Running Commentary: Concerning a Alien vesus a Predator*SPOILERS*

by: bamf 9 months, 2 days, 1 hour, 28 minutes ago 2

Bamf here rematerializing from the void..

I enjoyed AvP: Requiem in the theater if only because it’s my kind of monster movie.  Later I felt I only was really enjoying the idea of the title, and not the movie in its self.  The story is barely a flash in the plan, and quickly digresses to a zombie survival film as soon as the core characters end up in a gun store (with apologies to the Romero fans out there).  If money was no object, this idea could really be done properly—but I don’t think the masses would go to see it.  For example, consider Chronicles of Riddick; a decent looking film that really goes on a limb with its Sci-fi sensibilities but ultimately becomes underappreciated no matter how bad ass Diesel is.*

You see kids, when you watch the past Alien and Predator films you will find that when they are their most fear inducing is when you do not see them at all.  Both species stalk their prey.  Ask any hunter if they get their game by walking around in the woods with a fistful of balloons while whistling Dixie.  I would guess not.  In their solo films neither species are seen much at all, and the tensest moments come when you see the blip on a motion sensor in Aliens, and a roaming triangle on a monitor in Predator 2.  Part of the mystique comes from the fact that since no vocalization can be made from an AorP, it’s only their actions that give us character.  So when the Predator is flanking the Black Government Agency troops to drop into the middle of their circle formation, the only thought that should come to mind is “well they’re f****d”.  This is why I think this idea of AvP fails.

For the two monsters to go head to head, you have to see them do it.  That doesn’t fair well for either contestant.  It would be way too expensive to do a well lighted, clearly staged battle just for the properties of the Alien creature design (though Sandy Collora cheaply pulled it off).  Consider also the fact that the first time we ever saw a complete Alien in full motion was underwater in Alien Resurrection--that was the fourth film mind you.  The cheaper route is go practical with the monsters and frame it tight, but that does nothing for the narrative of an actual battle especially in AvP: R and it gets more like Greengrass’s Bourne Ultimatum. Even the scarce battles is AvP seem better now than the ones of the second. 
Aliens and Predators are not nesacarrily high minded Science Fiction, just really kick ass cool concepts.  At the heart of the AvP idea is the fight—the title match that pits a parasite against a hunter.  It’s not a war of political or religious ideology; it’s the perfect survivor versus the ultimate killer. Bringing them together looks good on paper, yet in the path they have chosen for the franchise it just won’t work.  I wish they would have started it all off planet, or gone way far out in the future.

The end of AvP: R really paints them in a corner.  I will complain about this same matter later in my review of Atonement, but in AvP: R they balked at the ultra violence route they set in motion from the beginning.  The government clearly did not want any survivors, or witnesses to the genocide of the mountain town they dropped the bomb on.  If the script stayed true to the beginning, the soldiers at the end would have executed the helicopter escapees.  As the last line indicates in the movie, it sounds like if another one happens, we are in fact going off world.  If this is the case, the survivors of Requiem have nothing to offer an off world tale.  Aside from the lady Marine**, they just happened to be better with military equipment than an actual trained soldier. Either there will be no mention of them in the next piece, or they get killed off screen.  And even after that there is some major damage control to be done.  Tell me how an interstellar species forgets that firing a highly effective weapon on their own ship might very well make for a short trip?  Why would the Predator clean up a mess in some sort of “Prime Directive” guise, but then skin a cop for everyone to find?  And as a writer, if you know that the town is going to get bombed in the end, why put that element in anyways unless you just have a short imagination for a new Pred weapon/device?  The series needs focus, as it’s going nowhere right now with the only driving force being fights between an Alien and a Predator, and they aren’t even doing that well enough to be interesting.

*I thought the overuse of Necro-blank is what really pushed people away. Twohy could have done better with a different choice in names.
**For about half a second I thought we were going to witness the birth of Space Marines, not so.

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