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What Makes The Alien and Predator Franchises So Intriguing?

PredAlienWarrior, Xenomorph, 10 years ago

Alright in my last post I read a comment that led me to creating this post, what makes the two franchises so intriguing?

Well for me it's simple...

ALIEN - So for the Alien movies (Which have always been my favorite) I was really sucked into it because of the creature design itself, as a kid (Got into the movies when I was 6, I'm 15 now) I thought it was the coolest thing and was marveled at its two mouths (Not to mention I always wanted one as a pet) and its speared tail, but the Head was always my favorite thing to look at (Also the whole life cycle [egg-facehugger-chestburster-drone-queen] really is an awesome feature). Then once I got deeper into the movies I saw the Queen, that was just it for me. Once I saw the queen I was hooked, the design of her was pure spectacular cinematic magic. Now aside from the creatures designs I must say that the ships and vehicles in the movie are the next best liking. Just the interior itself is enough to grasp you, the Closter phobic hallways from the first film and the interior of the colony, dropship, sulaco, armored vehicle, and atmosphere station was flawless (in my opinion) it really sells the futuristic setting, and its just plain cool to look at. Next is where all of this is set, space, its great for us because nobody knows everything about it which allows us to be able to make up any story we desire. Plus the dark creepy planets and the colonists fighting off an infestation of Aliens just sounds cool as hell.

PREDATOR- Predator is really basic for me, the weapons those guys carry are just a great bonus (Including mask and detonator and cloaking). The Heat vision is another great thing because it just adds to how different yet similar they are (similar because of the way they hunt and there weapons are pretty similar). But when it comes down to it I just love their tactics, taking trophies from skulls, hunting 'worthy' prey, stalking and picking off others one by one, being stealthy mother fuckers (that pop up behind you just to scare the fuck out of you in AVP 2010 online).

However, I think both franchises are so easy to jump into because you can honestly make up any story you want and be satisfied because both species are just so damn cool.

So those are my main points that *I* find make the two franchises most intriguing, what are yours?


PredAlienWarrior, Xenomorph, 10 years ago

^Also for the Predator I know a lot of people enjoy the whole ranking system (I personally hate it, but that's me)

-Bloo-, Xenomorph, 10 years ago

Because it was an entirely different animal from the other horror movies released alongside it. This was already discussed in the "gender" thread, but I want to bring it up again: Alien and Aliens didn't just bring the "male scare" factor up to 11, they grabbed the horror genre by the throat and gave birth to an entirely new idea that's still copied today.

If they didn't come up with the idea, then they codified them. Space marines, serious and realistic overtones, strong female characters, crap-sack futures rather than utopias... and a faceless corporate villain that was as worse, if not more so, than the titular creature itself because, while the Alien had an excuse for killing because it was the movie monster, Wey-Yu did NOT because it's a company made of humans.

You have to remember that the Xenomorph in the films themselves were never really evil. They were presented as the villains, but that's because you have to blame someone for what goes down. Why do we think they're evil? Because they kill humans. The Acheron Queen is notorious for being a bitch, but... why? Because she was defending her home? Even the Giger Drone - the alleged rapist and ultimate incarnation of a Xenomorph - just happened to be doing what its species knows best - being a weapon.

I'm not saying I sympathize with Xenos. They're weapons - they're monsters. The statement I'm trying to make is, are we so different?

The fact that the original trilogy slammed these questions in our faces subconsciously is the reason why they'll forever be some of the best pieces of work I'll ever see.

Now I've spent all this time talking about Xenos, and I'm too burned out to talk about why I like Predator so much.

Deathdrop, Xenomorph, 10 years ago

I've mentioned this elsewhere, but as a kid (we're talking 7-8 here) I was awestruck just by the idea of the Predators.

I wasn't allowed to actually watch the movies or read the comics, and this was a looooooong time before web 2.0, so the best you could hope for was a black background with a grainy picture of a pred and a few rotating skull GIFs. Besides the Capcom AVP arcade game and the Kenner action figures, fansites provided all the information I wanted.

