Alien vs Predator Film Revisited Thread
Anyone who has been keeping up in the Off-Topic Thread may have seen a small discussion about going back and re-watching the first Alien vs Predator film, since it's probably been about a decade or so since any of us have really seen it (Having come out in 2004, 12 years ago), and yet we still hold discussions involving details we couldn't possibly remember as precisely as our minds think, and our opinions on a film strictly based on a younger version of ourselves' lasting first impressions. So, as a sort of reunion with the film we thought it wise to go back and see it again, for better or for worse.
Was it a great film that us as young people loved merely for the novelty and nostalgia and now going back we see the true lackluster nature of the entire quality? Or did we watch it wanting so much and holding such high expectations that could never have been met that left our youth disappointed when now we can look back with our grown maturity and realize that it was in fact what Alien vs Predator deserved and the film it needed to truly boost it out of a cult fandom to a mainstream franchise (That Requiem may or may not have killed) and was truly a fantastic film that did the Shared Universe justice? "It's time to pick a side."
With that being said I would like to open this Discussion thread to anyone who has gone back and given the film another look from the very different point of view of who you are now as opposed to whom you were 12 years ago. What are your thoughts on the film? How does your experience compare to what you remember it being ages ago? How much did you remember or lack thereof? And also, in hopes that you could not only hold your memory at the forefront for comparison, how did it hold up as a film all it's own as if you had seen it at your age now? I hereby open discussion on the film Alien vs Predator.
"Whoever Wins... We Lose..."
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I would like to begin with my experience:
I had the pleasure of re-watching Alien 1, Aliens, Predator 1, Alien vs Predator, and AvP-Requiem, as my girlfriend gave me the opportunity to show her some of the movies that I greatly enjoy that she has never seen, and me being the massive fan of the Xenomorph/Yautja Universe I thought it only right to start with possibly my favourite fictional franchise, (Plus I may or may not haven spoken of it ad nauseam...) plus she enjoys the horror genre. At first she was not a fan, she does not enjoy Science Fiction in general and did not see the horror in Alien 1 and Predator 1, an honestly didn't like them. Some days later she asked what Aliens was about so I gave her a quick rundown preview and her interest was sparked, we watched it and she loved it, found it "fantastic" and even saw the horror in it, and loved the Ripley character, so she immediately told me to put in AvP, and she was into it and said it was a little weird but found it "F*cking Awesome". I'm satisfied now lol.
Re-watching Alien vs Predator I came to find it to truly be a great film. Great actors that everyone didn't really recognize and associate with another film, all new faces that gave a great performance, save for Lance Henriksen but for the story it made sense to recognize him. A great feel to it, mixing a slight sense of horror with suspense, enough action for the excitement without overdone, and an original Setting that made sense and gave them what they needed to work with. There was plenty of Novelty and Throwbacks to the old films. Despite the killing and cussing I enjoyed it at a young age and knew many kids younger than I was who loved it, grant it I was a messed up child anyway.... but I digress. The Violence and Language didn't make it particularly adult so children could enjoy it but at the same time it was a film for a mature audience given the horror, gore, language, and it being based on films from the late 70's - 80's. People of all ages could watch and enjoy a film geared towards adults with violence and horror, and that's a tough feat to pull off.
I'm not sure why the film wasn't more commercially successful honestly, sure crossover films are always assumed to be awful but Godzilla/King Kong is a famous film and people love Alien and Predator, they mesh well, fans of the universe have been waiting for it, it's primarily a Horror/Action film that came out in the month of Halloween, it was fun, intense, awesome, I just don't see the issue. Was it a major breakthrough film? No, but honestly I don't think that's possible with Alien and Predator because they are borderline Cult films and because neither speak it's hard to get a personality and relativity from them, so the only people you can care about are the Humans, except maybe see the Predator dying as like the dog you love dying, but in AvP seeing Celtic and Chopper die was more of a "Aw Come On!" moment but Scar literally made my girlfriend gasp and holler out "No! No no no..." so her reaction helped me see a first time viewing reaction.
The film was set up greatly, gave us characters and backstories to know them without wasting too much time and embellishing too much and trying too hard like AvP-R did. You cared about the characters without it being too much screen time. Everything was explained well and it told a great, believable, and easy to understand story, and it had everything, Action, Horror, Music, Novelty, Badass, and even just enough comic relief.
I want to dive into the nitty Details later but I want to cut this First post short for now, but all in all, after re-watching Alien vs Predator I must say it surprised me, it was a great movie. It may not have hit quite like the classics but being what it was, it was perfect for itself. My only issue was Celtic dying too quick, they should have spread out the Predator deaths more, but I understand that is Favourite Character Bias and they did it to truly showcase that the Xenomorphs were not to be trifled with and were a true threat before being mowed down via Plasma Caster.
Now I open up to you all for further discussion and to get to the details in debate. The Floor is open. Have at it: