So why exactly is AVP1 so bad?

[Tiberius]

Okay, I know it's not a great movie. But it gets panned a lot, and I could never understand the reason why.

The only things I don't like are that it's rated too low, so it loses out on the violence and swearing. It would be good to see how some of the characters were killed, and Lex's line, "You are one ugly motherf..." was cheesy in the way it was cut off before they could have the swearing. And the music was mediocre as well. But that isn't enough to make it a bad movie.

So can anyone tell me exactly why it was so bad?

[Mr Light]

I don't think it's a bad movie, it's very serviceable, but it's just not a memorable classic.

[Pingfah]

It's Citizen Kane compared to the second one.

Still pretty naff though.

[Reverend]

I can't remember the name of a single character in that film, nor can I remember a single quote. Not bad from a technical perspective, just painfully unimaginative and extremely forgettable. But yeah, it was genius compared to the sequel.

As to why it gets panned so much, I think part of that has to do with how it really cheapened the Alien franchise. Predator too I suppose, but I wouldn't call that IP much of a franchise in it's own right outside of the AVP books, comics, games etc. And yeah, Alien Resurrection didn't do Alien many favours either, but AVP was just a barefaced commercial cash-in monster movie. It couldn't have been worse if it was Godzilla vs. King Kong.

[Tosk]

The story stinks, the characters are boring forgettable nothings, the Alien lifecycle gets shit on, the Predators are fat and crappy looking, the Aliens look like rubbery shit, and many of the smaller story details make absolutely no sense whatsoever. In short, it's a terrible movie that is worse than every single movie in the individual Alien and Predator franchises.

And somehow AVP2 is ten times worse.

[bullethead]

It sucked all the awesomeness of having the two creatures fight by spending so much time following humans and killing two out of the three Predators in five minutes.

For all of AVP:R's flaws, it at least made the Predator competitive.

[Starkers]

What's not to love about a film that has a personality alien in 'Netty'?

As has been said it's infinitely better than AVPR, it's probably better than Ressurection and, let's be honest, it treads quite similar ground to Prometheus except it makes more sense and cost a fraction to make!

None of which makes it good...just better than several other films in the franchise.

[Admiral2]

Mr Light wrote:

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I don't think it's a bad movie, it's very serviceable, but it's just not a memorable classic.

Um, Ditto.

I liked Sanaa Lathan in it, and of course Lance Henriksen is THE MAN.

i can't really think of anything i outright hated about it.

[Shazam!]

It's one of the absolute shittest things in existence.

[The Wormhole]

I only saw it when it was in theatres. While not anything spectular, it was decent enough entertainment, even if most of that entertainment s simply the novelty of seeing Aliens and Predators on screen together.

But that novelty worse off with the second one. Now that was terrible and complete shit.

[Kelthaz]

I haven't seen the film myself, but I'd say the hatred comes more from the wasted potential of the film rather than the lack of quality.

[DalekJim]

It's horribly dull which is a shame as I'm a huge fan of Anderson's ludicrously unfaithful and confused Resident Evil movie series.

[lurok]

I hear you . RE movies & games are my guilty pleasure.

Like all of Anderson's oeuvre, it's a string of serviceable if unimaginative action setpieces in search of a plot, characterization and emotional depth.

[DonIago]

It didn't do the Predators any favors by having, as noted, 2/3 of them die as quickly as they did, nor the fact that while they've apparently dealt extensively with the Aliens, they can't (or don't bother to?) determine when one of their own has been impregnated.

I suspect the movie was also hurt by the rating, though the gore factor isn't something I personally find appealling.

I would have rather seen a movie that featured the two races fighting on roughly equal footing, as opposed to the Aliens consistently seeming to get one up on the Predators.

[Ar-Pharazon]

I had it on DVD and now on blu-ray, both as unrated editions.

My only disappointment was that it wasn't a lot bloodier.

I like it, not as much as Freddy vs Jason, but well enough.