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From ZERO to 6 ♥s. 100% ad-free. Run on pure love for movies, documentaries and TV-series. June 2025: Countdown to: Top 10: Best horror comedy movies - Upcoming review: There's Still Tomorrow (2023)
Best Cinematography: Gyula Pados (lost to Wally Phister for Inception) Best Practical Effects (lost to Inception)
Adrien Brody looks intense and very dirty in front of a predator on the poster for Nimród Antal's Predators
A group of some of the toughest hides of this world are parachuted down to the jungle of another planet without knowing why. They soon realize that they are there to be the prey in a hunt.
I have to applaud this reboot/sequel to the first two Predators movies (1987 and 1990), which renews the sci-fi-action universe, effectively taking it 'back' after two messy mashup flicks, Aliens vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007).
Predators works due to a suitably meaningful script, effective, digital cinematography (by Gyula Pados (Million Dollar Arm (2014))) and excellent effects, as perfected by producer and special effects supervisor Robert Rodriguez, along with a cool cast united as the tough team: Adrien Brody (Splice (2009)) is not Arnold Schwarzenegger, (the overshadowing, formidable star of the original movie), but he is something else which works here, and the radical change in lead is surely for the best. Laurence Fishburne (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2008-11)) is good in a supporting role as a survivor hermit. And, importantly, the predators look awesome, and we get to really look at them, which is also important.
Predators is written by Alex Litvak (The Three Musketeers (2011)) and Michael Finch (Hitman: Agent 57 (2015)), based on the characters created by Jim and John Thompson (Mission to Mars (2000)), and directed by Nimród Antal (Vacancy (2007)).
[Predators was released July 7 and runs 107 minutes. It is based on a script that Rodriguez had written for Fox in 1994, who at the time were not interested. Filming took place in Hawaii (Kolekole mostly) and in Rodriguez's Austin, Texas studio in 53 days, starting in September 2009. The film opened #3, behind fellow new release Despicable Me and holdover hit The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, to a 24.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it dropped out of the top 5 (to #8) in its second week and grossed 52 mil. $ (40.8 % of the total gross). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 9.8 mil. $ (7.7 %) and the UK with 9.1 mil. $ (7.2 %). A sequel titled The Predator, which is to reinvent the Predator universe, is in the making now with Shane Black as writer-director for a February 2018 release. Predators is fresh at 64 % with a 5.8 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
The titular movie monsters of Paul W.S. Anderson's Alien vs. Predator come together on the poster with the film's seemingly accidentally honest tagline, - which makes it clear that audiences are in for a loss
Alien vs. Predator is an uninteresting spin-off, based on a 1989 comic book, which merges the two great alien-centered franchises, Alien and Predator.
Far below the Antarctica lies a pyramid, which some scientist types somehow awaken to life, and an intergalactic war between two extraterrestrial monster species takes form.
Whatever Lance Henriksen (Dark Awakening (2014)) is doing in this movie, I don't know; he played the robot Bishop in Aliens (1986) beautifully, - here he's another character in the plot set some 150 years before that movie takes place, who then supposedly later becomes the model for the future robot... Building suspense, or creating engaging, full characters and/or scenes have either not been a priority for the three-person script team behind Alien vs. Predator, or they have just totally failed in their attempts. The responsible are Dan O'Bannon (Alien (1979)), Ronald Shusett (Total Recall (1990)), who both supplied story elements, and writer/director Paul W. S. Anderson (Resident Evil (2002)). Why the first two writers have felt obligated or enticed to do this to their fine, initial work in the Alien franchise is beyond me. Anderson, on the other hand, is a juggernaut of pointless action shlock such as this and seems permanently out of reach. Alien vs. Predator is big and noisy, and that's about all you will remember from it just a few hours after having seen it. Take my advice: Try and avoid it.
Watch a short 'chest-burster' scene from the film here
Cost: 60 mil. $ Box office: 172.5 mil. $ = Box office success (returned 2.87 times its cost) [Alien vs. Predator premiered 12 August (Puerto Rico and Thailand) and runs 101 minutes. The two central Alien master filmmakers, Ridley Scott (Alien) and James Cameron (Aliens (1986)) were both opposed to the film, however Cameron has later stated that he "liked it a lot." The story was set about 150 years before the first Alien (1979) and after Predator (1987), designed not to clash with anything already established in the franchises. Shooting took place in Italy, France and in Prague, the Czech Republic from October 2003 - ?. No less than 10 production companies were involved in the production. The film opened #1 to a 38.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another week in the top 5 (#4) and grossed a handsome 80.2 mil. $ (46.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 16.1 mil. $ (9.3 %) and the UK with 9.3 mil. $ (5.4 %). An even worse sequel, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007) was made. The Predator franchise was rebooted with Predators (2010), and the Alien franchise had its next real chapter in Prometheus (2012). Anderson returned with Drift (2006, TV movie) and theatrically with Death Race (2008). Sanaa Lathan (Repentance (2013)) returned in The Golden Blaze (2005, video) and theatrically in Something New (2006); Raoul Bova (Ever Been to the Moon?/Sei Mai Stata Sulla Luna? (2015)) in Giovani Talenti Italiani (2004, video), Karol: A Man Who Became Pope/Karol, un Uomo Diventato Papa (2005, TV movie) and theatrically in I'll Do It Tonight/Stasera lo Faccio (2005); Henriksen in Keep Right (2004, short) and theatrically in Modigliani (2004). Alien vs. Predator is rotten at 21 % with a 4.06/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.] What do you think of Alien vs. Predator?
