Aliens vs Predator
Aug. 15th, 2004 01:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityvixenThose of you about to die, we salute you.
Right. Awesome is a good word. I'm still eagerly awaiting the R version release, which is sure to be on DVD after they release this version. I got to see it cheaply, which is even better, but, let's face it, I'd have paid full price and never regretted it.
It's really a lot harder to pick a side than you'd imagine. I mean, in practical reality, should AvP ever become reality that is, you'd be better off with the Predators--at least you can reason with them and they at least won't plant their babies in your chest. However, in terms of cuteness, you cannot go wrong with an alien. They move and hiss like kitties, and the one in this movie that was all marked from having been caught in the Predator's net? His name was 'Grid,' and he was the cutest thing ever. If I ever have cats, I'm naming them Griddy and Scarhead after the alien and lead Predator in the movie. It was cute, the little alien with scars, and the Predator that marked itself was pretty bad-ass.
What I enjoyed most was not the super-excellent style upgrades to the technology employed by the Predators. I enjoyed to the faithfulnes to the stories given both species. It wasn't corrupted in order to bring the two species into conflict (like the disastrous partnership of an alien and a Predator in that huge Darkness/Witchblade/Aliens/Predator crossover--which I liked anyway). I haven't read enough of the comics devoted to either side to know how well this is developed, but the movies stayed true to the original series from whence this one came and kept it simple: Predators kill for honor when it all boils down to it, and the aliens kill to survive. Predators killed a few humans here and there, but mostly because they had stolen the electrical weapons and had human weapons themselves. The code of the Predators is such that it is only honorable to kill creatures that can defend themselves. They did not attack the unarmed scientific experts on the voyage, and, in one direct conflict, the lead Predator did not kill the old man (BISHOP!!!! LANCE HENRIKSEN!!!!) because he could see that he was sick (Bishop then picked up a weapon, which changes the rules, and the Predator acted accordingly).
Aliens, on the other hand, were the animals they have always been, in the literal and not derogatory sense of the word. By comparing them to animals, I am not juding them, I am merely assessing their behavior. They are creatures concerned only with their survival, with the maintenance of their hive structure and the queen. Oh, yes, the Queen. Bloody marvelous, as always. Ever since her introduction, the Queen Alien has been one of cinema's baddest-ass motherfuckers that ever lived. Don't get me wrong, I acknowledge that Alien is a movie of genius, with its claustrophobic feel and the innovation (at the time) of a new type of horror. However, give Jim Cameron his due, he reinfused terror into the franchise with the creation of the Queen. Larger than her brood, more impressive, a lurking threat that refuses to lurk and is alarmingly forthright about coming after you, actually. She is marvelous. That's the best I can say. She's introduced as being captive, something in itself that is impressive for the amount of thought and ability that would have had to go into managing to keep something like that in chains. And the interaction between her and her brood is, dare I say it, cute. The aliens bob and weave around their manacled matriarch to free her, and it's a beautiful, touching thing.
The rest of the time, the aliens are doing what any animal does--keeping its home together. They take down some Predators because they are a clear threat. But the humans--that's where the aliens' true nature is demonstrated so well (again, humans make appropriate foils for demonstrating the superiority of the alien races). Every human that encounters an alien is useful and is therefore used. How admirable a restraint that this movie makes EVERY SINGLE HUMAN CAPTURED BY AN ALIEN into a host? There could just be gore, the humans could just be food for the aliens. Instead, they are, as if they had never had to wait for the Queen to breed them, continuing their society uninterrupted. Some of the 'improvements' done to the facehuggers--the Matrix-style swirl around them as they leap in slo-mo--I could have done without, but it gets points for the "Oh shit" comments they garnered.
Otherwise, congratulations to the survivors for figuring out that trusting the Predator against the aliens is a good idea. I liked the Predator marking the girl as a hunter for killing an alien, and I am jealous of her for getting an alien-head shield (to protect against acid spray). I want one!!! AND AWWWWW THE BABY PREDALIEN WAS SOOOOOO CUTE! Too bad it's going to grow up into--heh heh, I finally get to say this--one ugly motherfucker.
Right. Awesome is a good word. I'm still eagerly awaiting the R version release, which is sure to be on DVD after they release this version. I got to see it cheaply, which is even better, but, let's face it, I'd have paid full price and never regretted it.
It's really a lot harder to pick a side than you'd imagine. I mean, in practical reality, should AvP ever become reality that is, you'd be better off with the Predators--at least you can reason with them and they at least won't plant their babies in your chest. However, in terms of cuteness, you cannot go wrong with an alien. They move and hiss like kitties, and the one in this movie that was all marked from having been caught in the Predator's net? His name was 'Grid,' and he was the cutest thing ever. If I ever have cats, I'm naming them Griddy and Scarhead after the alien and lead Predator in the movie. It was cute, the little alien with scars, and the Predator that marked itself was pretty bad-ass.
What I enjoyed most was not the super-excellent style upgrades to the technology employed by the Predators. I enjoyed to the faithfulnes to the stories given both species. It wasn't corrupted in order to bring the two species into conflict (like the disastrous partnership of an alien and a Predator in that huge Darkness/Witchblade/Aliens/Predator crossover--which I liked anyway). I haven't read enough of the comics devoted to either side to know how well this is developed, but the movies stayed true to the original series from whence this one came and kept it simple: Predators kill for honor when it all boils down to it, and the aliens kill to survive. Predators killed a few humans here and there, but mostly because they had stolen the electrical weapons and had human weapons themselves. The code of the Predators is such that it is only honorable to kill creatures that can defend themselves. They did not attack the unarmed scientific experts on the voyage, and, in one direct conflict, the lead Predator did not kill the old man (BISHOP!!!! LANCE HENRIKSEN!!!!) because he could see that he was sick (Bishop then picked up a weapon, which changes the rules, and the Predator acted accordingly).
Aliens, on the other hand, were the animals they have always been, in the literal and not derogatory sense of the word. By comparing them to animals, I am not juding them, I am merely assessing their behavior. They are creatures concerned only with their survival, with the maintenance of their hive structure and the queen. Oh, yes, the Queen. Bloody marvelous, as always. Ever since her introduction, the Queen Alien has been one of cinema's baddest-ass motherfuckers that ever lived. Don't get me wrong, I acknowledge that Alien is a movie of genius, with its claustrophobic feel and the innovation (at the time) of a new type of horror. However, give Jim Cameron his due, he reinfused terror into the franchise with the creation of the Queen. Larger than her brood, more impressive, a lurking threat that refuses to lurk and is alarmingly forthright about coming after you, actually. She is marvelous. That's the best I can say. She's introduced as being captive, something in itself that is impressive for the amount of thought and ability that would have had to go into managing to keep something like that in chains. And the interaction between her and her brood is, dare I say it, cute. The aliens bob and weave around their manacled matriarch to free her, and it's a beautiful, touching thing.
The rest of the time, the aliens are doing what any animal does--keeping its home together. They take down some Predators because they are a clear threat. But the humans--that's where the aliens' true nature is demonstrated so well (again, humans make appropriate foils for demonstrating the superiority of the alien races). Every human that encounters an alien is useful and is therefore used. How admirable a restraint that this movie makes EVERY SINGLE HUMAN CAPTURED BY AN ALIEN into a host? There could just be gore, the humans could just be food for the aliens. Instead, they are, as if they had never had to wait for the Queen to breed them, continuing their society uninterrupted. Some of the 'improvements' done to the facehuggers--the Matrix-style swirl around them as they leap in slo-mo--I could have done without, but it gets points for the "Oh shit" comments they garnered.
Otherwise, congratulations to the survivors for figuring out that trusting the Predator against the aliens is a good idea. I liked the Predator marking the girl as a hunter for killing an alien, and I am jealous of her for getting an alien-head shield (to protect against acid spray). I want one!!! AND AWWWWW THE BABY PREDALIEN WAS SOOOOOO CUTE! Too bad it's going to grow up into--heh heh, I finally get to say this--one ugly motherfucker.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-08-16 12:39 pm (UTC)*blink*
This comment reveals that you are a far scarier person than I'd realized.
:)
no subject
Date: 2004-08-16 01:50 pm (UTC)Okay, actually I lied. I think the aliens are cute. They bounce! And they're just like kitties. I like kitties. The facehuggers I'm not so high on, and the Queen scares the crap out of me, but widdle awiens? awwwww