Reproduction Method Official

[TheAncientEnemy]

If anything this idea proves that the movie makers aren't really terrible concerned with how much the alien looks like its host and how much it looks like an alien.

  No shit!

Apparently that's now impossible for me to believe since an alien coming out of a predator still has a tail, the same teeth, and a tongue, all of which I previously attributed to aliens coming out of terrestrial hosts.

Humans have tails?

I knew you would mention that but I hoped you would understand that since humans have vestigal tails and the idea is pretty much programmed into mostly all mammals on a genetic level, it makes sense that the alien would take that idea and run with it. Host has some genetic traits for an extra limb? Sure, why not! We're just primates, after all, and on a really small level, living things on earth aren't really much different from one another.

Humans also don't have six fingers, but why not add one if the genes are there? Believe it or not, bring born with six fingers is actually a dominant trait (although I can't remember why it is that it doesn't happen more often). It might add this in an attempt to capitalize on what is already a very useful tool for human beings (our hands) or it might just be a fluke. Even nature isn't perfect, and who knows how an alien would "interpret" our traits.

[Uncanny Antman]

I knew you would mention that but I hoped you would understand that since humans have vestigal tails and the idea is pretty much programmed into mostly all mammals on a genetic level

So a human-born Alien can have a tail, but a Predator-born one can't?  Why can't they have a recessive gene for a tail too?

Oh, and by-the-by, very few humans have vestigial tails.  Just a handful of freaks. 

[Wolf Sazen]

Again, I've tried to be positive about this. But the more I look at this, the more I feel like...well, it's still not "Newborn" bad, but I'd be lying if I said it was much better.

I hope it's really, really, really dark in this film.

It looks better, and I'm sure move's better than the xeno in "Alien".  The predalien looks bad ass.  The only other times the alien's looked as cool were in "Aliens", the non CG in Alien 3, and the CG moments in Alien-R, and the Newborn should never have BEEN born.

[Uncanny Antman]

The only other times the alien's looked as cool [...] the non CG in Alien 3

So every shot except for its dome cracking? 

[Spaghetti]

Its like they really wanted your attention that they put the skull under the dome to be "back to the roots"
yet everything else looks total shit.

Yeah this is worse then the newborn in my eyes. At least the newborn was creepy-looking. I just wanna smack this thing in the face for sucking at being an alien.

[TheAncientEnemy]

I knew you would mention that but I hoped you would understand that since humans have vestigal tails and the idea is pretty much programmed into mostly all mammals on a genetic level

So a human-born Alien can have a tail, but a Predator-born one can't?  Why can't they have a recessive gene for a tail too?

Oh, and by-the-by, very few humans have vestigal tails.  Just a handful of freaks. 

All humans have vestigial tails, my friend. It's your tail bone. Vestigial means it's leftover... the physical remnant of a feature we don't need anymore. Boas and pythons, for example, have vestigial legs in the form of a few small bones where their pelvis would have been, and barbed claws that aren't good for anything anymore. Whales and dolphins have vestigial finger bones in their flippers.

As far as predators having traits for vestigial tails, I guess it's plausible, but unlikely since having a tail at all is an Earth thing.

[Wolf Sazen]

If anything this idea proves that the movie makers aren't really terrible concerned with how much the alien looks like its host and how much it looks like an alien.

  No shit!

Apparently that's now impossible for me to believe since an alien coming out of a predator still has a tail, the same teeth, and a tongue, all of which I previously attributed to aliens coming out of terrestrial hosts.

Humans have tails?

I knew you would mention that but I hoped you would understand that since humans have vestigal tails and the idea is pretty much programmed into mostly all mammals on a genetic level, it makes sense that the alien would take that idea and run with it. Host has some genetic traits for an extra limb? Sure, why not! We're just primates, after all, and on a really small level, living things on earth aren't really much different from one another.

Humans also don't have six fingers, but why not add one if the genes are there? Believe it or not, bring born with six fingers is actually a dominant trait (although I can't remember why it is that it doesn't happen more often). It might add this in an attempt to capitalize on what is already a very useful tool for human beings (our hands) or it might just be a fluke. Even nature isn't perfect, and who knows how an alien would "interpret" our traits.

Dude, are you a scientist or somethin?  It's just a movie with a fictional history attached to it.  I don't ever want to see an alien without a tail.  

[JordanLee]

No more asinine than a tongue having teeth in the first place.

How the hell is a second set of mandibles essential to the Alien's biological assimilation of Predator traits? Any predatory purpose for merging the Pred mandibles is responded to with the outer set. The tongue would be powerful enough to tear into any amount of given flesh. Then how is it essential to the Alien?

It's not, and just comes off as a pretentious attempt to add detail.

Well the inner mouth in the other movies? Basically look like people moths with fangs, so why wouldnt the inner mouth take the traits of a predators mouth? Or maybe I'm just crazy......

[Wolf Sazen]

The only other times the alien's looked as cool [...] the non CG in Alien 3

So every shot except for its dome cracking? 

Elaborate, because from what I saw, there was a mix of CGI and regular takes with the guy in costume in "Alien 3"

[Uncanny Antman]

All humans have vestigal tails, my friend. It's your tail bone.

Yeah, fair cop.  By the true meaning of the word, I dunced out on that one.   

As far as predators having traits for vestigal tails, I guess it's plausible, but unlikely since having a tail at all is an Earth thing.

