Spoilers Predator: Badlands

[Set Harth]

I still wish they would adapt the very first crossover for film: The Dark Horse Comics Aliens Vs Predators comic limited series that they put out in the mid-80's. i still have them boxed in mint condition.

TPB over here.

 

[Mage]

But you could flip that.

The first Predator film is a war movie, the second Predator film is a cop movie etc.

And certainly the first four alien films are the same in that they all follow a similar plot. A bunch of people (space truckers, soldiers, prisoners, mercenaries) battle a xenomorph (or xenomorphs) until only one or two of them are left.

I get that tonally Aliens is more different to Alien than Predator 2 is to Predator but plot wise not so much.

That is a fair point.

 

[kevinc]

It's probably a mistake to binge the Alien or Predator movies because they were released years apart and never meant as a single viewing experience. The fact that the movie plots can be reduced to certain similar plot points could be applied to almost any franchise. (I remember somebody's complaint about the MCU was the movies all boiled down to the same hero's journey)

That said, I agree that the first 4 Alien films feel much different to each other stylistically (particularly Alien 3 which has a really bleak helplessness about it), and it probably due to the quality of the production. Prometheus and Covenant seem very different due to David and the variety of creatures.

Constrast that with the Predator "franchise", after Predator 2, the Predator movies have always felt like this thing the studio was trying to figure out what to do with, so each movie felt like some cheap attempt to continue - Predators and The Predator sorta missed, and Prey finally hit a mark where the movie felt VERY different but succeeded with a new vision.

...and obviously, Badlands is just a Conan movie.

 

[Jedi Marso]

I recently rewatched Alien, Aliens, Predator, and Predator 2. Love ALL of them.

In particular, I think Predator 2 gets a bad rap. It's a pretty good flick all around, with half the cast of the Lethal Weapon series in there somewhere, Jamaican drug gangs with fookin' voodoo magic, mon, pornstar Teri Weigl doing her usual, Kent McChord for cryin' out loud, like a crossover with Adam-12, Maria Conchita Alonso, Morton Downey Jr, and of course, Bill Paxton.

Oh, and did I mention Adam Baldwin and Gary Busey? Although the latter counts as part of the Lethal Weapon reference.

And Murtagh as the lead! He's too old for this s--t!

Also, the first on-screen (canon) crossover reference between the Alien verse and Predator. (Alien skull in the trophy case.)

I'm sorry. Predator 2 freakin' rocks. But not as much as the first one.

 

[Set Harth]

I actually thought we were going to see a xenomorph skull in the yautja ship in Badlands, but I guess they figured, been there, done that?

 

[Starkers]

I actually have a soft spot for Predators, I think it's a better film that people think and in some ways laid the groundwork for Killer of Killers and maybe even Badlands.

 

[Mage]

I actually have a soft spot for Predators, I think it's a better film that people think and in some ways laid the groundwork for Killer of Killers and maybe even Badlands.

Predators is underrated, and I like it as well. I also have a soft spot for The Predator. There are some fun homages and I always got a good laugh from the band of misfits.

 

[Jedi Marso]

The Predator is a freakin' howl. That one is at least half a comedy, in my book.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I saw Predators for the first time recently and I greatly enjoyed it for the kind of movie it was trying to be.

I also recently rewatched the first two films for the first time in many years. While the original is clearly the superior one, the sequel is a lot of whacky fun (if incredibly dated) and I would argue the third act is at the caliber of the original.

 

[Set Harth]

I was waiting for someone to deliver a play on Ripley's famous line, but it never happened.

If that had happened it would have taken me right out of the movie. ( Looking at you, Romulus. )

 

[Mage]

If that had happened it would have taken me right out of the movie. ( Looking at you, Romulus. )

Yeah as much as I love Romulus, that one was a bit OTT.

 

[Starkers]

Yeah as much as I love Romulus, that one was a bit OTT.

Second time I watched it it bothered me less. I think they could have been cleverer as well. Andy didn't swear and made rubbish jokes so they could have played it as a lighter, almost nervous, get away from her you...you...bitch! Especially if he'd picked the word up from one of the others and perhaps didn't understand when it meant in the context.

 

[Set Harth]

Well, this thing was advertised as coming to Disney+ "and" Hulu yesterday... but it turns out that in the US it's only on Hulu, not Disney+.

