The Alien vs. Predator franchise has spawned comics, books, video games, action figures and of course, two films. These films, released in 2004 and 2007 were not very good. The 2004 film directed by Paul W.S. Anderson was a lacklustre science fiction thriller and despite having one or two good ideas (I really liked the Antarctica setting and the first fight between the Alien and Predator was awesome) the film as a whole just did not click. The 2007 film, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem was a complete and utter disaster that has all but buried the AvP franchise since its release.
While Anderson’s film had a family rated PG-13 certificate, the Brothers Strause film was a hard R-rated gruesome horror show and was widely panned proving that upping the gore stakes was never going to be the proper solution to Anderson’s tame movie. So it seems like the two films went from one extreme to another but neither was able to find a balance between action and audience marketing. It did not help that Requiem was an extremely poor film with shockingly bad lighting that ruined even the slightest bit of fun as you can’t even see the creatures or what is happening half the time.
It seems that it was just not meant to be. But why not? Surely having two of the greatest science fiction villains in big screen history on screen together should be the perfect recipe for 90 minutes of fun nonsense at the very least? From the two attempts that have been made to adapt this franchise onto the big screen, they have failed to get the balance between action and suspense, horror and gore and most importantly having a solid and entertaining characters who we can invest in (and not a Ripley or Dutch knockoff) between the scenes of carnage. Despite there being no official word on a third entry into the Alien vs. Predator series (mainly because of the dire reception of Requiem and the rise of Prometheus), surely sometime in the near future we will see a third attempt at an AvP movie. Here are our opinions on how to make a good Alien vs. Predator film!
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3 Comments
I would like to see another AvP movie and I pretty much agree with all of your ideas to make the next one better. I too was surprised by the casting of Adrian Brody in the Predators movie, but by the end I was pleased with what he brought to the picture. While I agree that it was weird making the Predators friendly with the humans, I rather enjoyed it in the first AvP. The girl saw that the Predator was having trouble with the Xenomorph so she took a chance and helped him out which resulted if I’m not mistaken in her killing the alien and gaining his respect, so it wasn’t just some lame buddy-up but a relationship built upon respect.
I loved reading every single bit of this. I agree with all the 5 points, when i first heard they were gonna do an AVP movie I was like dam I hope the do something similar to the AVP 1 (1999) or AVP2 (2001) video game that had an amazing story and atmosphere. The first one was ok but a big disappointment when you know this franchise can be made into an amazing movie that rivals Avatar in entertainment.
I agree with all of these. They should follow this to a tee if, “if”, they make another AVP.
BTW, I must point out that the human/Predator team up was taken from the original AVP comic that involved a team up between the lead Predator (Broken Tusk) and the lead female (Machiko).