Predator 3 / Predators (epic merge)

Necronomicon

I'm still kinda gathering my thoughts on it, might require a second viewing. I can't help but feel slightly underwhelmed (as much as I tried to cap my expectations to avoid this happening). It was a decent enough film, but it didn't pack that 'punch' I hoped to have felt upon leaving the cinema.

Some cons:
It had some nice homages to Predator, but at times I felt they were one too many; and coupled with an almost identical premise, it almost moved into 'remake' territory.

I completely agree with Blitzkrieg in that

the predators were 'neutured'. I think that's a problem with having multiple predators in one film (a characteristic of the first AvP film also).

Say what you want about AvP:R

, but one of its strengths amidst all of its glaring weaknesses was that the predator was not to be fùcked with.

Lawrence Fishburne was miscast IMO.

Two plot elements I felt were ineffective/pointless:

the 'blood feud' which, beyond a couple of crazy ramblings from Fishburne's character, wasn't really explored (I know it was to give Brodey a way onto the spaceship, but that turned out to be pretty inconsequential) and Grace's betrayal, which I thought was utterly pointless.

On the plus side though, the score was ****ing awesome, absolutely top work done and I'm going to be buying that soundtrack. Adrien Brodey was excellent as well I thought (a sexual tyrannosaurus if you will). I really liked a couple of the set pieces (

particularly Trejo's character's death, and Brodey using the rest of the gang as bait in the predator camp).

Overall it was decent, but not great. I think a fundamental problem with having a premise so close to the original is that it can never recapture what the original had: the element of surprise. Think about how long it took for the reveal of the predator in the first, and the fantastic tension it built up based on not knowing what the hell was out there.

Otacon

Off-topic slightly, but am I wrong when I say that James Cameron had the idea initially for the Predator's distinctive mouth? I remember seeing an interview with Stan Winston, where he says he was on a flight with Cameron. During the flight, he was doodling some ideas he had for the Predator and Cameron mentioned he always wanted to see a creature with mandibles.

The Recliner

Otacon wrote: »

Off-topic slightly, but am I wrong when I say that James Cameron had the idea initially for the Predator's distinctive mouth? I remember seeing an interview with Stan Winston, where he says he was on a flight with Cameron. During the flight, he was doodling some ideas he had for the Predator and Cameron mentioned he always wanted to see a creature with mandibles.

Rodriguez confirmed this recvently in a magazine interview, said he asked Cameron about it and he said it was his idea

Duggy747

Otacon wrote: »

Off-topic slightly, but am I wrong when I say that James Cameron had the idea initially for the Predator's distinctive mouth? I remember seeing an interview with Stan Winston, where he says he was on a flight with Cameron. During the flight, he was doodling some ideas he had for the Predator and Cameron mentioned he always wanted to see a creature with mandibles.

That's correct, that's how the alien got his famous mouth.

Plus

That alien that was chasing Topher Grace, am I the only one who thought it's design was similiar to the very 1st original Predator costume?

This is the original Predator suit that was delivered on set. Completely what the crew weren't expecting and they had to try and work with it but it just looked fùckin' hilarious when it's head kept bouncing off the branches. I think Jean-Claude wore this costume, too.

Mr Freeze

Cool pics!

I'd say that was another tip of the hat alrite from the crew!

Galvasean

Cool. the Predators are so bloodthirsty that they ressurect their ancestors and brutally murder them!

Mr Freeze

Just watching Predator 2...........

Totally forgot Bill Paxton was in it............Friggin hate him!

entropi

Thought the new one was pretty good, not a patch on the original in terms of cheesy acting but it was worth my time and money:)

Went to see the original in Screen Cinema last night also...found this guy outside:

winstons pt

oooops, sry lads

Tar.Aldarion

Ye saw the original in the cinema yesterday, drove home how poor this one is in comparison. I forgot just how great the first one really was.

bad2dabone

I thought it was enjoyable, not a patch on the CLASSIC that is the first one, but better than the others. I was most surprised by Adrian Brody as he was believable as an ass kicker.
When Laurence Fishburne came onscreen I was thinking "what planet are they on? Planet Burger King?"

Seriously miscast. The fat ****er.

Cantona's Collars

Got to see it last night,an enjoyable enough romp.Not as good as the first but the best of the rest.I agree about Fishbourne being miscast,stuck there and getting fat-didn't know Domino's delivered that far away.:)
The song at the end credits is same as one used in original Predator.

Galvasean

Until this thread I had no idea Preadtor 2 wa so lowly rated by the fans...

Turtyturd

Galvasean wrote: »

Until this thread I had no idea Preadtor 2 wa so lowly rated by the fans...

Same. I really enjoyed it and would have enjoyed seeing the spear or the discuss make an appearance in Predators.

Mickeroo

Galvasean wrote: »

Until this thread I had no idea Preadtor 2 wa so lowly rated by the fans...

Likewise, supposedly even the film makers of Predators considered it in the same light as the AvP movies in terms of franchise continuity. Predator 2: Murtagh vs Predator is heaps of fun, I think it suffered from having Danny Glover as the lead though, he just seemed way too feeble to me or something.

Duggy747

I used to hold Predator 2 fairly high but I watched it again recently and realised how shìtty of a sequel it was. Granted it did have some cool bits (Gary Busey, anyone?) but as a Predator film it was quite stupid.

Still, preferred it over the AVP films............*shudders*

Galvasean

Granted I havent seen Pred2 in ages. I may well be thinking about it with rose tinted specs.

Skerries

are you sure they ain't thermal tinted glasses?

somuj

I thought it was a savage film. Will def buy the dvd when it comes out. I must be a lot easier to please than most of the people here. Oversized predators with hedgehog looking dogs hunting a bunch of earths finest in a alien jungle. Whats not to like

Ya'll must ave been hoping for some life changing philosophical feature.

BlitzKrieg

Galvasean wrote: »

Granted I havent seen Pred2 in ages. I may well be thinking about it with rose tinted specs.

predator 2 is very similar to predators in that the ideas behind it and alot of the elements individually were great...


It just didnt come together at all very well. It had an unusual casting (though to be fair its very hard to dislike a film with danny glover, bill paxton and Gary Busey) who all played it very OTT. The script was awful, the pacing relentless and some blah plot points. the sfx were good to dodgy and it was a very cinical film in its outlook of life with a dopping of stereotypes on top.


siskel and ebert give a very soccermom esque review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3FFisq9md0

The main fault was clearly the script, despite showing an LA in collapse they never developed what it was like to live there and honestly danny glover character always seemed to be working in the film, purposely or not you never got a 3d image of him.

But...

on paper it was a perfect sequel. Blood and gore was up, new toys for the predators, elements from the first film were developed on (the honour code and the different vision modes for the mask) and it had a bloody good homage to the original with one of the best twists on a catchphrase

poor quality sadly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAYCen_fmxc

I always thought it was a flawed but fine sequel, much like Alien Resurrection, better then most crap sequels out there, just not on par with the original.

helimachoptor

Seen it tonight, as with Star Trek (Borg) and Stargate (Gao'uld/Replicators), the Predators or in this case the Super Predators are too weak. In Predator

you had one take out an entire special ops team (bar Arnie)

in Predator 2

you had one tear apart downtown LA( and yes get killed by a cop )

in AVP you had

2 of them get killed pretty quickly and then one kicked some alien queen ass

and then in AVP:R one bad mo-fo came down and

did some serious alien killing.

Now we have 3 super predators

who get their ass handed to them by 1 spetsnaz, 1 IDF with a bolt action sniper rifle, a former US soldier, the death squad guy, death row guy, mexican guy, doctor have no millitary training in tactics etc. So we have super Preds get their asses handed to them by 3 soldiers....
I could understand if it was one "standard" predator. Plain and simple they made them far too weak I think.

Thought Noland was played very well, unhinged

and then turned killer but I thought they way the killed him was pretty $hitty and very much "oh we have to kill him we'll blow him up with a plasma caster, that's never happened in any other film!

Could have been a lot better, thought the pred dogs were pretty poor aswell tbh.

So is there a back story to these super preds??

Galvasean

Dude, spoiler tags FFS!

I'm really getting sick of censoring people's inconsiderate posts.

helimachoptor

Galvasean wrote: »

Dude, spoiler tags FFS!

I'm really getting sick of censoring people's inconsiderate posts.

Apologies I was sure I'd stuck the good bits between spoiler tags

Galvasean

helimachoptor wrote: »

Apologies I was sure I'd stuck the good bits between spoiler tags

Ah no worries, just be sure to double check in future.

kwalsh000

Over all...it was okay I thought. Could have been so much better but they went over board with the jokes (which were crap) trying to match the original and too many p1 homages. Granted though some of them were great like the music.

Good to watch over all but with some tweaking could have been soo much better!

And for those of you that missed us in Cineworld for the premier. Roll on a Predators 2 (which will hopefully have a bit more thought into it)

tok9

I saw it last night and I have to say I was disappointed with it.

The 2nd half was just ridiculous imo except for

the final predator kill

which I thought was a pretty cool sequence, but basically from when

Noland (Laurance Fishburne's character) is introduced

I seriously can't understand the whole

Samurai scene. The Yakuza lad just deciding to have a fight for no particular reason. I didn't think it was a particularly good fight either, it was alright but not anywhere near as good as it was made out to be

Didn't like the ending either, definitely open to a sequel anyway.

I had other problems but they've already been commented on several times here..

I thought the fist half of the movie was pretty good, everyone falling, meeting eachother, the suspense and the score and I was pretty happy with the cast (except Fishburne)


4 to 5/10 for me.

Handsome Bob

Were you not boiling under that gear kwalsh? :pac:

Galvasean

tok9 wrote:

I seriously can't understand the whole

Samurai scene. The Yakuza lad just deciding to have a fight for no particular reason. I didn't think it was a particularly good fight either, it was alright but not anywhere near as good as it was made out to be

I liked that scene as it was beautifully shot but

I felt the way they killed each other at the same time has been done to death in Animé films

L31mr0d

best thing about the whole experience was the trailer for Machete.

Trejo getting killed off first pissed me off. I wanted to see him go ape **** on a predator, biting a mandible off or something.

Other than that I'll just echo what others have said in that the predators are far too weak. Kinda like what they did to the Raptors in Jurassic Park 2... lobotomize the enemies.

It felt like watching some rednecks out in the bush camping, getting wasted, then shooting at some squirrels, but in this case, humans. The fact that the fatass fishburne was able to sneak up on Brody while none of the Predators seemed capable of doing this was laughable.

Overall it doesn't introduce anything new into the series and just re-treads already worn ground. I'm probably going to get lambasted for this but I'd actually watch AvP again before I'd watch that again.

Ridley

An okay film. Not great, not terrible. Apart from a few changes it's largely a repeat of the first film. Some moments of cheese

(Hell the title font filling the screen when the better one in the trailer and at the end of the film will probably be used on the DVD case. And it wasn't even the classic Predator font!)

and I found the soundtrack didn't fit the action.

Long Time Sally was out of place this time around personally.

Some questionable moments aswell. If

the sun never moves what constitutes a season? Why didn't they all mud up right when Isabelle explained that's what saved Dutch?

I'm indifferent to

the bigger-fish super Predator.

For something that relies on the first movie for structure I think it comes across as a bit of an insult to pull the old

escalation of menace by downplaying the threat of the previous villain

cliché. Can't really see it as a lasting part of the franchise's lore.

Trailer having things not in the film.

Only three there are so no dozen or so laser targets on the chest for you

I think of it as lying but a friend of mine appreciated it for setting the tone without showing you what happens. I can appreciate the film for introducing several

new living aliens

which don't seem out of place, and Predator 2 hasn't been obliterated from continuity. Could have done without the length of time it took for them to find out that

it wasn't Earth when it's one of the things the trailer spoils

.