The Problem With “Alien vs. Predator” Movies

by Chirs Vegvary

I’ve said this before, I even wrote a blog about it, but Aliens is the greatest movie of all time. It just is. While you may not agree with that, you might agree that the 2004 film Alien vs. Predator and its 2007 sequel, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, were both pretty ridiculous movies. First of all, let me just say this to all the filmmakers out there who have an idea for another idea for a film in the Alien franchise: stop trying to make all your lead female characters in Ripley. Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, appears in the first four films in the series, and she is the original badass sci-fi superwoman. You cannot replicate the success of that character, and every attempt you make seems weak and feeble.

Ok, now that we have that out of the way, let’s focus on the point of this whole article. I have a lot of gripes concerning the film Alien vs. Predator, but first and foremost on that list is that it took two R-rated franchises and mashed them together into a PG-13 film in order to make more money off it. That truly makes me sick, because if you don’t believe your film can do well enough on its own with the rating it SHOULD have, then don’t make it (I’m talking to you, studio executives). My next major gripe with it is that it takes place in modern day, on Earth. What the f**k, people, are you telling me that the Xenomorphs existed back then? Get out of here with that nonsense. It makes even LESS sense now that the film Prometheus has been made, or maybe it makes all the sense in the world, but I just don’t like it.

I have fewer gripes with the second film, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, since it stepped it up to an R-rating, but at the same time, it just felt…incomplete, for some reason. I tried to like it, and I definitely liked it more than the first one, but it was lacking something. Plus, the idea that a Xenomorph of any kind, even a Pred-Alien (hybrid of a Predator and a Xenomorph), can lay multiple eggs in hosts through its mouth is insanity after the Aliens’ life cycle has already been clearly established as, well...not that.

How can we make the next AvP movie good? I have an idea: how about we make it like the video game or Dark Horse comic it’s based on? By which I mean, set it in the future, maybe after the events of the film Alien 3 (and we can just pretend Alien Resurrection and all subsequent films don’t exist), and definitely include the space marines like we saw in the movie Aliens. It would have the potential to be the best one yet, maybe in either franchise…except for Aliens, because nothing can replace that as the best movie of all time.