How do you rank the Predator films now?

[Devil_666]

all of the Star Wars films (and EU) are repeatedly self-referencing. and consists of many different writers.
what's the difference?

The biggest difference IMO would be the strict guideline involved when it comes to writing ANYTHING within the Star Wars universe. If it doesn't fit within the existing universe and isn't approved your story gets the boot. You can't go crazy and do whatever you want with Star Wars unless it's an offshoot or elseworld type of deal.

Predator and even Alien doesn't have that. You can do whatever you want with those franchises. For instance, when Dan O'Bannon originally wrote Alien he didn't have an Alien Queen. The original concept was Aliens turned hosts INTO eggs. So each egg on that derelict ship represented a host. No Queen.

Well Cameron changed that. And no one cared. Try doing something radical like that within the Star Wars universe and see how fast your idea gets the veto.

Self referencing is one thing, copying whole elements is another. I still dislike how Predators returns to a jungle with a bunch of soldiers being pursued by a Pred. Yeah they changed certain things: It's an Alien jungle (which looks EXACTLY like any Earth Jungle) and they're not an actual team like in the first movie (riiiiiight) and there's 3 Preds not 1 (again.. meh). Just in general there's too many similarities.

They could've done so many different things and took the franchise into a new direction and instead they played it safe and just tried to mimic the first movie in the hopes it would please the original fans.

 

[ShazBo]

Unfortunately I have to say you're wrong Dev.

Rip-Off = Someone stealing an existing idea and passing it as their own original idea.
Example:
Avatar ripped-off Dances with Wolves' story.
Dennis Leary ripped Bill Hicks' stand-up routine.

Rehash = Somone who reworks, reuses or makes over old or already used materials.
Example:
The Madden 08 is just a rehash of Madden 07.
Predators over use of homages made me feel like I was watching a rehash of the original.

 

[Devil_666]

Madden 08 is just a rehash of Madden 07.

Good example. Who made Madden 07 and 08? Same publisher/developer, right? EA Sports/EA Tiburon. So those people just re-used their own stuff over again.

Who made Predator and Predators though? Same people? Nope. Jim Thomas & John Thomas wrote Predator and Predator 2. Michael Finch & Alex Litvak wrote Predators.

It's semantics. Doesn't matter what words you use, in the end the writers for Predators copied A LOT of elements from Predator. If you wanna call it a rehash or a rip off, it's all the same.

My original point was you can't "steal" ideas from yourself. Because people were saying Predator 2 was a rip off of Predator even though BOTH movies were written by the same people.

 

[CelticPredator]

Fox made Predators. They hired everyone, and approved the script.

 

[Devil_666]

Fox made Predators. They hired everyone, and approved the script.

 

[azurepred]

Heres Dan from Predatorstuff's review for anyone interested. As most of you know, I agree with almost everything he points out. I just dont understand how ppl put this movie above Predator 2, but oh well.

https://www.predatorstuff.com/2010/07/12/predatorstuff-reviews-the-new-predators-movie/#more-1098

 

[ShazBo]

Good example. Who made Madden 07 and 08? Same publisher/developer, right? EA Sports/EA Tiburon. So those people just re-used their own stuff over again.

Who made Predator and Predators though? Same people? Nope. Jim Thomas & John Thomas wrote Predator and Predator 2. Michael Finch & Alex Litvak wrote Predators.

It's semantics. Doesn't matter what words you use, in the end the writers for Predators copied A LOT of elements from Predator. If you wanna call it a rehash or a rip off, it's all the same.

My original point was you can't "steal" ideas from yourself. Because people were saying Predator 2 was a rip off of Predator even though BOTH movies were written by the same people.

Predator is a franchise, much like EA Madden. The Development team doesn't always use the same people every year. Producers move on to different companies, projects and etc. If the features is the same as the year before you can't say Madden ripped-off Madden. It's called rehash because it's a reused idea for the same franchise.

I didn't create the English language. If you have a problem with that then here's a phone...

Call up Webster's and complain about the English language.

J/K

 

[ShazBo]

Heres Dan from Predatorstuff's review for anyone interested. As most of you know, I agree with almost everything he points out. I just dont understand how ppl put this movie above Predator 2, but oh well.

https://www.predatorstuff.com/2010/07/12/predatorstuff-reviews-the-new-predators-movie/#more-1098

I've always liked Dan's (Faken's) insights but I disagreed with his review. He said the AVP movies were better than Predators and he also said all he wanted to see was Predators with kick ass weaponry killing stuff for the entire movie... are you kidding me? That would make a great video game but a movie needs story not fanfare (and I personally thought the was enough of that with the homages). I understand when you're a Predator fan you are more invested to the creatures than you are with the human characters but that doesn't make for a very good movie unfortunately.

 

[azurepred]

I've always liked Dan's (Faken's) insights but I disagreed with his review. He said the AVP movies were better than Predators and he also said all he wanted to see was Predators with kick ass weaponry killing stuff for the entire movie... are you kidding me? That would make a great video game but a movie needs story not fanfare. I understand when you're a Predator fan you are more invested to the creatures than you are with the human characters but that doesn't make for a very good movie unfortunately.

yea, I wouldnt say the AVP movies were better, but I think he was dead on when talking about the planet and about the Predators specifically. There were other small things that he pointed out that I didnt realize at first, but my rankings stand; this movie could have been a whole lot better. I know, to the casual fan, we are picky, but thats cause nothing we feel holds a candle to the original pieces, and we just wanna see bad ass Preds with bad ass Tech.

