It’s also a shame that the Predalien was relegated to sequel bait rather than being used for a unique final battle. There are other issues as well, such as the controversial decision to depict the Predators as somewhat sympathetic figures, with even their reptilian designs being toned down in order to help audiences to bond with the lead hunter when he ends up partnering with Sanaa Lathan’s final girl, Alexa Woods. ![]() At one point, there was a rumor that the studio had forced Anderson to cut the film down to PG-13, but the director and screenwriter have since revealed that the theatrical cut was always the movie that they had intended to make. It’s strange that a studio would decide to greenlight a project about creatures known for brutally skinning their victims alive and forcefully impregnating them with flesh-eating parasites only to refrain from showing these things in the finished picture. Of course, the most common complaint about the film was about how tame it felt when compared to previous entries in both franchises. Curiously, Arnold Schwarzenegger offered to show up for a brief cameo in the picture if he failed to be elected as the Governor of California, though we all know how that turned out. Back in 2004, the film was actually considered the worst entry in either franchise (which I think was wrong even then), with reviewers lamenting its cartoonish script and general lack of tension.Įven the holy trinity of James Cameron, Ridley Scott and Sigourney Weaver were famously opposed to the movie, thinking that the crossover sounded like an awful attempt to milk both franchises to death. When the first trailer dropped, audiences were genuinely stoked to finally see these intergalactic titans face each other in a proper cinematic showdown combining the best elements of each franchise.ĪVP raked in a solid $177 million on a $70 million budget, but the flick’s dismal 21% score on Rotten Tomatoes tells you everything you need to know about its critical response. And like the tagline says: “whoever wins… we lose!”. Unfortunately, their expedition unwittingly leads them right into the middle of a centuries-long battle between the titular Aliens and Predators. Lovecraft and Erich von Däniken, following a group of explorers funded by Charles Bishop Weyland (played by the legendary Lance Henriksen) as they venture into a long-forgotten pyramid buried under Antarctic ice. Like several other Alien-affiliated spin-offs, the plot borrowed elements from H.P. This led the director to abandon Resident Evil: Apocalypse in order to focus on what he thought was the bigger project, recruiting Shane Salerno to cowrite the script. Anderson showed up with a pitch powered by concept art by famed creature designer Patrick Tatopoulos that 20 th Century Fox finally decided to greenlight production. During this time, AVP passed through the hands of several accomplished writers and filmmakers like Peter Briggs and Roland Emmerich. Unfortunately, despite the crossover franchise finding massive success in the world of comics and videogames, a proposed film would become trapped in development hell for over a decade, with Fox unsure of what direction to take the story. ![]() This simple easter egg sparked years of rumors that we’d finally see a version of this epic confrontation on the big screen. While AVP comics have been published since the late 80s, a cinematic adaptation was originally teased back in 1990, when a Xenomorph skull showed up at the end of the underrated Predator 2. That’s why it’s not surprising that it took so long for this crossover to hit theaters. Of course, the deeper you dig, the more you’ll realize that these franchises are fundamentally different in ways that really make you appreciate how writers had to creatively bend and twist decades of lore in order to combine the cosmic horror of Xenomorphs with the ritualistic bloodshed of the Yautja. After all, both intellectual properties are conveniently owned by the same parent company and occupy equally iconic spaces in popular culture (they’re also simultaneously aliens and predators, adding to the similarities). Anderson’s ambitious crossover, Alien vs Predator.Īt first glance, Alien vs Predator sounds like an incredibly obvious idea. In this edition of The Silver Lining, we’ll be discussing Paul W.S.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |