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So with Alien: Covenant out in 12 days and it receiving mostly positive reviews, I figured now was maybe a good time to check out a movie I had never seen. I didn't know too much except this was supposed to be really terrible with an even more terrible sequel. What the hell, I should give it a watch.

And you know what, I enjoyed AVP. Its not a good film by any stretch but it has its moments as dumb schlock. There are plenty of things I liked. The actual Aliens fighting Predators bits were dumb fun. I really liked the physical sets, practical effects when they used them, and some of the cinematography was solid.

The film has tons of little issues but the main one that jumped out and hugged my face was the editing. The editing of some of these action sequences is really obnoxious and fails to hide that the scenes were poorly directed/choreographed. Its at its worst during the part where the Predators kill the humans on the surface.

None of the Human characters were remotely memorable beyond main girl, italian hot guy, and camera dad.

The third act is super fucking stupid and ridiculous.

I really hope one day a more capable director and studio can comeback and make a better Alien vs Predator movie.

 

[Escape Goat]

I agree with what a lot of what you said. It was not a smart film by any means. It is not a good movie but I liked the main character.

 

[Hero_of_the_Day]

It's not very good. But, at least it's not Requiem.

 

[Gravidee]

I found the editing and unscariness to be disappointing. I think I was spoiled by how much better the movie novelization was.

 

[Hellwarden]

I disliked how it seemed like the Predators needed their tech to even stand a chance against the Xenomorphs.

Still, I would say it's a somewhat enjoyable bad movie.

 

[BlackJet]

It's not very good. But, at least it's not Requiem.

God that movie is so bad. The action is crap and the only horror in it is lazy body mutilation.

It's up there with every bad horror sequel that goes straight to DVD.

 

[itwasTuesday]

I like that the movie came about from one the best easter-eggs in movie history.

Didn't the predator suplex some fools. Pretty sure it did.

 

[OnPoint]

It's not very good. But, at least it's not Requiem.

I remember Requiem being a FUN ride, though not a GOOD movie.

I at least enjoyed watching it more than AVP.

 

[IlGialloMondadori]

Yeah, it can be taken as fun schlock, just like Anderson's other films like Resident Evil, but I have a hard time taking it that way just because of the legacy of Alien and Predator.

 

[Rymuth]

I had fun but I remember it not holding up upon a second viewing

 

[KeyBladerXIII]

AvP was actually my first exposure to either franchise. I enjoyed it since I was being exposed to the 'rules' of both creatures. Now that I've seen the originals, it'd probably wouldn't hold up nearly as well.

 

[highrider]

It had Sanaa Lathan so it is good by default.

 

[MMarston]

The one thing that always sticks out to me for this movie is how the Predator design looked weird and bulky like a mascot.

 

[Tagyhag]

I liked it in a b-movie sort of way. Though (and I'm sure most people will disagree) I really wish it was a much slower burn at the beginning. I feel like shit went down way too quick between the protagonists and the aliens.

Compare it to the first 2 Aliens and 2 Predator films. Sure. Shit went down in the beginning of them, especially Predator 2, but protagonist vs antagonist took a while to establish.

Yeah, it can be taken as fun schlock, just like Anderson's other films like Resident Evil, but I have a hard time taking it that way just because of the legacy of Alien and Predator.

Aaaand I get an ad for the new RE film. Advertisement is terrifying.

 

[Jaraghan]

If I remember correctly, the bathroom/pool/gym scene was filmed at the high school I went to. My buddy told me that and it got me to watch the movie. Wish I hadn't because I really didn't like it lol

 

[IdreamofHIME]

It's too short, plays fast and loose with the rules set up by previous movies and there just isn't enough of either of the titles species.

What it does have though are the best looking Aliens and Predators in the franchise. The designs, costumes and even the CG are all great.

 

[Evil John Locke]

It's too short, plays fast and loose with the rules set up by previous movies and there just isn't enough of either of the titles species.

This is a good summation of some of the biggest issues with the movie. That being said, I agree with others that it is enjoyable (if disappointing) for what it is. And of course Requiem is horrible, it's like everything bad about the first one, minus most of the good stuff and replace all that with new, even worse stuff.

 

[Jinroh]

At least requiem has real gore, a real predator and classic aliens. The first movie is just plain ridiculous in its execution in comparison.

Maybe I'm an exception but I really think requiem is a better movie.

 

[Ferr986]

At least requiem has real gore, a real predator and classic aliens. The first movie is just plain ridiculous in its execution in comparison.

Maybe I'm an exception but I really think requiem is a better movie.

Didn't Requiem had Aliens alien design?

I agree with almost everyone saying the first is bad but mindless fun, while Requiem doesn't even have the fun factor.

 

[Tk0n]

well, it gave us "Whoever wins... We lose". Which, i thought, was a pretty cool tagline.

thats about it.

 

[Auto-Reply]

It's not very good...the predator aliens look like bodybuilders overdosed on steroids, they barely move fluidly. But I have to confess that I've watched it more than once, part of it was the lead actress. I've never watched the other AvP movies and I plan on keeping it this way.

 

[Defect]

I remember Requiem being too fucking dark.

