After a decade of waiting no movie could live up to the expectation

Rating: 8/10 (14 August 2004)

I think this movie is getting a bad rap from a lot of the "fans" of the respective franchises. People recall the Alien and Predator movies with deserved nostalgia. I myself grew up seeing these menacing creatures carve their way across the silver screen.
A lot of you are criticizing the wooden acting, poor dialogue and contrived plot devices in this movie. But, let's be honest. You are seeing the previous movies through rose-colored glasses.
First off, the acting in the Aliens and Predator movies has never been very good, Sigourney Weaver and Danny Glover included. Second, the dialogue was also highly suspect. C'mon, who goes to see these kinds of movies under the delusion that they are going to get something more than an action film???
I notice a fair amount of people nitpicking this movie to death. They complain about how little they care about the human characters and feel no real sense of loss when they die. If you paid attention to this film you would realize that the humans are nothing more than cattle and, as such, are given the appropriate level of treatment. They exist merely as the bridge that transports us from our mundane world into a larger realm where monsters are not relegated to nightmares but walk in full flesh and blood menace among us. We are not supposed to care about the human characters. They merely give us the eyes to see into this other world where we are just frightened and insignificant visitors.
Others have made comments about the over use of flares and how the humans were not suitably attired for the frigid climate. These are two of the largest gripes I've seen on this forum. If these things bothered you that much then clearly you went into this movie with your expectations set ridiculously high. So high that no movie of this genre could ever satisfy them. In a movie like this these are insignificant details. True, the director should have caught them and made the appropriate changes but he didn't.
And I think that is the real problem here. After waiting so long for such a movie to be made, which none of us thought was ever going to happen, the dream cannot live up to the reality. You are merging two successful franchises into one movie and that is a lot to do. Kudos to the director and producers of this film, for having the guts to try and make something that we have clamored for years.
I think this movie is getting a bad rap from a lot of the "fans" of the respective franchises. People recall the Alien and Predator movies with deserved nostalgia. I myself grew up seeing these menacing creatures carve their way across the silver screen.
A lot of you are criticizing the wooden acting, poor dialogue and contrived plot devices in this movie. But, let's be honest. You are seeing the previous movies through rose-colored glasses.
First off, the acting in the Aliens and Predator movies has never been very good, Sigourney Weaver and Danny Glover included. Second, the dialogue was also highly suspect. C'mon, who goes to see these kinds of movies under the delusion that they are going to get something more than an action film???
I notice a fair amount of people nitpicking this movie to death. They complain about how little they care about the human characters and feel no real sense of loss when they die. If you paid attention to this film you would realize that the humans are nothing more than cattle and, as such, are given the appropriate level of treatment. They exist merely as the bridge that transports us from our mundane world into a larger realm where monsters are not relegated to nightmares but walk in full flesh and blood menace among us. We are not supposed to care about the human characters. They merely give us the eyes to see into this other world where we are just frightened and insignificant visitors.
Others have made comments about the over use of flares and how the humans were not suitably attired for the frigid climate. These are two of the largest gripes I've seen on this forum. If these things bothered you that much then clearly you went into this movie with your expectations set ridiculously high. So high that no movie of this genre could ever satisfy them. In a movie like this these are insignificant details. True, the director should have caught them and made the appropriate changes but he didn't.
And I think that is the real problem here. After waiting so long for such a movie to be made, which none of us thought was ever going to happen, the dream cannot live up to the reality. You are merging two successful franchises into one movie and that is a lot to do. Kudos to the director and producers of this film, for having the guts to try and make something that we have clamored for years.
I find the complaints of the chest bursters coming out much sooner in this film than in the other Alien movies to be interesting, if not short sighted. I, for one, can see why the director chose this. It would make for a very boring movie if you just had the Predators wandering around the pyramid for a few days awaiting the Aliens to pop out.
For what it was, this movie was well done. The interaction between the lone Predator and the female actor was believable. They didn't get sappy or touchy. The Predator knew that he was going to need help and when there was no one else around he turned to a human woman that managed to kill an Alien by herself.
The director caught, perfectly, the nuances and intricacies of these two alien races. To the Predators, he gave a depth not seen in the previous Predator movies. The Aliens, also became endowed with a certain level of intellect that I've never recalled them having before.
I hope they do a sequel and that, next time around, we get to see more of the Predators and Aliens fighting it out and less of the humans.