The Predator: I could go for an ass burger

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > The Predator: I could go for an ass burger

Tart Kitty: Dec 17, 2016; Oh, well, that's all water under the bridge, as I always say. Water under the bridge!

CelticPredator posted:

the PC game that came out in the late 90's, early 2000's was pretty popular and was AvP in the Aliens universe. AvP2 came out a few years later and I believe it was even bigger than that.

WS for some reason wanted to do a prequel thing with Weyland and did that. Maybe it was cheaper I dunno.

Budget was definitely a factor. I remember reading somewhere that one of the great �successes� of AVP was it was relatively inexpensive (in comparison to other genre franchise pictures), partially due to the fact that since it took place in a big dark pyramid many set pieces could be reused to make new locations.

# ? Sep 18, 2018 23:22

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# ? Apr 24, 2024 20:01

CelticPredator: Oct 11, 2013; 🍀👽🆚🪖🏋

My issue is, the pyramid sets look fairly good, so what was stopping those sets from being a spaceship? I don't see how it changes the budget. They shot the film in the Czech Republic to get more out of their budget, which was I believe around 60 million. There's enough effects, both practical and CGI to go around.

I think straight up, WS read Chariots of the Gods(he cited this directly as an inspiration) and just thought i'd be cooler with Predators. Which, you know, fair enough. Everything is, in theory, cooler with Predators.

# ? Sep 19, 2018 00:06

Happy Noodle Boy: Jul 3, 2002

Citizen Kane but Predators.

# ? Sep 19, 2018 00:36

CelticPredator: Oct 11, 2013; 🍀👽🆚🪖🏋

Predator disc slides out of his hand

�poo poo happens.�

# ? Sep 19, 2018 00:39

Groovelord Neato: Dec 6, 2014

was cheaper and they rushed it into production because freddy vs jason just made mad money.

# ? Sep 19, 2018 00:50

DC Murderverse: Nov 10, 2016; "Tell that to Zod's snapped neck!"

this movie felt like someone took the Shane Black from the 1980s and put him in a time machine and had him write a script and then that movie was poorly edited

like it would make way more sense if The Good Guys, a much better, more understanding movie not filled with hilariously offensive depictions of mental illness that came out 2 years ago, didn't exist and it was just a guy who never stopped writing 80s action movies

i mean seriously the Tourettes jokes were sub-South Park level and "Aspergers as the next evolution of humanity" is so out of touch

# ? Sep 19, 2018 01:59

CelticPredator: Oct 11, 2013; 🍀👽🆚🪖🏋

Shane has tourrettes.

# ? Sep 19, 2018 02:01

DC Murderverse: Nov 10, 2016; "Tell that to Zod's snapped neck!"

CelticPredator posted:

Shane has tourrettes.

if someone who did not know that (like say, me until 40 seconds ago) watched this movie it would still be really hacky, and the fact that it basically disappears in the second half of the movie makes it worse IMO

# ? Sep 19, 2018 02:04

Shrimp or Shrimps: Feb 14, 2012

lol @ "Action films don't need standout characters, such as Predator 1", and yet, Predator 1 characters are immensely memorable, quotable, and distinct from each other.

# ? Sep 19, 2018 02:13

Happy Noodle Boy: Jul 3, 2002

Predator 1 is genuinely a perfect film from just about every metric. It has no fat or waste. From the start to the very end every scene serves a purpose. It�s well shot and the story is great.

The helicopter ride that introduces everyone does so much with so little. Even the deaths feel earned and well used. And the music. Holy poo poo the music owns. gently caress, I need to see it again.

# ? Sep 19, 2018 02:21

Fish Noise: Jul 25, 2012; IT'S ME, BURROWS!

IT WAS ME ALL ALONG, BURROWS!

Happy Noodle Boy posted:

Citizen Kane but Predators.

Zardoz but Predators.
Giant stone Predator head flying around spewing mininukes and plasma casters and so on to the hunters who worship it.
THE GUN IS GOOD THE PENIS IS EVIL but it's all clicks and roars and some fancypants immortal hedonist Eternal Predator telling the hunters to go forth and kill the other species of the galaxy.
Barely even need to change up the hunter outfits. Maybe add a bit more red, but that's it.

# ? Sep 19, 2018 07:21

Wandle Cax: Dec 15, 2006

DC Murderverse posted:

with hilariously offensive depictions of mental illness

Soooo you did find the movie funny or what?

# ? Sep 19, 2018 07:24

Tenzarin: Jul 24, 2007; .; Taco Defender

CelticPredator posted:

the PC game that came out in the late 90's, early 2000's was pretty popular and was AvP in the Aliens universe. AvP2 came out a few years later and I believe it was even bigger than that.

WS for some reason wanted to do a prequel thing with Weyland and did that. Maybe it was cheaper I dunno.

I want to say both games were really good. AVP(1999) was decent. It was a semi interesting story and gameplay but the fun was in the bot swarm AI multiplayer matches. The second game AVP 2(2001) and its expansion pack AVP 2 Primal Hunt were great games with really good stories. I want to paraphrase the stories but I don't want to make it sounds worse than it is. So here are some huge paragraphs from wiki.

AVP 2(2001)

quote:

Plot
Unlike the preceding game, in which the storylines of the three player characters are independent and do not affect one another, the three story lines in Aliens versus Predator 2 intersect each other. The events of each storyline trigger events in the others.

Marine
In January 2231, on board the USS Verloc, the ship is carrying a small contingent of the U.S.C.M (United States Colonial Marines) to planet LV-1201. The Primary Operations Complex (POC), one of the main Weyland-Yutani facilities on the LV-1201, is missing contact with the rest of the pods for the last 6 weeks, and the Marines are to rescue survivors and secure the facility until the larger USCM 6th Battalion arrives.

Two dropships are deployed to the Primary Operations Complex (POC), but they are separated by hurricane winds and one is damaged, and they are forced to take a passage route to one of the abandoned landing beacons far away from the POC. It falls to Harrison to restore power and activate the landing beacon. When he tries to restore the local security grid, he awakens the Xenomorphs that had lain dormant following their conquest of the POC. Most of the Marines are able to evacuate, but Sgt. Hall is captured by the Aliens. Harrison tracks her to a part of the POC which has been converted to a Hive, but he finds that Hall has been impregnated with a Chestburster. She dies as Harrison finds her, and Harrison shoots her in the chest to prevent the Chestburster from coming out.

The Marines then attempt to reach the Pods via the tunnel network connecting them to the POC. Harrison is sent ahead to deactivate tunnel security so the Marines' APCs can proceed through. In the process, he accidentally cuts the security to the Pods themselves, which causes another breakout in which some of the Iron Bears are killed, but the team manages to go through the tunnels and arrive at the Pods.

When the Marines reach the Pods, both Eisenberg and Rykov inform them of the security breach while claiming that three archaeological teams have been stranded within a nearby Hive. Major McCain volunteers to rescue the teams in the POC, but the "rescue mission" is actually part of an elaborate plot by both Rykov and Eisenberg to kill the Marines themselves. After some convincing, McCain also manages to convince Rykov to allow Harrison inside the Pod to download the communication system data for the Verloc so they would be allowed to establish a communication link with the POC and the Verloc, which would allow the Marines to collect intel about the POC and to be informed about the station's condition.

As Harrison tries to establish a communication link with the POC and the Verloc, he receives an anonymous message that the archaeological teams are already dead and that his former Marines are led to their deaths, but the message is cut out before he could hear the rest. Major Dunya arrives to the scene, informing him that they need him in another facility, but then knocks him out and throws him in a prison cell within the Pods, used to hold convict laborers. Soon, Major McCain is told that Harrison was killed in a confrontation with an escaped convict. Harrison escapes, and, during his flight, he kills an escaped Predalien while unknowingly releases a captive Predator (who is none other than the main Predator character). Later, Harrison is contacted by a mysterious person. This person instructs him to pick up a data disk hidden in one of the labs in exchange for help returning to his team. He reluctantly complies.

As Harrison reaches the Pod's lowest levels, he sees the Predator he'd freed escape rather dramatically, slaughtering the rest of the crew on the Pod to escape. Harrison picks up new gear and kills Rykov's right-hand man Ivan and two Iron Bears before taking out another mercenary in an Exosuit, a bipedal armored combat suit. He finally escapes the Pods and heads for the POC.

As Harrison returns to the POC to find White Team, who had been stationed behind, he learns that the mysterious person who contacted him is Tomiko, an assemblyman's daughter, as the voice scrambler became defective, who signed up for an internship on LV-1201 to find out what had happened to her brother, who she suspects was murdered on the Pod 5. The data disk contains records of all the illegal activities taking place on the planet, which Tomiko wants to present to her father in an attempt to hold Weyland-Yutani accountable for their crimes.

Harrison finds several members of White Team, but they are all killed by Xenomorphs and Predators before Harrison can activate the landing beacon for an incoming dropship. Harrison manages to kill a Predator himself before reaching the dropship. Tomiko transmits the coordinates of an old entry site to the Hive, and Harrison, now in his own Exosuit, proceeds after his fellow Marines whom Rykov has stranded. Along the way, he must clear an infestation from some ancient extraterrestrial technology. His Exosuit is damaged during a fall, and he must proceed the rest of the way on foot. He locates his team in a massive chamber where the fossilized remains of an Engineer reside. A Xenomorph Queen attacks the squad, but Harrison is able to repel the Queen so that he and the rest of the Marines can escape via dropship. The Queen tries to stop them, but the dropship bombards her with missiles, killing her.

As the dropship puts distance between itself and the Hive, Tomiko overloads the fusion reactors in the Pods, destroying them and killing herself to save the marines. When the Marines return to the Verloc, Major McCain recommends abandoning any further rescue or salvage attempts on LV-1201, as they depart back to Earth.

Predator
In November 2211, a lone Predator arrived on the planet Korari, and discovers an early Weyland-Yutani research camp placed there. He stalked the Marines stationed there, killing many of them and skinning them alive. The last Marine, Cpl. Vassili Rykov, tried to escape the camp, but the Predator shoots him with a plasma burst in the back, causing him to fall several stories below and to heavily damage his spine, paralyzing both his legs. However, Rykov survived his injuries, crawled back to the base pack, and was evacuated by the medical team and returned to Earth for medical treatment.

In December 2230, 19 years after the events, and about 6 days after the incident in the POC, the lone Predator, ranked an Elite, arrives on LV-1201 with two clan members for a 'hunt', but their ship is noticed by Rykov himself, who is now a mercenary general and private defense contractor of the Iron Bears, with his hatred for the Predators. After a quick human slaughter and a meeting with some of his other clan mates, who provide him with new weaponry, the Predator discovers his two clan mates have been captured by the Iron Bears. Pursuing the mercenaries into the Forward Observation Pods, the Predator eventually succumbs to experimental electro-magnetic pulse grenades which render his equipment useless and result in his capture.

Rykov places the Predator in a lab where it remains in stasis for over six weeks. It is revealed that this Predator is responsible for Rykov's injuries and his burning desire for revenge. Saved from being impregnated with a Xenomorph and inadvertently released by Corporal Harrison, the Predator, despite being infected with several human diseases, powers through a horde of humans, reclaims his equipment and sets off in pursuit of General Rykov.

After a dramatic escape aboard a dropship, the Predator fights through the Alien infested caves and tunnels beneath the pods and eventually manages to signal his clan using human technology to broadcast the signal to them. The Predator clan promptly arrive and re-arm the Predator, who then sets off to finish Rykov, as he realizes that he is the man who escaped from him over 19 years ago.

Following Rykov, now encased in an Exosuit, deep into the Xenomorph Hive, the Predator fights his way into the heart of the Hive for a climatic battle with General Rykov. Overcoming his enemy, the Predator rips through Rykov's body, and claims his spine as his trophy after 19 years of chase, and meeting with other clan mates, departing from LV-1201.

Alien
In February 2221, 10 years before the original Pod 5 Incident, the Forward Observation Pods were attacked by a horde of Xenomorphs due to a power failure, killing many of the Colonial Marines and scientists aboard. Only one, Dr. Eisenberg, managed to survive by hiding in one of the locked storage pods, going so far as to eat one of his scientists to survive the event, and was then rescued by the search team, although near dead and badly burned by the corrosive Alien acid blood. The Pods and the POC were re-established years later.

In November 2230, a day before the incident at the POC, Dr. Eisenberg is discussing some of the facility's problems with a Weyland-Yutani auditor. Those problems include the loss of Pod 5 weeks earlier, missing artifacts, and unauthorized research conducted by Eisenberg, while the oversight committee is getting worried about the illegal activities and the loss of the facility staff on Pod 5, as the company is worried about being able to cover-up the research on the LV-1201 any longer. Eisenberg will have none of it, and continues research.

Meanwhile, Major Dunya delivers a large container to Captain Richter, operator of the cargo vessel Aurora. He has apparently been smuggling artifacts stolen by the Iron Bears, but this crate is larger than normal. He attempts to scan it, but the container is shielded against scanning. Richter is called away to a meeting with Rykov by a security guard, Lloyd, shortly before liftoff. The crate is knocked over and opened when the ship is bumped during the refueling process, revealing the Egg within. The Egg opens and the player-controlled Facehugger emerges. The Facehugger leaves the ship through a series of umbilical ductworks and begins to track an irritable guard, Cisco, through the POC. When Cisco retires to his quarters for a nap, the Facehugger springs on him and infects him.

In due time, a player-controlled Chestburster hatches, killing Cisco, while the Facehugger hides under Cisco's desk and soon after dies hidden. It flees through an open window and proceeds through the POC until it finds nourishment�cats apparently kept for research purposes by the corporation. After feeding on the cats, the chestburster grows into a full Alien drone. When the guards find him, he goes berserk and murders them.

The Warrior fights its way through the POC, releasing other Xenomorphs being kept as test subjects along the way. It reaches the lower levels, finally encountering a Predator that had been stalking it, probably believing it would make a suitable challenge. It fatally wounds the Predator, which activates its Self-Destruct Device, thus blasting a hole into the POC's drainage system and allowing the Warrior to escape. Incidentally, the hole also allows thousands of Xenomorphs into the POC, thus causing the incident to which the Colonial Marines respond.

Six weeks later, the Warrior infiltrates the Pods during a brief security failure caused by Corporal Harrison. As the Xenomorphs attack the Pods, they kill Dimitri, Dunya's fianc�e and a senior Iron Bear soldier. The Warrior takes the opportunity to wreak havoc, killing dozens of guards and scientists, releasing a Predalien, and finally liberating an entire artificial Hive within the Pod. Along the way, it kills the scientists who are about to impregnate another Predator (the Main character Predator) with a Chestburster.

Eisenberg has taken advantage of the Marines' arrival to initiate the Large Mass Specimen Extraction, a project to capture the Xenomorph Empress. As part of the plan, combat synthetics have wired explosive charges throughout the tunnels of the Hive. After leaving the Pods and armed with this information, the Warrior must disable these explosives as it tracks the Empress.

The Empress is successfully captured, but the Warrior pursues her captors, including Eisenberg himself. It tracks them through an archaeological site, killing numerous guards, civilians, and Iron Bears mercenaries, to a dropship landing pad. It kills two Predators and sabotages the pad's support machinery, causing the dropship to crash. Furious, Eisenberg attacks the Warrior directly. When the alien incapacitates him, the game ends.

A cutscene reveals that Eisenberg (in his current incarnation) is an android, and he has been cocooned within the Empress' chamber. His limbs have been removed and his screams echo through the Hive, as a Queen and the Warrior gloat.

In a final cutscene, the USS Verloc is seen departing LV-1201 with the surviving Colonial Marines and Harrison. As it heads into deep space, the Predators can be seen stalking the ship in their own sleek battleship, chasing their next 'hunt' after Earth.

AVP 2 Primal Hunt

quote:

Gameplay
The player is once again able to play as either a human, Predator, or Alien character, each with its own campaign and abilities. The plot lines of the three characters intersect and set up the events of the original game.

Plot
The events of Primal Hunt are set on LV-1201, the same setting as the main game, but take place in earlier time periods. The stories of the Alien and Predator characters begin five hundred years before the events of Aliens versus Predator 2 and continue in the year 2230, approximately six weeks before the events of the main game, which is also the time period of the human character's story. Primal Hunt revisits the Forward Observation Pods of the research facility and explains the destruction of Pod 5.

Marine/Mercenary
Major Dunya, a female member of the Weyland-Yutani private military contractor known as the "Iron Bears", is stationed on LV-1201. She is ordered by her superior officer, General Rykov, to retrieve an artifact from a location known as the "Zeta Site" which houses part of a Xenomorph hive as well as technology from an alien race (the race of the "space jockey" found by the Nostromo crew in Alien). The player battles xenomorphs through the Zeta Site, retrieves the artifact, and returns to find that Aliens have infiltrated Pod 5. A Predator steals the artifact and the player defends the cargo area from Aliens until the pod is evacuated. Rykov then destroys the pod's supports, sending it crashing into the valley floor below.

Predator
In the early 18th century (in Earth time), 500 years before the incident, a Predator spacecraft encounters the planet LV-1201 for the first time and the player Predator is sent there to hunt. The player battles numerous creatures before discovering that Xenomorphs also inhabit the planet. The player tracks the Aliens to their hive and activates an artifact which has the power to repel the Aliens. The game then shifts forward eight months, by which time the Predators have established a camp around the artifact. The player Predator descends into the hive in search of the Alien queen, but the artifact is deactivated and the camp is overrun by Aliens. While repairing a stasis field around a group of Alien eggs the Predator is attacked by a facehugger and the two are caught in the field and trapped in stasis for five hundred years.

The Predator awakens when Dunya deactivates the artifact, and the player tracks her to the research facility's Forward Observation Pods and breaks into Pod 5, inadvertently allowing the Aliens into the pod. The player retrieves the artifact and sends a signal to other Predators who are nine weeks away. The Predator is then killed by the Alien embryo bursting through his ribcage.

Predalien
The Predalien character's story also begins 500 years earlier. The player begins by controlling a facehugger, exploring the Alien hive and Predator camp in search of a host. The facehugger attacks the Predator, but both become trapped in the stasis field. The game then shifts forward five hundred years to the chestburster emerging from the Predator inside Pod 5. The creature is an Alien/Predator hybrid, called the "Predalien" in the game, and the player controls it and searches for food until it grows into an adult. The player then battles human guards in search of the artifact, but is interrupted when Rykov destroys the pod's supports. The player must then battle several android guards in armored exosuits in order to escape the pod with other Aliens before it falls into the valley below.

The interlinking stories really made it easy to get into the story. All the great tropes of company doing stupid stuff with aliens, colonial marines just trying to do their job, predators hunting things, and aliens wrecking the place.

Tenzarin fucked around with this message at 08:23 on Sep 19, 2018

# ? Sep 19, 2018 08:16

Snowglobe of Doom: Mar 30, 2012; sucks to be right

Wasn't one of the AVP games the big online team game for its era, way back before Team Fortress 2 and all that? A friend of a friend ended up marrying someone from overseas who he'd met via the game and they were apparently one of the highest rated AVP teams in the world in some specific faction or something.

# ? Sep 19, 2018 08:37

Tenzarin: Jul 24, 2007; .; Taco Defender

You could play both of those game on gamespy. You might be thinking about the 2010 video game of the same name.

# ? Sep 19, 2018 08:42

CelticPredator: Oct 11, 2013; 🍀👽🆚🪖🏋

No, AvP on the PC was pretty big at the time if I recall. I was pretty young while playing it, but it seemed like a pretty huge thing.

The 2010 game was kind of a dud. The best part was playing the Infected mode on the launch date. One Alien vs 10 marines. If the Alien killed you, you became one.

We just spent the whole game yelling Aliens quotes at each other as the aliens picked us off one by one. It was incredible. Game fell off hard after that. Not a bad game but not great. A billion times better than Colonial Marines .

# ? Sep 19, 2018 09:45

Name Change: Oct 9, 2005

Yeah the 2010 AVP was just mediocre, and the only real way to enjoy it was to log on multiplayer and play the very imbalanced three-way team deathmatches and such. It kinda feels OK to die a lot as a human in an AVP game.

# ? Sep 19, 2018 15:43

Tenzarin: Jul 24, 2007; .; Taco Defender

CelticPredator posted:

The 2010 game was kind of a dud. The best part was playing the Infected mode on the launch date. One Alien vs 10 marines. If the Alien killed you, you became one.

They had that mode in the 2001 game, you started as a facehugger. You attack a human you turn into a warrior, you attack a predator you turn into a predalien. The dlc made you turn into a queen if you got a high enough kill streak.

# ? Sep 19, 2018 16:40

Tart Kitty: Dec 17, 2016; Oh, well, that's all water under the bridge, as I always say. Water under the bridge!

The OG AVP game whips rear end just for the level that is a recreation of the Nostromo and lets you play out the events of the first film as an Alien with no Predators or Colonial Marines to contend with.

# ? Sep 19, 2018 17:45

DC Murderverse: Nov 10, 2016; "Tell that to Zod's snapped neck!"

Wandle Cax posted:

Soooo you did find the movie funny or what?

I mean there were funny bits but none of them had to do with the mentally ill characters.

Those things were funny in an embarrassing �I cannot believe a movie in the year 2018 inherently thinks that a man with Tourette�s who swears at inappropriate times is hilarious� way. Like when the President of the United States says in a video he posted to Twitter that this hurricane was �one of the wettest we�ve seen from the standpoint of water�. It�s funny because he�s a loving idiot who doesn�t know how to talk but what it represents (a president who does not give a poo poo) is sad.

# ? Sep 19, 2018 18:21

Seph: Jul 12, 2004; Please look at this photo every time you support or defend war crimes. Thank you.

Happy Noodle Boy posted:

Predator 1 is genuinely a perfect film from just about every metric. It has no fat or waste. From the start to the very end every scene serves a purpose. It’s well shot and the story is great.

The helicopter ride that introduces everyone does so much with so little. Even the deaths feel earned and well used. And the music. Holy poo poo the music owns. gently caress, I need to see it again.

After rewatching the movie for the zillionth time, my favorite scene legitimately is the intro. Theres so much there: the hype music, Arnold badassly puffing on a cigar, and of course the Dillon-Dutch handshake. It sets the tone of the whole movie perfectly while giving background between two main characters, all in less than five minutes.

Seph fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Sep 19, 2018

# ? Sep 19, 2018 20:28

Shrimp or Shrimps: Feb 14, 2012

Sodomy Hussein posted:

Yeah the 2010 AVP was just mediocre, and the only real way to enjoy it was to log on multiplayer and play the very imbalanced three-way team deathmatches and such. It kinda feels OK to die a lot as a human in an AVP game.

Something felt off about the movement in AvP 2010. Like scale was off or something, but it just wasn't a fun experience. The Predator's finishing moves were cool the first few times, but like the slow-mo in the Batman games, got pretty old pretty fast.

Seph posted:

After rewatching the movie for the zillionth time, my favorite scene legitimately is the intro. Theres so much there: the hype music, Arnold badassly puffing on a cigar, and of course the Dillon-Dutch handshake. It sets the tone of the whole movie perfectly while giving background between two main characters, all in less than five minutes.

There's also a lot done with the characters in the helicopter ride to the drop zone which I sort of feel The Predator (2018) tried to do with the intro on the bus.

But there's no moment like when Blaine spits on Dillon's boot. Dillon's betrayal / lying to them should come as no surprise after that.

# ? Sep 20, 2018 04:51

Schubalts: Nov 26, 2007; People say bigger is better.

But for the first time in my life, I think I've gone too far.

Fish Noise posted:

Matt still hoping for female Predators

They're pretty much the same as the males, with some of the females having boobs, going by the comics and books.

So you know they'd get completely redesigned if they ever got explicitly added to a movie.

# ? Sep 20, 2018 05:16

Xenomrph: Dec 9, 2005; AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill

Neo Rasa posted:

In the AvP EU stuff IIRC by the time even Predator 1 happens humans are illegal to hunt. I forget when the cutoff is but the Predators have like a "prime directive" sort of thing where after a species achieves x/y/z thing they're sentient by Predator standards and technically can't be hunted.

I remember reading that, but it's been largely handwaved as "some Predator tribes/groups think it's wrong to hunt humans and refuse to do it, others say 'lol gently caress that' and go buck-wild". It's similar to how in the AvP EU, you've got some Predator groups that think humans are the pinnacle of hunting difficulty and Xenomorphs are starter-prey for baby Predators, and other clans are like "you guys are crazy, Aliens are top-tier prey". And others still are more like, you cut your teeth on Aliens because they're the real deal and they weed out the lovely hunters and teach you the meaning of death, and you keep going back to Aliens because you want to walk the razor's edge until the Black Death claims you.

Fart City posted:

I’m kind of surprised that we haven’t gotten a Predator movie set during the Aliens era, with the Predator going up against Colonial Marines. Like not even have a xenomorph show up, just do that.

That poo poo's expensive and likely effects-heavy, it's the main reason 'AvP' was set on earth.

But I agree, having a Predator movie with Colonial Marines and no Aliens whatsoever would be fantastic.

Happy Noodle Boy posted:

Predator 1 is genuinely a perfect film from just about every metric. It has no fat or waste. From the start to the very end every scene serves a purpose. It’s well shot and the story is great.

I'd disagree on one point - ditch the Predator ship flyby at the start. That way the audience is seeing the mystery of what's hunting Arnold and his team unfold just as the characters are, rather than Billy saying "there's something out there...." and the audience is like, "yeah, it's a space alien, we knew that from 0:02 minutes into the film".

Fart City posted:

The OG AVP game whips rear end just for the level that is a recreation of the Nostromo and lets you play out the events of the first film as an Alien with no Predators or Colonial Marines to contend with.

Colonial Marines has a pretty solid recreation of the Nostromo (complete with a Jones the cat jump-scare easter egg), but Alien: Isolation went all-out with their movie-inspired DLC to make the most accurate virtual Nostromo simulation to date. The Nostromo's deck layout is a pretty well known quantity, and the developers went far enough as to put semiotic symbols in the right places. The only areas where they took creative license were small set details that are never shown on-camera. While it's not 100% movie accurate, it's really close.

Xenomrph fucked around with this message at 06:57 on Sep 20, 2018

# ? Sep 20, 2018 06:52

lizardman: Jun 30, 2007; by R. Guyovich

Dark_Tzitzimine posted:

Well, the Predator opened behind Predators

https://deadline.com/2018/09/the-predator-white-boy-rick-a-simple-favor-olivia-munn-box-office-1202464594/

I'm not sure why they expected any different. There's no hook to the movie. The Predator creature on its own has never proved to be a big draw, from the start the movies have needed another name on the marquee to see any success. The original movie was an Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle! And from there the series was about who the Predator was going up against THIS time, whether it be Murtagh from Lethal Weapon or the goddamn Alien. The marketing tried to make something of the "Predator Vs Predator" angle but you could tell there wasn't much there.

The studio should have just opened their checkbook and wrote as many zeroes as it would take to get The Rock or Arnold or ANYBODY notable or interesting to co-headline, or barring that have the Predator take on vikings or luchadors or the the Terminator or a troubled teenage girl with psychic powers or something. Because if you just give us the Predator and a bunch of random people the public is gonna just go "so it doesn't even have the Alien or anything?"

# ? Sep 20, 2018 07:07

Fish Noise: Jul 25, 2012; IT'S ME, BURROWS!

IT WAS ME ALL ALONG, BURROWS!

Xenomrph posted:

But I agree, having a Predator movie with Colonial Marines and no Aliens whatsoever would be fantastic.

"Yeah, but the one that you had was a male!"
"Doesn't matter when it's a Predator, baby!"

# ? Sep 20, 2018 07:25

lizardman: Jun 30, 2007; by R. Guyovich

Xenomrph posted:

I'd disagree on one point - ditch the Predator ship flyby at the start. That way the audience is seeing the mystery of what's hunting Arnold and his team unfold just as the characters are, rather than Billy saying "there's something out there...." and the audience is like, "yeah, it's a space alien, we knew that from 0:02 minutes into the film".

I'm probably outting myself here as somebody's quintessential example of a dumb mainstream moviegoer but seeing as that shot is the only thing that informs us the Predator is an alien from outer space then without that I can see myself being preoccupied wondering where in the hell this thing came from. Like, is there some secret society of crab-faced warriors in the South American jungle with advanced weaponry we've somehow never heard about? Is this some product of an unholy military genetic engineering project? I just don't imagine I'd find it mysterious and spooky but rather inexplicable and distractingly opaque.

# ? Sep 20, 2018 07:28

Xenomrph: Dec 9, 2005; AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill

lizardman posted:

I'm probably outting myself here as somebody's quintessential example of a dumb mainstream moviegoer but seeing as that shot is the only thing that informs us the Predator is an alien from outer space then without that I can see myself being preoccupied wondering where in the hell this thing came from. Like, is there some secret society of crab-faced warriors in the South American jungle with advanced weaponry we've somehow never heard about? Is this some product of an unholy military genetic engineering project? I just don't imagine I'd find it mysterious and spooky but rather inexplicable and distractingly opaque.

In that case, it probably would have worked better as originally scripted: Arnold wounds the Predator and it retreats back to its spaceship. He manages to use its own plasma weapon against it (in the original draft it�s a hand-held weapon) and blows its head off, but damages the Predator�s ship in the process and the whole thing explodes.

# ? Sep 20, 2018 07:46

Dark_Tzitzimine: Oct 9, 2012; by R. Guyovich

lizardman posted:

I'm not sure why they expected any different. There's no hook to the movie. The Predator creature on its own has never proved to be a big draw, from the start the movies have needed another name on the marquee to see any success. The original movie was an Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle! And from there the series was about who the Predator was going up against THIS time, whether it be Murtagh from Lethal Weapon or the goddamn Alien. The marketing tried to make something of the "Predator Vs Predator" angle but you could tell there wasn't much there.

The studio should have just opened their checkbook and wrote as many zeroes as it would take to get The Rock or Arnold or ANYBODY notable or interesting to co-headline, or barring that have the Predator take on vikings or luchadors or the the Terminator or a troubled teenage girl with psychic powers or something. Because if you just give us the Predator and a bunch of random people the public is gonna just go "so it doesn't even have the Alien or anything?"

I mean, a pretty common opinion on the internet is that the films need less human characters and more Predators doing cool poo poo. That's why the Wolf is one of the most liked Predators in the entire series, because he was actually allowed to do cool poo poo.

Hell, even in this thread you have people that thinks it was a huge waste to let the Fugitive Pred killed so soon just to prop uo the Assassin Pred.

# ? Sep 20, 2018 07:51

CelticPredator: Oct 11, 2013; 🍀👽🆚🪖🏋

I stand by that. He ruled. Assassin drooled

# ? Sep 20, 2018 08:48

SirDrone: Jul 23, 2013; I am so sick of these star wars

Snowglobe of Doom posted:

Wasn't one of the AVP games the big online team game for its era, way back before Team Fortress 2 and all that? A friend of a friend ended up marrying someone from overseas who he'd met via the game and they were apparently one of the highest rated AVP teams in the world in some specific faction or something.

AVP2 definitely had a bigger multiplayer, there was like four different classes iirc for the four teams that could only use certain weapons. Most servers I think had a extension to allow them to wield any weapon so it didn't really matter jackshit for any team other then Aliens

Aliens came in like your standard normal drone jack of all trades, the dog alien that had faster movement and naturally less hp, Alien EU fan favorite Praetorian that couldn't climb walls but was a wall of tanky hp and the Predalien that had super slow wallwalking but it's pounce attack was godamn like lightning.

It was considered super cheap for aliens to use the pounce attack *In which your xenomorph could loving aim onto the sky and literally fly halfway across the map at bolt lightning speeds" to kill players as it mostly either gibbed them or damaged them to half health. Naturally either drones or dog aliens would abuse this system to high hell.

# ? Sep 20, 2018 09:10

lizardman: Jun 30, 2007; by R. Guyovich

Dark_Tzitzimine posted:

I mean, a pretty common opinion on the internet is that the films need less human characters and more Predators doing cool poo poo. That's why the Wolf is one of the most liked Predators in the entire series, because he was actually allowed to do cool poo poo.

Hell, even in this thread you have people that thinks it was a huge waste to let the Fugitive Pred killed so soon just to prop uo the Assassin Pred.

I didn't mean to imply that the Predator is simply not a compelling concept in general and that you could never make a good (even popular) movie with more of a focus on the creature, sorry if I came off that way. It's just that,the studio's shown no interest in breaking the series out of its conventional monster movie formula, and sort of like how for a long while the draw for James Bond sequels was each movie's villain (because it was one of the only unique, differentiating aspects of each one), the easiest, most effective selling point for an installment in this movie series about a monster who lives to hunt/ fight is a notable, famous and/or unique opponent for this monster to handle.

CelticPredator posted:

My issue is, the pyramid sets look fairly good, so what was stopping those sets from being a spaceship? I don't see how it changes the budget. They shot the film in the Czech Republic to get more out of their budget, which was I believe around 60 million. There's enough effects, both practical and CGI to go around.

I think straight up, WS read Chariots of the Gods(he cited this directly as an inspiration) and just thought i'd be cooler with Predators. Which, you know, fair enough. Everything is, in theory, cooler with Predators.

They certainly could have made spaceship sets from the same budget, they would likely just look like dark, nondescript, vaguely pyramid-looking spaceship sets, and then you'd have the conspicuous absence of exterior shots, because that would require extra fx not in the budget.

# ? Sep 20, 2018 09:45

RedSnapper: Nov 22, 2016

The worst thing about the AVP movies is that they didn't outright copy the scenario from the 1992 (?) comic.

# ? Sep 20, 2018 13:06

Darko: Dec 23, 2004

AvP2 is almost exactly like the early novels/comics; they just changed the year of the invaded "colony."

# ? Sep 20, 2018 14:05

Xenomrph: Dec 9, 2005; AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill

RedSnapper posted:

The worst thing about the AVP movies is that they didn't outright copy the scenario from the 1992 (?) comic.

1989, Stan Winston put the Alien skull in �Predator 2� as a shout out to the comic, which was running while the movie was being made.

Peter Briggs wrote an AvP script that was largely based on the comic but added a bunch of Colonial Marines. I�d link to the script but I�m phone posting right now.

# ? Sep 20, 2018 15:58

General Dog: Apr 26, 2008; Everybody's working for the weekend

I initially thought the Sterling K. Brown death was cut so abruptly because they maybe had to edit it down for the MPAA, but having seen how much the third act was restructured, I'm starting to think it may have just been completely invented in post-production. Like his original death scene didn't fit into the new continuity and they couldn't get him back for reshoots so they just took an existing shot of him turning his head and added a quick blood effect and called it good.

# ? Sep 20, 2018 16:37

Amarcarts: Feb 21, 2007; This looks a lot like suffering.

Only two good parts of the movie were the severed arm thumbs up and the "WELCOME PARENTS AND STDS" sign

# ? Sep 20, 2018 18:06

WeedlordGoku69: Feb 12, 2015; by Cyrano4747

lizardman posted:

I didn't mean to imply that the Predator is simply not a compelling concept in general and that you could never make a good (even popular) movie with more of a focus on the creature, sorry if I came off that way. It's just that,the studio's shown no interest in breaking the series out of its conventional monster movie formula, and sort of like how for a long while the draw for James Bond sequels was each movie's villain (because it was one of the only unique, differentiating aspects of each one), the easiest, most effective selling point for an installment in this movie series about a monster who lives to hunt/ fight is a notable, famous and/or unique opponent for this monster to handle.

i mean, this honestly feels like common sense. to make sequels, you don't dick with the core aspect of the franchise, you take that core aspect and swap around all the stuff around that aspect.

like, the Predator himself is basically handled the same between the first two movies (though he gets some new gimmicks in 2), it's just that in the first it's in the jungle fighting Ahnuld and in 2 it's in cyberpunk LA fighting Murtaugh. and that worked fine.

# ? Sep 20, 2018 19:08

Xenomrph: Dec 9, 2005; AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill

Even the Predator comics get that right - almost all of them are set in the present day (or at least the �present day� of when it was written), with a few being historical period stories. But the Predator itself really never changes, it�s just the setting or the circumstances of what it�s hunting. Even with (most of) the crossover comics like Batman vs Predator, it�s usually �generic Predator #372 vs [superhero]�.
But it�s still fun because you see how the Predator adapts itself to tackle the situation or target, and how the protagonists react to the Predator and use their skill set to overcome it.

I�d just like to see a Predator make it out alive in one of the movies. It happens occasionally in the comics (more often in the AvP stuff, where the Predator often isn�t the direct antagonist), and there�s a couple recurring character Predators.

All this Predator chat makes me wish we�d get a truly open world Predator videogame. Concrete Jungle was super fun and gave you a lot of tools to make you feel like a stealthy badass that could turn into an absolute combat monster if your stealth got blown, it just wasn�t truly open-world and you couldn�t just run around and do random poo poo. But the Predator character was actually given a personality and a character arc, and even though he didn�t have any dialogue, the narration and cutscenes made it clear what was going on.

# ? Sep 20, 2018 19:40

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# ? Apr 24, 2024 20:01

Dark_Tzitzimine: Oct 9, 2012; by R. Guyovich

Gotta admit is frustrating how both Predators and The Predator focused on adding more stuff to the Predator lore because they wanted to leave their mark I guess? Instead of just giving the Preds new gimmicks or tricks.

# ? Sep 20, 2018 19:51

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > The Predator: I could go for an ass burger

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