're gonna see it again. I actually feel there's more pressure on AvP 2 as AvP got so much flak, i won't be complaining if it's better tho !

Anyway, it's late, i'm tired and i look forward to any replies.

Here's to the continuation of the alien and predator franchises

Stickaround !

[Darkness]

How can it be like the first predator or alien, you can't have the build up to the creature and aliens and predator 2 were 2 of the biggest kik ass films you're ever likely to see, it had to be it's own animal and how do you blend the 2 ??

That's exactly what Anderson did. He spent the first 30 minutes trying to built it up. But there was no need, we already know what the creatures look like.

Some of the criticisms too are so unjust, some people just don't know enough about the aliens or predators

People who criticized it don't know enough about aliens or predators? The reason so many of us didn't like it was because we are big alien and predator fans.

what is it with the hatred of Paul Anderson??

It's pretty obvious. He's one of the worst film directors/writers I've ever seen.

1) The arctic setting (refer to comic Predator : Cold War !)

Yeah, and I think that was a major problem. If he'd have based AvP off the movies instead of some comic, it would have been a lot better.

3) Would seeing a chest burster come out made that big of a difference ??

You mean out of Sebastian? Yes. There wasn't even any blood on it.

4) Young predators getting killed early (beleive me i wasn't overly happy about this) But the aliens are nasty hombres and if all 3 preds had got their shoulder cannons the film would have been even shorter !!

Perhaps but I doubt one alien would be able to take out two Predators in such a short space of time.

5) An R rating would have been preferable but you can understand the need to meke more money, such a shame hollywood is just a business nowadays.

It's a sad time we live in. 

I actually feel there's more pressure on AvP 2 as AvP got so much flak, i won't be complaining if it's better tho !

I don't think it will be very hard to do a better film than AvP.

[stickaround]

Response to your points

1)He wasn't building up to the creature reveal but to the fight, i don't think it took that long to get to the action & you've got to have some backstory !

For the film you me and everyone else wanted you're talking about a $200million budget with james cameron directing at his best. The film would probably have gone CGI crazy then, it was good to see it used more "real" action and the CGI that was used was xcellent.

2)There's no bigger fan than me mate, i'd have been the first to say (but not on the net) if it had been truly awful, but it wasn't.

3)I tell you now, if exactly the same film had been made by anyone other than paul anderson the criticism wouldn't have been as bad. He was slated before the movie even started shooting, what is it with these internet campaigns, like the x-men and superman costumes, daniel craig as bond etc They don't achieve anything.

If you want to blame anyone, blame the studio, they pick the director, choose the rating etc

At the very least he breathed life into 2 dead franchises. I love predator 2 but when it came out it was critically and commercially unsuccessful and that was the end of the preds for 14 years and resurrection did the same to aliens.

AvP made money and thats why we have AvP2

4)I was just making the point that preds hunt in the cold, some  "fans" seemed to think this wasn't the case

5)An r rated chestbursting would definitely have been better, but it didn't ruin the movie for me

6)I think there will defo be more fighting in AvP2 But it will be interesting to see how the human angle is handled, is the pred helping us stop an alien infestation ? & can he win and survive for a change ?! My choice for director would have been Zak Snyder but i hope the strause bro's do a great job.

Stickaround !

[Dachande]

1)He wasn't building up to the creature reveal but to the fight, i don't think it took that long to get to the action & you've got to have some backstory !

For the film you me and everyone else wanted you're talking about a $200million budget with james cameron directing at his best. The film would probably have gone CGI crazy then, it was good to see it used more "real" action and the CGI that was used was xcellent.

Ok, lets think for the moment that AvP had been based on AvP: Prey for a moment. The price of the sets and whatnot would probably cost the same as any other action film set, maybe a little bit more for the complex scenes. Then you have the fees for the director, actors, crew etc, and judging from the amounf of characters in the film you wouldnt necessarily need as many, with the costume actors playing different characters and such. Now the most expensive part of most movies is more than likely the CGI, now up untill A3 none of the Alien or Predator movies had used CGI, which in my eyes means CGI in an AvP movie, is unneccesary, when we can get great looking creatures without CGI. The problem comes when you decide on who you use for the costumes. Now im not entirely sure who was used on the avp movie, but theres the choice between Stan Winston, you would be quite expensive, or Tom Woodruff and Alec Gillis, who would probably be the cheaper choice. Now lets say they go with Stan Winston, and you've probably got the best creature designer and animatronics team available, which would push the budget up as well. Now im not entirely sure how much this would cost, but if Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith cost $115 million. Then take into account the amount of CGI and the high name actors in there, i doubt that this would cost as much. As well as the fact that if Fox can fork out $200 million for X-Men 3, then im pretty sure they wouldnt care about money when you have two of the most iconic creatures in movie histroy in one movie, as well as the fact that Fox would probably get more than the budget back in sales, merchandise etc.

