The Energon Pub

Moonbase2 wrote:Yes, of course it bugged me. It was entirely unnecessary. It's like they were just trying to disgust the audience. Anyone who's ever had a baby (hell, anyone period!) should've wanted to vomit at the sight of it. When I said another character has to "develop" from a child's death for it to be included in a movie (to me at least), I meant emotionally. They could've written another way for the aliens to breed. The more I think about it the angrier I get.

I felt the same way exactly. Ugh.

Anyway, other than that, I've seen plenty of movies with worse action, worse lighting, and too-much-faster action. I was entertained up till then (couldn't get that part out of my mind after... and the brother living through the movie was kind of dumb--he was IMPALED). The Palien (or whatever you call him) was sort of a disappointment in that he was just stronger and meaner. Woulda been cool if he was as smart as a Pred and started using his equipment.

Basically, get rid of the meaningless characters and their stupid subplots nobody cares about, get actors that can act, take out child death, and write a decent script and maybe you would've had a movie that was ok and not horrendous.

I wanted a REAL showdown between Pred and Predalien. One that showed Pred's intelligence and skills and Predalien's improved smarts and agile moves. Instead we had Pred milling about melting corpses for much of the movie and Predalien killing preggos.

When they finally did meet, half the action you couldn't even really see, and it was lackluster at most. Well, at least they ended in a pretty good stalemate til everything went boom (which would've killed the babies if Predalien didn't gobble them up or impregnate them or whatever. UGH!!!)

i think its funny how they (people who did the movie) stated early on that they learned from their mistakes in the first movie, but somehow seem to have made an even worse one. i just hope it doesn't turn into the next "saw."

Moonbase2 wrote:Yes, of course it bugged me. It was entirely unnecessary. It's like they were just trying to disgust the audience. Anyone who's ever had a baby (hell, anyone period!) should've wanted to vomit at the sight of it.

Feels good to know I wasn't the only one who felt repulsed. It seemed just about everyone on the Internet was wholly apathetic about that.

People on Rotten Tomatoes are actually GLAD they killed babies and pregnant women!! WTF???!?!??!?!

I told them they don't deserve babies. Anyone entertained by the notion of baby killings is just sick. I feel embarrassed that this movie was even made and that I spent time and money on it. For shame!

Moonbase2 wrote:People on Rotten Tomatoes are actually GLAD they killed babies and pregnant women!! WTF???!?!??!?!

I told them they don't deserve babies. Anyone entertained by the notion of baby killings is just sick. I feel embarrassed that this movie was even made and that I spent time and money on it. For shame!

i saw what thread you are referring to. it just goes to show how desensitized people are. "pushing the envelope"? what the hell is wrong with people? movie or not, if you aren't at least a little disturbed by those kinds of things, then you need to get your head checked.

Moonbase2 wrote:People on Rotten Tomatoes are actually GLAD they killed babies and pregnant women!! WTF???!?!??!?!

Glad? What people? That's sick!!

Me, Grimlock! wrote:

Moonbase2 wrote:People on Rotten Tomatoes are actually GLAD they killed babies and pregnant women!! WTF???!?!??!?!

Glad? What people? That's sick!!

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/vine/show ... p?t=601115

I am Couchtomato on that thread.

Well I must be one of those people who needs to get their heads checked.

The boy dying, and the pregnant woman being used as multiple-aliens-R-Us, it didn't bother me. But then again, if I saw it happen in real life, I would be disturbed by this. However, considering that an aliens first priority is to ensure the survival of the colony, seeing a pregnant woman in her state would easily register in an aliens mind as a good source to bring about multiple drones, instead of one for one like usual. It's like out in the country, or Australia and the like, a brave coyote or dingo would steal a baby from a crib and eat it. It sucks sure, but we generally accept that it happens, and if we see it in a movie, we wouldn't be disgusted by that, because we assume this has actually happened before and that it could happen again.

The directors/writers were doing the same thing here, if Aliens did exist, and they did invest a small town, what would happen? Would the kids all escape honky-dory? Would the hospitals have signs that say "Nursery/Maternity Ward off limits to hive-mind Xenomorphs?" Nah. They'd all be dead. Sure it sucks, but if something like this happened, the kids wouldn't be on the sidelines, they'd be in the middle.