 

[SomedayTheFire]

it was bad, very bad. but a fun watch. all i remember from requiem was not being able to see a damn thing in the woods.

 

[wesleyshark]

Pure b-tier trash haha. That being said, it was worth seeing once.

 

[Bishop89]

I remember Requiem being too fucking dark.

i remember not seeing anything.

Like seriously who fucking handled the lighting

 

[Just_one]

Predator teaming up with a fuckin human at the end did it for me....

 

[Jinroh]

Didn't Requiem had Aliens alien design?

Yep it did. It's a slight retool of the original alien design, so I still consider it classic. After the second movie (or maybe third) they turned the aliens into organic monsters.

I remember Requiem being too fucking dark.

They messed up the DVD release. It was perfectly fine on bluray and in the theaters. The same happened to Evangelion 1.01 on dvd, it was way too dark. Corrected for the Bluray release.

 

[Adam Sadler]

well, it gave us "Whoever wins... We lose". Which, i thought, was a pretty cool tagline.

thats about it.

Yup, by far the greatest thing to come from this movie

 

[Yautja_Warrior]

It's a damn shame they couldn't make a good AvP movie, both have a few good ideas and a few decent action scenes but everything else around those moments was just so poorly done and kills any chance of them being really good.

I like the setting, story and characters of the first movie more, it's just a shame they made it PG to try and get the kids into cinema's, so the action is pretty tame, the Predator looked a little weird when unmasked too.

AvP 2 had better action and brought the R rating back, although maybe it went a bit too far, like the kids death and the Predalien killing pregnant women. The human's were all pretty unlikable though, so you never really care if they die or not and the films lighting was horrible, so you can't see what's going on. The Predator was the best thing in the movie, he was pretty bad ass, the double Plasma Caster headshot is pretty awesome.

Maybe one day they will reboot it and give us a decent AvP movie. They should take some inspiration from the games and comics, as they seem to work well enough, just make an Aliens style movie with Marines, Aliens and Predators all in the mix, it would probably make for a better movie than what we got and fans would be all over it, I know I would.

 

[shintoki]

AvP is definitely like they retooled another flick for this. Taking two hard R movies and turning it into a PG13, where they are fucking wrestling doesn't work.

I'd prefer Requiem for that reason alone. Also, I'm a massive Predator fan, Which was the true Main Protag of the film. Killing faceless humans and stopping an alien menace.

 

[Lupercal]

Predator teaming up with a fuckin human at the end did it for me....

Follows the logic of the comics, both are sentient beings and both realise to only way to win is to team up.

 

[Loona]

I liked it when the predator made a shield out of the xenomorph's head and a spear out of its tail to give to the leading lady (Lex, was it?) to give her a fighting chance, felt like a hunter quite familiar with the anatomy and useful features of its prey.

I still have no idea how he dealt with the acid blood though, or if the writers just forgot - it's easy to imagine that head shield making a mess of the woman's arm.

 

[adamsapple]

As a die hard Predator fan, watching 2 predator's get offed by a single Xeno was really annoying for me back in the day. Yeah the story justification is that these are young untrained Predators .. but still.

The last Predator did well. Although the Predators cooperating with the Humans was also bad for the pacing imo, even if it's true to the comics, it didn't translate well to the big screen. Requiem is a terrible terrible movie but at least the Predator in it was on-point.

 

[RangerX]

I thought it was complete dogshit.

 

[Übermatik]

It's a fun film with some awesome moments. Shit, though.

 

[TheJollyCorner]

AvP Requiem reminded me of something from the 80s: small town USA monster movie where practically everyone dies. I kinda liked it for that, but yeah, both AvP movies are pretty bad. Looking back AvP is much more forgettable to me. As always, Paul WS Anderson movies just remind me of junk food you consume due to complete laziness; not even good or fulfilling, just something to do.

 

[AbsolutBro]

The biggest crime the movie committed, to me, was borrowing so heavily from the Aliens vs. Predator: Prey storyline that making it into a movie now would be seen as copycatting. I don't get why they went this stupid Antarctica modern day route, when the first scripts floating around were the Prey storyline.

 

[Winterblink]

i remember not seeing anything.

Like seriously who fucking handled the lighting

Nobody did.

AvP was alright for a while, but it REALLY seemed to me that they fucked up big time on the mobility of the costumes. The predators looked like they could barely move, and everything resorted to WWE-inspired bullshit combat. I did think the predator ship passing overhead in the snowstorm bit was pretty rad.

AvPR seemed to be a LOT more of the movie that fans would be into. Total open conflict on earth, lots of interesting ways that humans get in the way (to their demise), etc. It might have gone too far with that though, and the c-grade actors really don't help things at all. I mean they filmed it in BC, Canada for crying out loud -- there's a shitload of actors/actresses in that area that work on science fiction TV for a living and do a damn fine job of it. I mean replace the main cast of AvPR with the mains from Dark Matter and voila, they'd probably be able to make something out of the script.

 

[boiled goose]

I hate the third act so much.

Would have been dumb boring fun if it weren't for the most stupid pairing in film history. It was done so stupidly too.

 

[BoogieWoogie]

Straight up the most disappointing movie of all time for me.

Should have been the easiest movie in the world to do right and they fucked it up twice.