The small scene that we saw in AVPR that showed their homeworld was more intriguing than the planet we got in this film for the whole movie.

 

[Devil_666]

Heres Dan from Predatorstuff's review for anyone interested. As most of you know, I agree with almost everything he points out. I just dont understand how ppl put this movie above Predator 2, but oh well.

https://www.predatorstuff.com/2010/07/12/predatorstuff-reviews-the-new-predators-movie/#more-1098

Good review. And Dan is a HUGE Predator fan too.

 

[Devil_666]

I didn't create the English language. If you have a problem with that then here's a phone...

Call up Webster's and complain about the English language.

I got an answering machine when I called.

 

[ShazBo]

yea, I wouldnt say the AVP movies were better, but I think he was dead on when talking about the planet and about the Predators specifically. There were other small things that he pointed out that I didnt realize at first, but my rankings stand; this movie could have been a whole lot better. I know, to the casual fan, we are picky, but thats cause nothing we feel holds a candle to the original pieces, and we just wanna see bad ass Preds with bad ass Tech.

The small scene that we saw in AVPR that showed their homeworld was more intriguing than the planet we got in this film for the whole movie.

Well as a Predator fan I liked it. The problem I had with it was that it was trying to play it safe. They stuck with the formula that worked. I loved the Metaphor of killers stuck in Hell. It show us no matter how hard you try to run away from your past it just going to catch up to you again... welcome to Hell.

The actors that I thought were terrible choices were suprisingly good. But the actor who I thought was going to be the showstealer ended up being the biggest disappointment. It felt more like a cameo role. As for the planet, it's one out of many planets it's not such a big deal.

The movie was fine, what would you of rather had? That other script where the Predators were planning a massive invasion force to take over earth and we send a small group of marines to stop them? That would of been terrible. That would of pissed all over the Predator's mythos just to appeal to braindead morons who want to see ____ blow up.

 

[CelticPredator]

Good review. And Dan is a HUGE Predator fan too.

But more of the creature....so he probably expected more creature stuff.


Reading the script, I was more excited with the characters.

 

[Chargersfan57]

I have not seen this movie yet and I've only read bits and pieces so as to not spoil too much, but this really is beginning to bug me...

Reviews seem to be you love it or you hate it with no in between and I've also read a little of Dan's review and the question that is plaguing me is:

WHY IS IT SO HARD TO CREATE A GOOD PREDATOR MOVIE?!!!

I realize I may go into the theater and may actually like it, but how come a movie can't be created that is really liked by the vast majority?

We've had different people/studios create the films and apparently none of them have been able to really, and I mean REALLY succeed.

Every predator movie I have ever seen has pretty much had to "grow on me" just for me to like it. Some to less degrees though:

P1: Good action flick, pred was awesome, and the scenes towards the end were awesome. Bad dialog ran rampant throughout, however there is some appeal to that: One character says: "I don't have time to bleed". Bad yes, but maybe creates character...

P2: Honestly, I wasn't thrilled with the whole urban environment at first and the gang storyline was kinda lame. The movie only got good once everyone was inside the meat factory and it stayed good until the end. I have the movie tivo'd and it has "grown on me" since.

AVP: I saw this in the movie theater, and once again, walked away thinking it was just...alright. There was some good scenes: Like towards the beginning when they were exploring the abandoned village and the penguin surprised us which created some suspense. Also the fight scene between the celtic pred and the grid alien was awesome but that was about it. I also liked the very end with the chest burster popping out onto the ship, but tha point is it took me repeat viewings to actually like the movie.

AVPR: Again, some decent scenes but I unfortunately really don't care for this one. I wish they had casted more adults for the cast then dumb teenagers.

Obviously a predator movie will never win movie of the year, but why can't they create a movie that blows us out of our seats the first time instead of having to "grow on us" after repeat viewings?

One that has the action, thrilling suspense, and just enough depth to invest us into what is going on...

Have just enough depth to the human characters as well, just so we can care about who they are, but not too much to overshadow why they are there: To die.

Here they have an awesome character to work with, yet the film industry seems to shoot for mediocrity every time!

Sorry long post.

 

[CelticPredator]

Why? Because when trying to make a Predator movie, people keep using Predator as a blueprint. They should just do their own thing. That's the problem.

 

[TrackerPredator]

1. Predator
2. Predator 2
3. Predators

I don't include the AVP films.....

 

[Vaako]

saw it yesterday and it was a long time ago i enjoyed that much a movie in theatres especially after those crappy remakes like freddy and the a-team

off course many things remind you of the original predator movie but i can live with that

anyway here is my ranking: 1) predator

2) predators

3) predator 2

4) avp requiem ( for the design of the wolf predator )

5) avp

 

[CelticPredator]

The A-Team was ____ing amazing.

 

[hardstyle lover]

Yes there is. And the only shot I can safely say is an outright copy, was the Hanzo pre fight scene.

That's it. A ton of rehasing, and homages...but no outright copy.

I really loved that scene! in the first movie you don't see the fight.

 

[hardstyle lover]

The A-Team was ____ing amazing.

True true!!