Do I want to see kids and pregnant women killed in every horror movie after this? Hell no. I want to see it where it's appropriate to the story-plot.

As for the emo-teens in the film, I accepted long ago when reading the story outline that there would be humans with story-lines in it.

It doesn't matter, out of the entire town, out of about 10-15 people we actually got story-lines on, 4 people lived.

They killed the hot-chick, the douche-kid, his friends, the sheriff, the town.

Whats to complain about that?

The reason for humans and storylines with humans, is the exact same reason we got what we did in Transformers the movie. Non-fans aren't going to give two-shits about a movie that involves two warring alien races if theres no humans in the middle, it gives audiences context.

Only difference between AvP: R and Transformers, AvP:R killed off 90% of those humans.

With the Pred-alien not doing much but finding food and laying eggs. Considering it's the only alien among them all who can lay eggs without needing to use face-huggers for impregnation of aliens, it will stay in the back until it's forced into action, like it was in the film. It's basically the new Queen, we only saw her put up a fight when there was no one else for her to send.

But, yes, it does have its downfalls like every other movie out there, but for a movie that actually follows what Darkhorse gave us with the comics, while trying to salvage the crap-fest that was the first movie, it did a damned good job.

Maybe I'm just too huge a fan of the comics and sci-fi in general.

Moonbase2,

You want more likable characters? Not teenyboppers? If they are going to get killed ... they may as well be douche bags. When the acid/blood dripped onto that blond guy, greatness.

As far as the storyline. It's goes like this ... "Predator: Oh ****, I better go clean up the mess and kill those heartless aliens before they take over one of our hunting grounds. It'll be some good cardio, too."

The aliens kill ... everything. They showed us that in basically every movie. Why just assume that they are still killing machines, when it's the purpose of a horror film to elaborate the idea for us. The Predator showed mercy on humans. He only killed those who posed a threat. I thought that was pretty cool.

After seeing the movie, I certainly get the point on how evil the aliens are. The killing was realistic and well done. There was no story, it's what would happen if a **** load of aliens and 1 predalien ran loose while a single predator was trying to kill them. Why "PG-13" the crap out of a movie like this? While AvP 1 was kinda cool, this is more like it should have been.

It's cool if some don't like the movie, and it's ok to say so ... once or twice. No reason to throw poo all over the thread over and over.

It was an awesome movie, period. Next one that comes out, I wouldn't see it if I were you!

I'm with Senor Hugo on this one, but I don't mind seeing the nursery/hospital gore. It's something that many would never think about, so why put it in the movie? To make us cringe. To offer something that the previous movies didn't.

Also, it did fit the story line if you think about it. There were a limited amount of aliens and face huggers, so the movie audience doesn't initially see any permanence to the threat. With the predalien using pregnant women, to spawn 3 at a time ... this makes the threat monumental. A seemingly contained situation is now a worldwide threat.

Next, the humans had to be in the movie, just like SH said. The movie would never get the green light without them in the movie. To us sci-fi nerds ... it sure would be awesome without humans, but most of the audience wouldn't be able to fully relate to the movie. The closer something is to home ... the scarier it is, more people will relate, more people will see the movie. KA-CHING$$$

For the life of me, I can't remember any of the names of the human characters. It's the same feeling I had after watching Cabin Fever, except this one I like. It would be cool to see some solo films based off of the comics. Earth War, Hive, and Big Game come to mind, but I highly doubt it will ever happen.

Senor Hugo wrote:The boy dying, and the pregnant woman being used as multiple-aliens-R-Us, it didn't bother me.

The part that repulsed me was the Alien checking out the newborns like a buffet. We didn't see it eat anyone, but that was bad enough. I know it's realistic to expect no one to live, I just don't need it acknowledged in a form of escapism. As I said, as a new dad now, that twisted my stomach. I kept thinking of my own baby, and how I woulda felt. And pumping the pregnant women with eggs... yeah, realistic. But I don't want to see Aliens feasting on babies just like I don't need to hear about them being mauled by dogs. The world is bad enough without having to see it for what it's worth every day.

The boy dying surprised me. I was surprised they did that, but I sort of saw it coming, actually. At first, I thought the boy and dad would get away. Then, when they got surrounded... at that point, I got clued in. Even the hot chick... You see the Predator throw his shurikens or whatever they are, they cut to the chick running off... there's not many ways that can go at that point. The younger brother living surprised me, though. You get impaled by an Alien tail, and you're almost surely gonna die, especially when it's aggravated by running and crashing in a helicopter.