They were just so. Damn. Cool.

This was a time when there were a million Star Trek TNG rip-offs on TV, so my view of sci-fi set in space was mostly that-Uniforms and saluting and calling some guy "Sir." That was why I refused to join the boy scouts, and it's why I liked the monsters better when it came to sci-fi.

The preds blew that paradigm out of the water. These guys didn't take shit off anyone. If they felt like traveling the universe, they hoped in their ship and traveled the goddamn universe. That notion-a whole universe full of weird alien planets just being open to you to explore at your leisure-was pretty cool.

They were free, they were cool, and if any fifth-grader threatened to beat them up in the bathroom, they'd rip his goddamn head off.

skull_ripper, Xenomorph, 10 years ago

I like aliens and predators because I was a creative child, and they were really cool. After I watched AVP I ran into my room and made an alien mask out of construction paper and ran around the yard hissing. Then I watched predator and made a predator mask with a removable bio helmet, I put blue plastic wrap over the eyes so it looked cool. I improved my alien masks and made a predalien mask as well, I've made tons of facehuggers and I even tried to make a life size xeno(The head got squished and I rage quit.) It was an outlet for me, and I love it.

The Preds: I have always loved Characters that fought. I love Klingons and Gimli was my favorite lotr character, it was natural that predators would end up alongside my favs. They have mandibles which I think are awesome, just like the elites from Halo. I am a naturally aggressive person and have violent urges(Which I have control of mind you) so beating the shit out of big stuff A.K.A.trees was really good for me.

The Aliens: I have always like crawly stuff, so fell head over heels when I saw them butchering stuff from all sorts of different angles and chestbursting. The queen was cool and I think chestbusters are adorable, so I think the xenomophs are somewhat cute but still scary as hell in actuality. Ghosts and the like are what scare me, the non-corporeal that you cant kill, I've never really been afraid of horror movies or lost any sleep over them when its a biological organism, which is why I like xenomorphs.

shockwave, Xenomorph, 10 years ago

wow..im seeing some great posts here

-Bloo-, Xenomorph, 10 years ago

Adding to my post above, I think what I really like about both of them is that they both defy our definitions of normal. Specifically regarding Predators this time, I found this quote describing why the aesthetics of a culture have nothing to do with how advanced they are, and it's spot on, even if the person probably doesn't even know what Predators are:

This is a thing that I’ve been dwelling on: the alternative development of aesthetics.

The short and sweet version is that we tend to associate certain patterns of clothing, decoration, and ritual with different kinds of behavior. It’s a worldwide thing, and mostly unconscious. Men around the world wear European suits when they’re doing business, unless they have a particular reason not to. Facial tattoos are for ‘primitive’ tribes and members of Western countercultures. Essentially the same furniture and building styles are seen throughout the wealthy parts of the world, and showing the different methods used by other cultures is meant to show how primitive they are.

This is all, of course, horseshit. Art, fashion, motifs—they’re all just the window-dressing of a culture, and say little about how advanced or worthwhile it is. The prevalence of European styles in architecture and clothing isn’t because they’re just better than the rest of the world’s styles, it’s because European culturally brutalized the rest of the world and other cultures had to change to blend in.

What if things had turned out differently? What if some culture had stood as another example of what could be? What if more and more advanced technology had been molded into those alternate aesthetics? What might the world have seen?


This general open-mindedness needs to be extended to all of their culture. I remember HP saying something about how that, if the Berserkers really WERE female, they'd look female, but regarding all of this... are you still so sure?

All of the Predators shown so far could have been female for all we know. That's the point - they're aliens.

And I know this is a discussion for another topic, but this is the reason why I love them so much. This is their appeal. They fuck with your minds. They're not normal. Your opinions on what should and shouldn't be don't count. They're not of this world.