We got that. But you're overthinking all this. But then again considering your username that's not a surprise. ;) But serisouly, let it go...

I managed to overlook the lifecycle issue as well as the


In the end, I enjoyed the predator-on-alien action that was delivered, and certainly rate it above both AVP1 and Alien Resurrection, dumbed down enjoyment as it was. I took it in as a comic book film rather than striving for Cameron-esque greatness.

I'll admit, I wasn't going to bother after all the critical thrashing, but the talk of the whole film being "too dark" actually made me interested in how that might be. I'm a DP myself, and overly-lit night scenes are a huge peeve of mine. I'll refer to most any sci-fi show on TV such as Andromeda or Enterprise for generic, low contrast picture that I hate.
The DVDTalk review by Brian Orndorf was especially scathing in this regard, writing that cinematographer "Daniel Pearl should be run out of the business." The darkness worked for me- I felt that I could appropriately feel the action of the scene, even if I couldn't see every detail of the man-in-suit. Would you really like to see the aliens with this much clarity?

http://www.firstshowing.net/img/avpr-predalien.jpg

I saw the flick and that's the first time I've had a clear look at the Predalien... I thought the movie was way too dark... Couldn't see any detail of the creatures because of the shadows/darkness, all of the alien shots were like extreme closeups and the tightness/darkness/editing made the alien on predator fight scenes really hard to make out what was happening.... plus shitty characters = BAD MOVIE.

I actually think it might have been WORSE than AVP... because as much as i HATE Paul W.S. Anderson, at least I could tell what was happening in most scenes... plus, despite the R rating, with the exception of the baby scene, I didn't think this one was very violent... a lot less creature fight/gore action than the first flick and most of the onscreen deaths were cut to blacks or have a lame splat of blood hit a window or door from a far... a HUGE disappoinment IMO.

Never. :D

Saw it last night and has had to immediately apologize to the gf
a new low for both franchises :(

After such a promising trailer, I was quite dismayed to hear all the negative comments regarding this. Won't even bother...

I watched the first 5 minutes of this on the Web (the free preview) and the stupid thing from it and AVP1 (well let me say one of the stupid things) is that the Predators know how aliens are born, so they when they get a dead Predator body, they should suspect that hey, maybe this thing is a biohazard and it might have an alien in it.

So maybe they should watch the body or fry it or at least run a simple bio-scan of some sort on it. Nope, they put it on a slab and wait for the alien to be born and within minutes, be able to take out a predator (who is wearing his battle mask for some reason inside their ship).

And then the Predator forgets that it may not be smart to fire its laser from the inside of the ship, which is what seemingly sends the shit ablazin. Maybe "Air Marshal 101" was not a required hunting class.

Why does it have to be one extreme or another? There is such thing as a middle ground.

Look at Blade Runner, a very dark film overall, but it never obscures the action.

I don't understand why nobody can get the AVP concept right. I want to see "300" but with a crapload of Aliens and Predators, not one Predator who sporadically tussles with a few in the dark (seriously, why were the fight scenes so damn dark? We could barely see what was happening).

All the human stuff was totally lame, we aren't there to hear the dating woes of a pizza delivery boy. Steven Pasquale told me it was going to be a "true-blue horror movie" but it was more like a SCI FI Channel original. Right from the beginning they should have made the decision for a hard R and planned for balls-out bloody scenes of mayhem and destruction and some totally gratuitous nudity.

Totally disappointed. I actually enjoyed the first one more. At least we had Lance.

I think the Predator ship should have crashed in Afghanistan and fought US Soldiers and Al Queda.. THERES your AvP2 idea... oh well.

Psh I wish my boyfriend would have apologized to me. Instead he yelled at me because I didn't like the movie and I said the acting was horrible! I don't normally watch movies like this (it's not my cup of tea) and only went because he really wanted to see it. Men.

I disagree with the critics on three points:

1) I didn't think it was too dark to see at any point during the film.
2) I didn't think the editing rendered the film incomprehensible.
3) I didn't think the acting was a new low in anything, or outstandingly awful.