I wonder if that means it will show up on US Disney+ at some later date?

 

[oktay]

Well, this thing was advertised as coming to Disney+ "and" Hulu yesterday... but it turns out that in the US it's only on Hulu, not Disney+.

I wonder if that means it will show up on US Disney+ at some later date?

No, in the US, to watch content streamed on Hulu on Disney Plus, you need a Hulu subscription.

 

[Set Harth]

Yes, but is it possible that Disney itself will stream it eventually?

 

[oktay]

Yes, but is it possible that Disney itself will stream it eventually?

No, Disney is reportedly going to shut down the Hulu app and merge it with Disney Plus by the end of this year. However, they haven't announced a specific date for this. And it's unclear whether the new CEO will stick to this plan.

 

[FredH]

So, the humans apparently not having FTL yet is really bugging me, especially if this supposedly takes place later than Resurrection. Between this and Alien: Earth, it feels like they’re retroactively deciding that all of the starships we’ve seen in the Alien series are sublight — which just doesn’t make sense, given the interstellar distances they’ve travelled, unless they’re also deciding that every return of a ship to Earth has been decades after its launch. Which makes Ripley’s not getting back for her daughter’s birthday (or lifetime) inevitable, rather than the tragic surprise it is for her. So argh.

 

[Set Harth]

So, the humans apparently not having FTL yet is really bugging me, especially if this supposedly takes place later than Resurrection.

It can't take place after Resurrection. The company didn't exist anymore in Resurrection! At least not under the same name and in the same form. It was bought out by another company.

Bottom line, Trachtenberg is not familiar with the minutiae of the Alien series. And to be clear, I don't expect random people yanked off the street to know the details of what's in those films or their scripts. But when you're hired to be the head honcho of a franchise like this I think the expectation should be somewhat higher.

Between this and Alien: Earth, it feels like they’re retroactively deciding that all of the starships we’ve seen in the Alien series are sublight — which just doesn’t make sense, given the interstellar distances they’ve travelled, unless they’re also deciding that every return of a ship to Earth has been decades after its launch.

Yeah, it's a fuckup. It feels like -- as one of our forum members suggested -- someone misunderstood the reason for Ripley's long trip between the first two Alien films. In any event you can't make Aliens work without FTL, and the same applies to Alien 3 as well. The script for the first Alien movie even has a scene ( not appearing in the film ) where they're explicitly said to be traveling at lightspeed and it even describes the Doppler shift!

I've never traditionally gotten the impression that the Alien and Predator movies were supposed to be taking place in the same continuity anyway. In other words, though it is clear xenomorphs exist in the Predator universe, I wouldn't say that Yautja necessarily exist in the universe of the Alien films.

 

[JD]

Well, this thing was advertised as coming to Disney+ "and" Hulu yesterday... but it turns out that in the US it's only on Hulu, not Disney+.

I wonder if that means it will show up on US Disney+ at some later date?

If it's still on Hulu then it should move over to Disney+ when they shut down Hulu as a separate app. Basically they're just making Hulu only a part of Disney+, instead of it's own standalone app, so everything that's on there when the move happens should then be added to Disney+ under the Hulu tab.

 

[Set Harth]

It can't take place after Resurrection. The company didn't exist anymore in Resurrection! At least not under the same name and in the same form. It was bought out by another company.

Bottom line, Trachtenberg is not familiar with the minutiae of the Alien series. And to be clear, I don't expect random people yanked off the street to know the details of what's in those films or their scripts. But when you're hired to be the head honcho of a franchise like this I think the expectation should be somewhat higher.

Yeah, it's a fuckup. It feels like -- as one of our forum members suggested -- someone misunderstood the reason for Ripley's long trip between the first two Alien films. In any event you can't make Aliens work without FTL, and the same applies to Alien 3 as well. The script for the first Alien movie even has a scene ( not appearing in the film ) where they're explicitly said to be traveling at lightspeed and it even describes the Doppler shift!

I've never traditionally gotten the impression that the Alien and Predator movies were supposed to be taking place in the same continuity anyway. In other words, though it is clear xenomorphs exist in the Predator universe, I wouldn't say that Yautja necessarily exist in the universe of the Alien films.

I didn't even bother to mention the Alien prequels which also depend on FTL.