Like fingers?  Or toes?  Or any other number of attributes?  What makes them an "Earth thing"?

Elaborate, because from what I saw, there was a mix of CGI and regular takes with the guy in costume in "Alien 3"

What you're calling CG was actually a rod-puppet composited into the shots.

[TheAncientEnemy]

If anything this idea proves that the movie makers aren't really terrible concerned with how much the alien looks like its host and how much it looks like an alien.

  No shit!

Apparently that's now impossible for me to believe since an alien coming out of a predator still has a tail, the same teeth, and a tongue, all of which I previously attributed to aliens coming out of terrestrial hosts.

Humans have tails?

I knew you would mention that but I hoped you would understand that since humans have vestigal tails and the idea is pretty much programmed into mostly all mammals on a genetic level, it makes sense that the alien would take that idea and run with it. Host has some genetic traits for an extra limb? Sure, why not! We're just primates, after all, and on a really small level, living things on earth aren't really much different from one another.

Humans also don't have six fingers, but why not add one if the genes are there? Believe it or not, bring born with six fingers is actually a dominant trait (although I can't remember why it is that it doesn't happen more often). It might add this in an attempt to capitalize on what is already a very useful tool for human beings (our hands) or it might just be a fluke. Even nature isn't perfect, and who knows how an alien would "interpret" our traits.

Dude, are you a scientist or somethin?  It's just a movie with a fictional history attached to it.  I don't ever want to see an alien without a tail.  

I wouldn't want to either. However, like I said, I liked the EXCUSE the aliens had for looking so human-like while still being aliens. I could justify it to myself. While the predator has no excuse for looking as human as it does aside from the fact that it was made before CGI and all that jazz, the alien takes on traits of its host and its therefore okay with me that it has hands, fingers, etc.

I know it's fiction, don't worry. If there is anything I really dislike it is fanboys acting as if this stuff is real. If you've been reading my posts elsewhere you'de know that. I was simply elaborating on why I am not usually a fan of man-in-suit creature design and the idea got off in a different direction.

(That being said, I mean the predator no harm. When it comes to creature design he is still up in my top 5 in spite of the fact that it's a bit too human for me)

I think that on this forum people tend to have a tone that lends itself to arguments. None of my comments here have been inflammatory or mean-spirited. Replies tend to come off confrontational for some reason.

Uncanny Antman: Toes and fingers, eyes, etc, are all just as much "Earth things" as tails are. I enjoy the predator very much but when you consider that he is from another planet he is still very human-like. I can't help but feel that if we were to encounter a real alien it wouldn't at all resemble anything we have ever seen on earth. When you look at a frog, visually, it's basically a little man. Fingers, legs, toes, arms, etc... humans and frogs aren't closely related and yet look similar in a lot of very basic ways because we evolved here on earth. We've got a common ancestor somewhere back there. An alien lifeform would not have anything in common with us at all... suffice to say it would take a pretty incredible coincidence and impossibly good luck for life to evolve on another planet in a similar way that it did here. It's really hard to imagine what an alien lifeform would look like because we usually end up making them look like things we have already seen on earth.

It's an interesting thing to think about.

[SiL]

We don't have tails - Not even vestigial ones. We have a tail bone, but it's not really a bone as part of a tail, and at any rate for the Predator to walk upright and have the same build as a human, it'd need one, too.

[TheAncientEnemy]

The tailbone is usually thought of as the remnant of a vestigial tail. There are theories that say otherwise, usually perpetuated by religious people or those that believe in intelligent design, not that there is a difference. While the coccyx has other functions aside from being "leftover tail" it is generally accepted that it is a remnant, last I checked.

[Uncanny Antman]

Uncanny Antman: Toes and fingers, eyes, etc, are all just as much "Earth things" as tails are. I enjoy the predator very much but when you consider that he is from another planet he is still very human-like.

We were talking about host traits, but now we've switched to Predators being too human?  Y'lost me for a sec' but I'm back on track now. 

So, if I'm hearing you right, you would rather a film alien have no attributes of Earthly origin?

So no teeth, eyes, fingers, claws, pincers, legs, feet, hands, tentacles, fur, fins, ears, gills, tongue, tail...the list goes on and on.  Isn't it easier to approach it from the viewpoint that a world that gives rise to intelligent life is likely to have followed a vaguely similar evolutionary track?  We develop these traits for a reason, so why wouldn't other lifeforms?

[Xenomorphine]

I'm fine with the inner mouth having mandibles. It's not as if our tongues have a mouth. It's just the Alien copying the outer set of jaws for the inner. I don't mind, either way, honestly. I can rationalise it like that, in any case.

Now, if we're talking about the whole slew of other features on the Predalien...

The tailbone is usually thought of as the remnant of a vestigial tail. There are theories that say otherwise, usually perpetuated by religious people or those that believe in intelligent design, not that there is a difference. While the coccyx has other functions aside from being "leftover tail" it is generally accepted that it is a remnant, last I checked.

Yeah, we've basically got it programmed into our DNA. There are actually people who seem to have these obselete genetic commands 'activated' and they're literally born with little tails, able to move and everything.

That always made sense for why the human Aliens had skeletal tails, whiile the canine ones had armoured and much more developed ones, reflecting the degree of information present in the template.

The Predalien would foul that particular theory up, however.

If it was canon.