2)There's no bigger fan than me mate, i'd have been the first to say (but not on the net) if it had been truly awful, but it wasn't.

Now, i dont know about other people, but the reason people hate this film (and with good reason) is how it completely pisses on whats been established in earlier movies. The Predator, which are known for destroying nearly two whole special forces teams on its own (Im pretty sure that the first squad in, in predator were killed by the pred, due to the skinning) , how two of them can get killed in the space of 10 minutes. Now if say there was more preds and they were getting killed by a queen then i wouldnt mind so much as we know how powerful a queen is, yet while not completely 'canon'. Taking a look into the novels and such, you've got Predators on their first hunt, taking down at least 5-8 Aliens before being overrun. Yet Anderson decides to piss on this and instead decides that two Preds should get killed next to each other...by the same alien. Thats what makes the film awful, as well as some of the lines.....and the cheesy slow motion running sequence.....urgh...

3)I tell you now, if exactly the same film had been made by anyone other than paul anderson the criticism wouldn't have been as bad. He was slated before the movie even started shooting, what is it with these internet campaigns, like the x-men and superman costumes, daniel craig as bond etc They don't achieve anything.

If you want to blame anyone, blame the studio, they pick the director, choose the rating etc

At the very least he breathed life into 2 dead franchises. I love predator 2 but when it came out it was critically and commercially unsuccessful and that was the end of the preds for 14 years and resurrection did the same to aliens.

AvP made money and thats why we have AvP2

Anderson was getting slated before the film was out, due to his inability to make a good movie, look at Mortal Kombat, look at Resident Evil, look at AvP, all of these films had huge potential, but you put Anderson in charge and he destroys them in the eyes of the fans. Sure the people who dont know a thing about the series might like them as action flicks, but as people who actually care about the characters and everything he destorys all these franchises have established and everything the fans love about them.

4)I was just making the point that preds hunt in the cold, some  "fans" seemed to think this wasn't the case

I havnt read Cold War, but checking on the book, it says the predator crashlands in the snowy region. Now im pretty surethat the pred is not hunting there by choice, everything else has the preds hunting in a primarily warm, and hot enviroment

5)An r rated chestbursting would definitely have been better, but it didn't ruin the movie for me

Theres been one in every Alien film before this, so why not bother to show one this time?

[Darkness]

1)He wasn't building up to the creature reveal but to the fight, i don't think it took that long to get to the action & you've got to have some backstory !

He tried that but nothing is happening in the first 30 minutes. There's very little characterisation.

For the film you me and everyone else wanted you're talking about a $200million budget with james cameron directing at his best.

I agree about the bigger budget though but not that big. I'd have settled for a better script. And I also wouldn't want James Cameron to do any AvP film. Ridley Scott, Cameron and Weaver all said AvP would be a disaster and they were right. I think it would have been hard to do an AvP film either way but Anderson did it in one of the worst possible ways imagineable.

The film would probably have gone CGI crazy then, it was good to see it used more "real" action and the CGI that was used was xcellent.

I think AvP was already CGI crazy. They used too much of it on the aliens. And the CGI wasn't that great.

2)There's no bigger fan than me mate, i'd have been the first to say (but not on the net) if it had been truly awful, but it wasn't.

Hmm, that's what Anderson said too.  I don't believe anybody who claims they thought AvP was a great movie and still call themselves, a huge fan of the originals.

Sure, AvP could have been a lot worse. Not sure how, exactly. But there were simply too many negative things in AvP to ignore. Are you seriously telling me you had no problem with the team-up scene and the slow-motion running? And then he had the cheek to imply there was some kind of romantic relationship between Lex and Scar. Then there was the predator face-design issue.

3)I tell you now, if exactly the same film had been made by anyone other than paul anderson the criticism wouldn't have been as bad. He was slated before the movie even started shooting, what is it with these internet campaigns, like the x-men and superman costumes, daniel craig as bond etc They don't achieve anything.

I doubt a different director would have made any difference to AvP if they were using the same sort of script. There was of course a lot of skepticism when Anderson was announced as writer/director but I can tell you that a lot of people were still hyped for the movie, at least in the AvP community. Personally, I had no preference on Paul Anderson before AvP came out, I liked Mortal Kombat, Event Horizon and Resident Evil. After seeing AvP, I despise him and everything connected to him.

If you want to blame anyone, blame the studio, they pick the director, choose the rating etc

Yeah, I do and Fox are to blame for choosing him in the first place. But his script was just terrible and an insult to fans. There's no way getting around that. The script could have been a lot better.

