June 09, 2012Gonna go on a rant *clears throat*
Alien and Predator are two separate franchises that were mashed together in the sole purpose to make money.
The first crossover stories were done in the late 80s. Predator 2 was made in the early 90s. The skull in the cabinet was a wink and a nod to the crossovers and it was just a flash, a quick glimpse as the camera panned. It was, for all intents and purposes, an easter egg (the man who designed the trophy case later admited he hadn't realised how similar his skull looked to the one in alien) Some people didn't even see it until yeeeeaaars later. It's pretty simple really. It isn't considered canon because the Aliens and Predators are not in the same universe. Much like why Batman can never be a part of The Avengers.
Good examples of this are: The non-canon comic book series written by Frank Miller called "RoboCop versus The Terminator" which suggests that the creation of Skynet and the Terminators was made possible due to the technology used to create RoboCop. OR the mashup, "Superman vs. the Terminator: Death to the Future" where we find Skynet forming a cross-temporal alliance with Superman's foe the Cyborg, dispatching various Terminators into the past in an attempt to eliminate Superman, Supergirl and Superboy.
That said, I quite liked AVP. (AVP2 was a disgrace though)
*end rant*