A-HA THATS IT - Animatronics and Human Eyes!!!!

[PredatrHuntr]

So here I am watching P1 and P2 on my laptop at work and I realize what one of the key features of the Predator is. Actually there are 2 key features that make this creature believable.

1. Animatronic mandibles. They had operators off on the side of the set using those funky R/C controls to operate and move the mandibles...the upper and lower ones could ALL move independently. This gives the mandibles a more natural movement. Watching the movie I immediately noticed that the mandibles are always twitching and moving which reminded me of spider legs or insect antenna.

2. Human eyes. Kevin Peter Hall's eyes had contacts, yes, but my point is that they were the eyes of a human actor and were REAL. Not animatronic or computer generated. Seeing those human eyes behind the makeup, colored contacts under that mask is what makes it so convincing.

So then, I briefly watched some of AVP and AVPR and thats when it hit me - those Predators didn't have human eyes in either of those movies AND the mandibles were either CGI or the animatronics were just so-so. In fact in AVPR Wolf has two different eyes altogether. In the beginning on the ship you can see white eyes and both are identical, so they forgot to damage one. Later in the movie, you see that he's blind in one eye. Major screw up and inconsistency there.

I'm REALLY HOPING that Predators goes back to animatronic controlled mandibles and that we can see the eyes of the guys in the suits. Crossing my fingers...

 

[Sara]

If I'm not mistaken, AVP did feature mandibles controlled the same way as in P1 and 2 (I think there's photos of it in ADI's books on production). The unfortunate thing that they suffered from immense stretch, which begged for belief. I prefer the P1's mandibles and their movement by far.

 

[Mr Fett]

So then, I briefly watched some of AVP and AVPR and thats when it hit me - those Predators didn't have human eyes in either of those movies

AVP had the most human looking eyes of all 4 of the movies. Basically just brown regular human eyes on Scar.

 

[hellonearth]

yes, while i never considered the eye thing, the mandibles in AVP pissed my off to say the least, they did all move at once, and the flaps of skin between the top and bottom ones got so stretched that they would have no control over whether they buckled out or in, which it should always be in if it can be helped, but the scene where scar took off his mask towards the end for lex they (skin flaps) were bending all outward and just making it unnatural to say the least, bugged the crap outta me but i could go on for a while about that movie, sure i've still watched it 100 times, if anything just in the background of what other thing i'm doing.

anyhow, yes to much stretch is to much, independent movement is ideal and more believable ( in P1 that upper right one was always twitchin as said above, like an insect, i love it

 

[PredatrHuntr]

I stand corrected...my bad. I dislike AVP and have only seen the movie twice. I could have sworn the eyes were CGI, but after checking it - you are right. They def look TOO human. If they had colored contacts in I can't really tell.

What I mean is that I prefer a human wearing colored contacts as opposed to CGI or animatronics. The colored contacts should still look alien and not standard brown, blue or green.

 

[Roydraven]

I stand corrected...my bad. I dislike AVP and have only seen the movie twice. I could have sworn the eyes were CGI, but after checking it - you are right. They def look TOO human. If they had colored contacts in I can't really tell.

What I mean is that I prefer a human wearing colored contacts as opposed to CGI or animatronics. The colored contacts should still look alien and not standard brown, blue or green.

agree a 100% with ya the old films had more of a lets give this a try then the new AVP lets cgi it or animatronic it instead there doing that with all new films now it sux wheres the traditional fx
instead of just cgi I mean cgi is good I am a fan of films with it but not on everything good old fx beats cgi and other crap in my books just my opinion hope the new predator film has good animatronics and human eyes in it fingers crossed

 

[Robillicus]

Jason... your first mistake was even bringing up AVP, and knowing I'd see the topic.

Unfortunately, AVP is the only exposure most PREDATOR fans have had. I could spend all day poking fun at the film and such, but I won't. What I will say is truth. After a ten year absence (that's ten years. That's along time. Really, it is.) We, the fans of the first film were given abortions on a silver platter. Say what you want, AVP had the bigger budget of the last two films. ****, alteast the production values were better. Anyway, the twat they got to Captain this ship of bad ideas decided to take it upon himself to REDESIGN the Predator. Now, in my humble opinion, the last thing you want to do to a large group of fans who've been without their beloved Predator for a decade is to ******* CHANGE IT. How long was the gap between the first and second film.. 3 years?

He took it upon himself to influence the creature towards the more comic book variant. He decided, that's Paul W.S. Anderson decided that he wanted to OUT-DO the previous designs, and really that takes some balls. He claimed that HIS Predators were better than both the first and second creature. Really. that's no ********. He thought his uber-hulk linebacker retards were BETTER than the previous incarnations.

By now I'm sure most of you are like "Shut up, I loved AVP!!" Well, AVP doesn't love you, and frankly neither do I. Here's why- you either haven't seen the other 2 movies, or you have and you just dismissed them because there weren't Aliens in them. Either way, I don't care.