Having said that, the whole movie WAS overwhelmingly mediocre and massively unsatisfying -- even AvP 1 was better. Plus some of the dialogue was amazingly dumb, like "The government doesn't lie to people!" and "Let's hope we're both wrong" and, worst of all, "get to the chopper". Come on, there must be a better way to reference Predator than that...

The one thing that did bother me was when:

I normally really like Reiko as an actress, but that was bad directing by "The Strause Brothers."

I had a weird experience last night watching this movie. I was really tired and went to a midnight show. So I kept nodding off. The interesting part is that I would see the beginning of a scene, nod off and dream up the rest of the scene. Unfortunately, the movie I was dreaming up was much cooler than the actual movie. For example, I'd dream that the action moved back into the Predator ship. The aliens and predator were stalking each other down dark corridors with strobe lights. Pretty much like the first alien. Then I'd wake up and they were fighting in a parking lot or something, lol.

By the way, toward the end the movie got ridiculously dark. What everyone is saying is completely true.

I need to see it again to pass judgement though. I think I only saw about 40% of the movie.

got back a while ago
definitely better than AVP1

here's an issue I have with it though
the predator is pouring acid on the victims and face hugger carcases, presumably to hide evidence of the Aliens from humans, so why does he string that deputy and skin him for all to see?

and I didn't know predaliens could spawn eggs like that, and the incubation time was way too short

and the predator's situational awareness skills needed some work. he didn't look around nearly as much as he should considering predators should know how agile aliens are and how they like to run across the ceilings and don't just walk on the floor

That's an interesting observation.

I saw this this afternoon with my dad and it was a fun time!

I had a grin on my face at the very beginning and enjoyed the ride. This was miles a head in entertainment fun value than AvP!

Though I will say if you have not seen the film. It's best to avoid the trailers,especially the R rated trailer. Since it literally spoils the entire movie.



I'm happy to report the complaints over the 'bad lighting' in the film are not true. I didn't find the lighting in the sewer,or night time rain drenched scenes any different than how other movies film them. So I could follow what was going on without a problem. And my Dad said he didn't find anything wrong with the lighting either and could see what was happening.

The only moment that was so dark it was hard to see,was the stairway bit in the hospital. But since the lights are out and the emergency lights barely work. It's not 'bad lighting' on the directors part and fits what's going on in the film.

So either the people complaining have bad eye sight,or bad theatrical projection with the light burning out.

Just saw this tonight.

Things you should know:
1 - I'm a huge fan of the Alien and Predator franchises. Alien, Aliens, and Predator are all in my top 25, I loved Alien3, and even give C+ or better marks to all the other films in the franchise, even AvP.
2 - I tend to be quite easy on films, enjoy and own a lot of so called "bad" films, and rarely hate a movie.
3- I went into this film expecting to be slightly disappointed, but to enjoy it. I was actually expecting to come into this thread and give a positive review, and rebut some of the earlier complaints. And 5 minutes in, I was still thinking that. But....


AvP:R is awful. I can live with the lifecycle changes, they aren't aliens after all, they're predaliens. But every scene with a human was pretty much terrible. I won't bother listing the negatives, they've been told throughout the thread.

I'm very disappointed, and fear that both franchises are now dead. But at least I have 20 or so excellent graphic novels from Dark Horse to enjoy.

never been to Earth before, might as well bring back a souvenir for the kids

Exactly. The Blue acid was there to clean up Alien mess, since it was their problem. But first and for most a Predator is a hunter, so bring back something nice from his first earth-human kill.

Just saw the movie, and it was much better than AVP1. I was definitely surprised to see main characters and babies getting killed but that was hardcore. As stated above now, give me AVP 300 style.

just watched this and really enjoyed it. Way better than AvP1

glad the hot chick got killed.

It was fun with lots of carnage

sure it had it's faults, but it kept me entertained

ok explains the skinning, still doesn't explain leaving the body for all to see

So many possibilities that could be done with a movie like this and they blow it with horrible ideas and bad script writing.

Brutally bad movie. It actually was worse than the first AvP. Having one predator sucked.

And it took two people to direct it. Ug.