Other than those points (and the one about the hospital not starting evacuation with everyone else, but I forgive plotholes like that pretty easily), I thought the movie was fine. I actually was entertained up until the nursery scene. The script knocked down that Pred a few notches early on. Alas, the loss of his invisibility, though.

Grahf wrote:For the life of me, I can't remember any of the names of the human characters. It's the same feeling I had after watching Cabin Fever, except this one I like.

Cabin Fever was awful. And the only taboo it broke was giving what's-his-name from Boy Meets World a leading role.

The only kick I got out of Cabin Fever was from one of the people I went with. During the drive there, one of my friends told us she would be fine with the movie as long as it didn't deal with something too realistic. Needless to say, I kept my mouth shut and was laughing inside for the rest of the night.

Grahf wrote:The only kick I got out of Cabin Fever was from one of the people I went with. During the drive there, one of my friends told us she would be fine with the movie as long as it didn't deal with something too realistic. Needless to say, I kept my mouth shut and was laughing inside for the rest of the night.

Maybe this is in need of a new thread, but the scariest part in House was when we were watching the scene when the ghoul hand was trying to crawl out of the toilet and my friend's little sister (must have been 4 at the time) came in and let rip an unexpected, blood-curtling scream. heheh.

I don't mind humans being in the movie. But here's the thing: they spent a good 30 or 40 minutes setting up their stories only to kill nearly all of them off. It's like they wanted us to give a crap about them, but it was just boring (and let's face it, the acting sucked!). I know it's a hard balance to strike, putting in human characters worth our time only to have them die (which, of course, we want). And yeah, it was satisfying to have the jerks die. That's the point. But beyond that I didn't give two sh*ts about the people and didn't need any unnecessary backstory if they aren't even gonna try.

That said, there were some high points to the movie, particularly the action that you could actually see. Nearly every critic pointed out the horrible lighting in the movie, as that is just a bad film making move. We WANT to see the action. That's why I drove 30 minutes to go see this film! I LIKE seeing this kind of thing! So at least give me that. Anyway, I really liked the first movie, even if it's watered down. It had a better plot and the action was visible, even if it wasn't hardcore.

Moonbase2 wrote:I don't mind humans being in the movie. But here's the thing: they spent a good 30 or 40 minutes setting up their stories only to kill nearly all of them off. It's like they wanted us to give a crap about them, but it was just boring (and let's face it, the acting sucked!). I know it's a hard balance to strike, putting in human characters worth our time only to have them die (which, of course, we want). And yeah, it was satisfying to have the jerks die. That's the point. But beyond that I didn't give two sh*ts about the people and didn't need any unnecessary backstory if they aren't even gonna try.

That said, there were some high points to the movie, particularly the action that you could actually see. Nearly every critic pointed out the horrible lighting in the movie, as that is just a bad film making move. We WANT to see the action. That's why I drove 30 minutes to go see this film! I LIKE seeing this kind of thing! So at least give me that. Anyway, I really liked the first movie, even if it's watered down. It had a better plot and the action was visible, even if it wasn't hardcore.

The acting was pretty horrible. The main kid, I think Ricky was his name? He had like a Derek Zoolander "sexy face" on the whole time. Why didn't he like wearing hats? Every time he took it off, he over acted. Napoleon Dynamite would take his hat off that way ... not some average Joe. "gosh, this is stupid ... not wearing it. GOSH!"

I guess they built the characters just enough for us to hope that guy got some ass? And to hope the blond douche eventually suffered a long and painful death. The brother had to look tough, and so did the military chick.

Yeah, I get what you're saying about the action. It's gotta be tough to move around in those suits, though. Also, the darkness hides he fact that there are humans covered in foam suits. Take that into consideration. They will never do battle in daylight.

In an unrelated topic, I didn't like the fight scenes in Batman Begins. First, the IMAX theater I saw it in ... I thought I was just too close to the screen. Thought maybe that ruined it for me, but then I saw it on DVD ... same thing.

Back to AvP. I seriously think those aliens use their tonguey things WAYYY too much. As agile as they seem to be, it doesn't seem practical to get close and punch people with their inches of DOOM!

The boy in the beginning. I guess that was unecessary to a degree, but if it were 2 hunting buddies (adults) getting killed. That's been done a million times. Having the boy out there upped the stakes, big time.

Now if the boy had Downs Syndrome or something... that would've gone TOO far.

The babies. I honestly thought the Predalien left them alone, but I guess I was wrong. Maybe they should have shown it breaking a window or something ...

If they showed the room later in the movie with dead babies, I surely missed that.

Moonbase2 wrote:I am Couchtomato on that thread.

i had my suspicions that that was someone on this forum

AlienQuiksilver wrote:They will never do battle in daylight.

One did in Predator, which was 20 years before this one. Looked real enough. At least they didn't go so far as to make the Predator from CGI. The costumes looked real enough for me. I never once thought of them as humans in outfits... in this or any Predator movie.

AlienQuiksilver wrote:The babies. I honestly thought the Predalien left them alone, but I guess I was wrong. Maybe they should have shown it breaking a window or something ...

If they showed the room later in the movie with dead babies, I surely missed that.

There was no showing, just implying. But the hospital was pretty vacant after that aside from Aliens and the Predator. I honestly thought the Pred was going to come in at the last second and protect them (what with honour), but they went all the way with that scene.

Me, Grimlock! wrote:

AlienQuiksilver wrote:They will never do battle in daylight.

One did in Predator, which was 20 years before this one.

True, but if you go back and watch ... they didn't show him fight during the day. He walked around and stuff, but the final battle was at night time. During the daylight hours he was either invisible, or so fast that we couldn't see him.

Which worked as a first installment to Predator, but now that they aren't a mystery ... can't get away doing another movie like that. People want to see what's not a mystery anymore.

The preds do look great in costume. The only time they ever look fake is when we see their feet while they're walking. The toes rarely hit the ground, and seem to do nothing to support their body weight.

With that said, the alien costumes REALLY look fake when not covered in goo. That's more of what I was getting at. I remember watching behind the scenes stuff, and they showed the aliens moving in regular camera lighting, with no goo. It was beyond horrible.

AlienQuiksilver wrote:

Me, Grimlock! wrote:One did in Predator, which was 20 years before this one.

True, but if you go back and watch ... they didn't show him fight during the day.

I *would* have to go back and watch. It's been a while, and now it all just blends together. Fights during the day or night, moves too fast, invisible. I just remember there were day scenes, cool moves, and believable effects.

Me, Grimlock! wrote:

AlienQuiksilver wrote:

Me, Grimlock! wrote:One did in Predator, which was 20 years before this one.

True, but if you go back and watch ... they didn't show him fight during the day.

I *would* have to go back and watch. It's been a while, and now it all just blends together. Fights during the day or night, moves too fast, invisible. I just remember there were day scenes, cool moves, and believable effects.

Yep, I really like the part when he's healing himself with the med kit during the daylight.

Imagine how tough it is for the guy in the pred suit to manipulate things with those big pred hands on. They do look clumsy, but still move rather quickly and efficiently. Not only the first aid scenes from the 1st 2 pred movies, but when the pred in AvPR was investigating from his home planet. Watching his hand was interesting. It looked awkward, but he got the job done ... and quickly.

Another thing I wish they'd done differently: I like seeing Pred using his little gadgets, but it was all done in such close up that it was hard to see what was going on. I don't know if they were just cutting some corners, but considering that Pred is most people's favorite guy, he should've been beyond glorified in the film.

Oh well, at least the stoners got it.

Heres a few things that made me disappointed in the movie.

No loud Predator roar. When he was using his med-kit, that would have been the perfect time to do it and freak some people out, but we never got it.

No "It's game-over man! Game over!" line. I was expecting the stoners to say it, but they were rubbed off before they could.

But the darkness didn't bother me, I could see the action well enough, and the shaky-cam wasn't nearly as bad as 28 Weeks Later.

Yeah, more Pred gadgets would have been awesome, but we did get to see most of the gadgets the predator used in the movies and comics. Except the net-gun was absent in this movie.

But, we got to see what a full fledged Predator does against Aliens, he beat some ass, instead of died like pussies in the first movie.

Senor Hugo wrote:Except the net-gun was absent in this movie.

I noticed that, too, which was weird cuz I could have sworn it was in the preview. Was I wrong or was it cut?