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 Grinch 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.