At the very least he breathed life into 2 dead franchises. I love predator 2 but when it came out it was critically and commercially unsuccessful and that was the end of the preds for 14 years and resurrection did the same to aliens.

Yeah, okay, I guess I can agree with that but I think he did a lot of damage to the credibility of Alien and Predator. Hell, this guy prevented Alien 5 from getting made. That would have been a damn site more interesting than what he did.

AvP made money and thats why we have AvP2

True, and I still can't believe AvP2 is rated R. I was convinced a sequel would be PG13 again.

5)An r rated chestbursting would definitely have been better, but it didn't ruin the movie for me

What about continuity and realism?

[innerchaos]

stickaround, I think your main issue is that you were obsessed with these franchises and then over a decade later, they're back so you automatically have to like whatever is put out. Stop romanticizing with the "good old days" and face the fact that AVP blew and did no good for either franchise. Your playing the "fair-weather-fan" card which, I think, is unfair. We all love these franchises or else we wouldn't be here talking about them. A true fan wouldn't want something they love falling farther in the shit-hole. Given what I've read so far, AVP2 will kick ass. But that doesn't mean AVP had to suck in order for the sequel to be good.

[stickaround]

Replies to some of the comments !

Daschande

1) You really think an AvP film doesn't need CGI because previous films didn't use it before it was invented !! and sith was so cheap because lucas owns the company !! and they splashed £200mill on x-men last stand because the previous 2 movies made alot of money !!

2) I haven't disagreed that killing 2 preds early wasn't good, i'm more of a pred fan but if they'd all survived and got their canons the film wouldn't have lasted long as there wasn't enough aliens.

3) I enjoyed resident evil personally and the reason AvP wasn't put in more capable hands with a bigger budget was because neither franchise had made any money for a long time, this isn't to say that a director like Zak snyder wouldn't have done a better job and i've never said the film couldn't have been better, it could.

4) The cold conditions argument could go on forever ! Basically, the preds are capable of hunting in the cold & who says there initiation was supposed to be easy.

5) I give in on the chestburster scene, it should have been r rated goddammit !!


Darkness

1) I was just using james cameron as an ez example, i would have liked Zak Snyder or Robert Rodriguez (on sin city form) to direct.

2) I'd have to disagree, the queen for example was more impressive than in aliens (it's how cameron would have had it in aliens if he'd have had the technology daschande!!)

3) I never said AvP was a great movie but it's nowhere near as bad as some of you guys make out & don't presume that i can't still like the originals and like AvP ?! I'm glad i took the positives out of it rather than all the negatives.

The team up scene is from a storyline in the original AvP comic and i've said b4 the thing that disappointed me the most was the pred face, pred 2 had the coolest design.

You guys seem to think i'm pro AvP & against the originals, i just happen to like the film ! It's like liking T3 aswell as T1 & 2. It could never live up to the originals but stood out alone (apart from the sunglasses scene !!)

4) Fair point about the script, but pred 2 didn't have the best script but it was absolutly kik ass & everyone seems to love it now unlike when it was originally out.

5) I don't agree about Alien 5. I'm a bigger fan of the preds (aliens rocks though) & am glad i've seen them go toe to toe and hopefully AvP2 will be better. I'd prefer to see Pred 3 (minus John Cena !!!!) b4 alien 5 & regardless of what you "haters" of AvP think of the film, do you think your OTT criticism will help Alien 5 get made ??

6) Yeh, lets hope AvP2 rocks

7) Again, they should have shown the chestburster but the studio played it safe


Innerchaos

1) Not quite obsessed dude ! and i don't automatically like anything (lets use john carpenter as an example - one of my favourite directors - assault on precinct 13, Halloween, Escape from New York, the thing, they live - all classics but i didn't like some of his later films) i like what i like (& i know a turkey when i see one, catwoman anyone !) AvP isn't in Alien, Aliens, Predator or Pred 2's bracket, but i enjoyed it and am glad i did

2) As for doing no good for the franchise

a) We're having AvP2 aren't we
b) It generated all these heated debates !!
c) It generated interest and new interest in the franchise

The franchise was dead dude, it's just great to see it back on the map and lets hope some more classic entries to the franchise can be made.

3) As for this "fair weather fan" card ! WTF  Just because you guys didn't like the film doesn't mean you're right and you get personal saying "if i was a true fan etc" I don't judge any of you on how much you like the franchises etc

For the record, again ! Predator and aliens are 2 of my all time favourite films and my expectations were as high as anyones and i was ready to be disappointed, but i enjoyed it, get over it !! & why am i justifying myself !!!


Stickaround !