AM I THE ONLY ONE???

My biggest problem with AVP was that it damaged the incredible mythos established in both Alien and in Predator. Now before any of you decide to throw a basket full of facehuggers at me, let me state that I'm a huge fan of Cameron's Aliens. But when he decided to make the xeno more vulnerable to conventional damage i.e.; flame throwers, pulse rifle ammo, grenades, he effectively reduced the invulnerability that Ridley introduced in Alien. Ash defined, to a degree, that the xeno was most likely the perfect organism. And we never saw if a flame thrower would even work on the xeno as Ripley didn't get the chance to use it on the xeno. Moreover, we clearly saw the xeno take the full discharge of a space craft's thruster and it wasn't disintegrated just thrown into space. Of course that could have been to lack of budget. We also have to make basic assumptions that the xeno is durable to the effect that its body contains blood of such acidic properties that it burned through nearly 3 levels of space craft material, which we also have to suspect is made of a material that is so dense that it allows for such things as space pressurization and artificial gravity stresses. Yet in movies like Aliens, Alien Resurrection, AVP and AVPR the xeno is substantially less durable. I left Alien 3 out because it seems like the xeno regain some of it's invulnerability after having survived, albeit briefly, being bathed in molten metal. Furthermore, in addressing Predator (which I feel is one of Arnold's best performances as he actually played a character more so than playing himself) it was established that the Predator was also much more resourceful than shown in the ridiculous Predator sequel and in the AVP films. Or in other words Dutch got very lucky in managing to defeat the Predator after basically dropping a tree on the Predator! Overall, I just think that the creative minds behind the movies that followed Alien and Predator took way to many liberties with the laws that had been established in those movies universes, and that's probably the main reason Ridley is pretty much ignoring all the movies after his classic Alien film.

Personally, I don't get predator and alien slugging it out as a plotline. I can accept perhaps one scene where there is a standoff but an entire film doesn't have mileage. You need humans in the film to gain the audiences empathy and hence immerse them in the fear and suspense - providing the characters are well written and acted. IMO, predator and alien should never have met. I refuse to accept the concept that alien was merely game meat for predator - it encourages the dumbing down of alien (regrettably started with Aliens) and completely tarnishes the enigmatic and exotic nature of the being. Okay so you'll point out the "fishnet alien" in AvP exhibiting street smarts, but sorry that's not enough: for me, alien is not a headless chicken that runs at the first thing it sees, no, alien is methodical, pensive, patient, and sadistic - these attributes don't fit well in the shoot-em-ups that are AvP and AvP:R. What I'm trying to say is alien is not designed for teenage action movies. Finally, I actually do agree that with better direction, cinematography, casting, and of course screenplay, AvP may have worked quite well and proven me wrong. I mean, if Christopher and Jonathan Nolan were ever asked to do an AvP reboot, man, I would jizz in my pants! ...but no, instead we got the douchebag brothers Strause. If you enjoyed AvP:R then you must have loved their other work, SKYLINE. Lol or more like crying out loud.

Personally, I don't get predator and alien slugging it out as a plotline. I can accept perhaps one scene where there is a standoff but an entire film doesn't have mileage. You need humans in the film to gain the audiences empathy and hence immerse them in the fear and suspense - providing the characters are well written and acted. IMO, predator and alien should never have met. I refuse to accept the concept that alien was merely game meat for predator - it encourages the dumbing down of alien (regrettably started with Aliens) and completely tarnishes the enigmatic and exotic nature of the being. Okay so you'll point out the "fishnet alien" in AvP exhibiting street smarts, but sorry that's not enough: for me, alien is not a headless chicken that runs at the first thing it sees, no, alien is methodical, pensive, patient, and sadistic - these attributes don't fit well in the shoot-em-ups that are AvP and AvP:R. What I'm trying to say is alien is not designed for teenage action movies. Finally, I actually do agree that with better direction, cinematography, casting, and of course screenplay, AvP may have worked quite well and proven me wrong. I mean, if Christopher and Jonathan Nolan were ever asked to do an AvP reboot, man, I would jizz in my pants! ...but no, instead we got the douchebag brothers Strause. If you enjoyed AvP:R then you must have loved their other work, SKYLINE. Lol or more like crying out loud.

@craigamore: you're right on the money.

[quote]Two things Shadowcaster....One, I totally agree with your assesment about how the AVP movies tried to make themselves prequels. That really annoyed me. Two, in reference to the number of xenos in both the graphic and prose novelizations of AVP, the colonists of that particular planet raised a species of mammal called Rhynth, I think, not sure on that name, for sale as meat stock. There were even references to the quality of Rhynth steak in those stories. The point I'm driving at is that, in the comics, ranchers begin to find corpses of their Rhynth with, get this...massive holes in their bodies...i.e. from chestbursters. The story makes it very clear in that regard and it goes even further. The aliens infest a transport ship that is loaded full of an enitre herd of Rhynth that were meant to be shipped off world, hence the hundreds of xenos that followed. [/quote] Oh Craigamore, no no you had my question wrong. I was not talking about the one that takes place in the future with Machiko Naguchi as the main character, that one made total sence. I love that novel, I have read it several times. Steven and Stephani Perry are excellent sci-fi writers!! I was talking about the AVP movie and AVP movie novel. The xeno numbers were totally off in the film and the novel version of the film and was never explained lol. Sorry that you misunderstood my thought, but thanks for trying to clarify!!

I love both franchises and own both AVPs on Blu Ray since they were released. Although both have horrible acting I'd have to say I enjoy AVP-R more as the acting is all I have to complain about with that one. I remember being disappointed after watching AVP; maybe I was expecting more having waited so long for it to finally be realized and actually made into a film. I didn't mind the teaming up of the Pred and Human in the first one ( as we could expect that based on the Predator mytho), however it felt forced and didn't seem to fit right. As if anyone in the theater watching needed to be told "The enemy of my enemy is my enemy" and the whole prisoner guard analogy to explain to us why further on in the plot the Predator will team up with the human and not kill her. We certainly didn't need an explanation as to why the Pred threw Bishop to the side and turned his back on him. In AVPR they pretty much gave us one kickass Predator and the Aliens version of the alien which I was happy with, but I know some others would have preferred to see the more durable alien as has been stated, however they did make the predaliens dome translucent with a visible skull underneath in a nod to the original Alien.