Why no love for Aliens vs Predators AVP 1, NOT the 2nd film

Cody1138

Cody1138

Well-Known Member
So Neca's newest releases from the AVP line promoted me to go back and watch the film again, and I liked it as much as I did when I saw it in the theatre so many years ago. It got me thinking as to why people dislike the film so much. I am looking for rational, reasonable replies , not just the film blows, the director is an idiot etc.
 
Predators were line backers that made stomping noises, not agile at all. They were hardly sneaky. Predators were using our planet like a giant alien harvest?! Terrible idea. Just a bad script really. The girl had no growth from being normal to a badass...throwaway characters everywhere...
 
Me and Mrs Swagger love the movie. Between Ghostbusters and Alien, this is one of our go to movies

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I think the reason why it was not well received was that, unlike its cinematic parents, AvP was rated PG-13. People went in expecting a glorious bloodbath with knockdown drag out fights and seeing humans dying in extremely violent and gory ways, but what we got was... sanitized. The violence and destruction seemed almost stylized instead of the visceral experiences we got from the predecessor films.

Don't get me wrong, I liked the movie, including the back story and all that jazz, but it seemed like when it came down to it, the film was lackluster and pulled that gut punch when it should have delivered it full force. Basically, it is the perfect example of what Deadpool would have been like if it was rated PG-13.

In contrast, the rated R sequel was the exact opposite. It pulled zero punches when it came to violence and gore, but the story was lacking severely. Plus, it was dark. Not atmospherically dark (even though it was), but just poorly lit. I hope the lighting guys got fired over that movie.

If we could have combined the best elements of the two films, it would have been a glorious film to watch.
 
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Cody1138 said:
the film blows, the director is an idiot etc.
Click to expand...

Those are a given. Fugly ADI xenomorphs, a really bad story filled with idiotic characters, f-ed up alien life cycle. I liked the setting, backstory and such, that's about it. Basically a 2.5-3 out of 10.
AvP: R... wow, even worse ADI "xenomorphs"(if you can really call them that), only two good things about the film: the sound effects and the fact it makes the first one look like a masterpiece in comparison.

Since the 90's people have been wanting an AvP film. When it finally arrived it was missing those awesome colonial marines. Then the sequel got set in a Dawson's Creek slasher film(a horrible one with horrible CG effects).
 
I like both the AVP movies. I know they're not high art, but I find them completely entertaining. I actually think the transforming pyramid is silly, but the snow battle at an abandoned whaling station is so atmospheric and badass that it all evens out. I think the Pred/human team up is fun, and as a B movie, it hits the buttons I need it to hit. I only wish the Preds weren't so chunky. Having said that, the Celtic Pred's mask..legendary :)

Obviously none of these movies approach Scott/Cameron/McTiernan genius. I think you have to go into this the way you'd go into watching the sixth sequel to a slasher movie or something. Sure it's crap, but it's fun crap featuring characters you love. Freddy vs Jason comes to mind. It's just silly fun.
 
pg-13, Dint like the design of the predators (too bulky), hated the female lead or atleast how she developed into a predator sidekick, killed of the predators or atleast 2 out of 3 in like 1 scene.

They redeemed themselves a little AvP R (mostly because of wolf) but it was still very poor especially with the addition of the predalien.
 
ALIENS have been on Earth for centuries... and humanity is not only still around, but there's not one bit of trace left of them? That's just wrong in so many ways.

And sadly with the first AVP, they treat the entire culture of the Predators as though they're all about hunting and nothing else. Even Wolf, the Predator who is supposed to be on clean up duty does as much killing and hanging as every other Predator we've seen. Throw the species a bit of variety in what they do, not how they hunt.
 
I'm with Jeyl on this one. The main crisis of the Alien series was that you had this corporation that wanted to weaponize the xenos versus Ripley, who wanted to prevent the creatures reaching Earth at any cost.

This movie completely took a dump on that previously established conflict.

I guess I wanted a film version of the comic series. Set the story on a colonized planet in the future. Aliens infest. Predators come to hunt. Colonists and marines caught in the middle. Movie success.
 
I'm a huge Predator fan and I found the first AvP completely unwatchable. The premise of the film was just downright comical - bringing xenomorphs to Earth for enclosed games and an underground pyramid in Antarctica :confused And then killing off 2 of 3 Predators in their first encounter with ONE xenomorph :facepalm The film just got progressively worse, the low note when the Predator fashions a xeno skull and tail for the female lead to use as weapons :lol I thought I was watching an SNL skit at that point.

I actually found AvP 2 decent until the halfway point, then it just got REALLY dumb. At least we had a badass lone Pred taking on a small army of xenos, everything else about the film could go in the trash.
 
I feel AvP did the Xenomorph's right, and the Predators wrong. And AvP2 did the Predator right, and the Xeno's wrong.. Both had terrible acting... Hopefully AvP3 will get it right!
 
I loved it too, also generally I have liked a lot of recent films the seem to have people publicly hating .....Prometheus is a good example , everyone expects all the answers in a story line and want everything handed to them, also in the same vein Terminator Salvation was an original story take and didn't affect the originals , because of so called feedback the expected follow up was dumped for Genisis ? Now the follow up to Prometheus is being altered , loosing the lead actress because of feedback .

im not saying there aren't original science fiction films lately , any of blomquist films are great , Scott is still top of his game ., there was plenty of crap films in the 80's so it's not rose tinted glasses ..... I think what the 80's brought was original stories not rehashed stories.
 
The first AvP was all sorts of dumb... and then the majority of it was copied for Prometheus. Too funny and stupid at the same time.

The Teen soap drama in AvP 2 was all sorts of dumb and the fact that it was digitally darkened to the point where it was damn near impossible to see anything didn't help.

I never wanted Prometheus to explain everything. I wanted a movie that actually made sense where the encounter with the alien creator race would actually have been interesting, similar to old philosophical stories where man meets his gods and are given choices to see if they are worthy. No such thing here... was just a plain train wreck pretty much from the get-go with annoyingly stupid characters and plot points.

Same with AvP1 and 2. I actually enjoyed the second one more because it wasn't so ****ing over the top stupid. The setting actually felt somewhat believable... but the story didn't work with it very well and pretty much drowned the whole thing in stupidity and teen drama and wink-wink references to the original movies. It always feels fake when that happens.

I haven't read the AvP comics, but what I've heard about them sounds like a decent story. Have played the AvP games but weren't very impressed with those. I'm not saying they need to be R-rated, but I'm saying they should stay away from cartoon fighting we see in AvP1 and absurdities we see in AvP2.
 
The problem is, they keep trying to do these films on the cheap......we need a broader landscape, a proper sci-fi script and a need to stay away from already trodden ground.
No more Ripley clones, no more Earth, Predator's with more on their minds other than hunting and skinning stuff.....

Not gonna happen, is it?

Rich
 
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