The Predator creature was based upon the Masai warrior. They are very tall and lean. They are badasses. Want to learn more? Google it. They are not shoulder pad wearing football players. This was disregarded in the design of the Predators for AVP. Because the director of the film was a tool, a fag, a douche, an *******, a cock, whatever you choose. The first two movies abided by this, and it worked. However, this wasn't good enough for Anderson. No, he had to go and change everything. He turned the Predator into a large, hulking mass of ineptitude. The armor was generic and bland. Everyone was so completely in-love with the Celtic helmet that, that's the only reason anyone remembers the movie. Oooooooooooooooooooh Celtic this and that. Who cares. Really, the helmets not all that cool.

Sure, the movie gives some of you bigger guys out there inspiration to be Predators. Well, tough ******* ****. The Predator is TALL and THIN. That's it. He's tall, and he's lean. You can throw this "well, every Predator is different" **** around all you want. I'm saying this from the heart, I'm sorry. That's just not the way it is, and it never should have ventured down the path it did. You give us little guys our thing. It's not fair to us, the thinner, nerdier guys when the whole time the Predator was played by a guy who was tall, thin, and a nerd- and all of the sudden he should be this giant football player-esque monster. So, sorry, The Predator was tall and thin and that's the only way it should be.

As far as the new movie goes, I really don't give a ****. The past two movies have done more than enough to seal the character away into ******** B-movie status. Especially with AVP:Retard. At this point theres no salvaging the original creature. Even after seeing the new pics from the set I am completely uninspired. Wow... that's the reboot? No thanks. The suits don't look good, and the direction in which they're going is poor. The designs don't look good to me. They too look too comic-bookish. So they're not referencing the movies anymore, but the comics?? Weak. I will probably go see the new movie, but at this point I really don't give a ****. I'm ******* sick of it all. Im sick of Hollywood, and I'm sick of the fact that FOX won't let the Predator die with dignity. **** it.

 

[PredatrHuntr]

AVP:Retard - HAHAHAHAHA! Thats friggin funny!

 

[SithLord66]

So Rob how do you really feel? .'.

 

[hellonearth]

So Rob how do you really feel?

huh please don't make him do it again!!! my virgin eyes can't take anymore swearing!! my mommy said it was bad to swear...

 

[Sara]

But what are your thoughts on yaoi AVP?

 

[Skullsplitter]

As a film, AVP is the superior one of the last two films.

Too bad the Predators got reinvented in the "Bigger=better" fashion (too bulky, too uniform, too overexpressed with the animatronics. Those were the actors eyes, but it just looked silly because of the golden-gate-stretch the mandibles had and the colors of it's face)

 

[PredatrHuntr]

Rob and I share very strong opinions of AVP and AVPR. We don't hate ALL of it. Deep down inside, I think Rob likes the Celtic Bio and thinks they did a good job on Wolf, but because the majority of the movie was a clusterfuck Rob and I tend to overlook the entire movie and discredit it as a whole.

Just imagine if AVP-R had a killer plot, GREAT actors and was bright enough to SEE the damn film!!! NOW throw in wolf and you would have had a sweet ass movie.

So that leaves us with the new movie Predators. It could really go either way...good or bad, or some good and some bad. The simple fact that they are making another Predator movie is enough to make my spider sense tingle!

 

[Skullsplitter]

Same here. The way the franchise got raped over is just... dumb.

 

[mortenharket]

Did someone say a-ha?

 

[Bovine13]

Im looking forward to but, what do I know Im just one of the fat guys right Rob.

 

[Kithunter]

scott i'm a short elder pred. I never really cared for what anyone thought about my size in the suit tbh.. of course i try to add height to myself but not really sweat that too much

The predators come from a race of hunters...they come in all sizes and shapes.

i look forward to the new film and i have it on a good authority, we will be most pleased with the new look of the all hunters.


AM

 

[Kou1]

I wasn't a big fan of the first AVP moive myself. I mean I watched it and liked it but compared to the first two movies it blew. I'm not into the costumes like you all are I'm more of an otaku when it comes to Aliens and Predator. If it's got either I'll watch it and enjoy it. But I will say one thing about the face part and my dad totally agrees with me(we're still big movie buddies after all these years). We were horrified when the Predator took his mask off at the end. In the first two movies the face looked totally real like they could actually be living beings. But it just flat out looked like a rubber mask in AVP. I remember we both looked at each other and was like "What the hell is this ****?" Face just looked totally fake beyond imagination.

Now I liked AVP:R because for one the predator looked more realistic not that you saw his face all that clearly(probably a good thing) and we had some kick ass hunting going on. Now I admit the human aspect was pretty bad (why must we have horny teenagers in every movie?) and if they had cut a good bit of that out it would have been better. But atlast you didn't have one friggin Alien getting the best of two fully armed predators in less than five minutes.

For me P2 was the best, then P1, AVP:R, and AVP dead last.