I love Aliens so, so much. But it really did kinda cut down the scale of the concept by reducing them to hive creatures, dozens of which can be dropped by a frightened human with an assault rifle. Like... We own that problem. If there's anything our species has a lot of, it's guns and bombs.
Now, I greatly appreciated that Alien3 made the creature almost demonic- a hateful, cruel force. But it just being a hive animal trying to reproduce still just permanently brought the thing down a few pegs.
Their being logical, functional, highly adaptable hive creatures is what I love about them! They don't know where they are, they just know it's theirs, and set about trying to dominate it by
absorbing the genes they need to survive in their new environment, and devouring all within.
As a species, they're awesome. They're proto-tyrannids who are incapable of space flight, relying on chance* and the bad luck of all involved to seed the galaxy.
*Or Predators, in the EU. I further love that they are seeded on planets by those crazy fuckers as one stocks a pond with fish. Sure, we can nuke the fish, but it's remarkable that that option is even on the table, let alone that we may really have to. The Predators just show up with rods.
In this universe we are a garbage species with garbage warriors, holding on by luck, numbers, and the fact that none of our betters has tried in earnest to remove us. It adds that cosmic horror element back that removing the mystery of Alien biology may have diminished.
I think we read some very different stories in the AvP setting.
My recollection was that Humanity's fighters were considered top tier hunting for the Predators, even before we left Earth on our own.
Sure, we may not have been as strong as the Predators, or have weapons as powerful as theirs, but we could be quick and clever with what we had and put up a fight capable of equaling and exceeding their best hunters. And that challenge is what made a trophy of a human skull worth while.
That meant the Preds kept their hunting in high temperature warzones as opposed to rampaging through mid-west suburbia, but that all added to the hunter mystique. They didn't want the easy kills, they wanted the badass stories that they could pass around with their boys while drinking a space beer.
The aliens were pretty much seeded about to take young hunters out on their first hunting trip. Practically training wheels if they used shoulder cannons. Sure, the aliens could be fast and nasty. And if they accidentally seeded a planet that already had Xenomorph compatible life things could get out of hand, but the Preds generally had to limit their weapon choices to give them anything like a challenging hunt when facing a young hive of aliens.
I love Aliens so, so much. But it really did kinda cut down the scale of the concept by reducing them to hive creatures, dozens of which can be dropped by a frightened human with an assault rifle. Like... We own that problem. If there's anything our species has a lot of, it's guns and bombs.
Now, I greatly appreciated that Alien3 made the creature almost demonic- a hateful, cruel force. But it just being a hive animal trying to reproduce still just permanently brought the thing down a few pegs.
Their being logical, functional, highly adaptable hive creatures is what I love about them! They don't know where they are, they just know it's theirs, and set about trying to dominate it by
absorbing the genes they need to survive in their new environment, and devouring all within.
As a species, they're awesome. They're proto-tyrannids who are incapable of space flight, relying on chance* and the bad luck of all involved to seed the galaxy.
*Or Predators, in the EU. I further love that they are seeded on planets by those crazy fuckers as one stocks a pond with fish. Sure, we can nuke the fish, but it's remarkable that that option is even on the table, let alone that we may really have to. The Predators just show up with rods.
In this universe we are a garbage species with garbage warriors, holding on by luck, numbers, and the fact that none of our betters has tried in earnest to remove us. It adds that cosmic horror element back that removing the mystery of Alien biology may have diminished.
I think we read some very different stories in the AvP setting.
My recollection was that Humanity's fighters were considered top tier hunting for the Predators, even before we left Earth on our own.
Sure, we may not have been as strong as the Predators, or have weapons as powerful as theirs, but we could be quick and clever with what we had and put up a fight capable of equaling and exceeding their best hunters. And that challenge is what made a trophy of a human skull worth while.
That meant the Preds kept their hunting in high temperature warzones as opposed to rampaging through mid-west suburbia, but that all added to the hunter mystique. They didn't want the easy kills, they wanted the badass stories that they could pass around with their boys while drinking a space beer.
The aliens were pretty much seeded about to take young hunters out on their first hunting trip. Practically training wheels if they used shoulder cannons. Sure, the aliens could be fast and nasty. And if they accidentally seeded a planet that already had Xenomorph compatible life things could get out of hand, but the Preds generally had to limit their weapon choices to give them anything like a challenging hunt when facing a young hive of aliens.
Possibly, I've not read much, and certainly not outside the AVP brand, as all the standalone Predator dreck looks like rehashes of the movie.
So there is no small amount of head cannon at play here on my part, but:
Garbage warriors, more in that were have garbage military. Our special forces are fodder for their hunting parties. We may be dangerous game, but that's all our interactions are to them: A game. They've never brought any real strategic firepower to bear on us, one imagines it would not go well.
(There is a more recent AVP story I've been meaning to read that I think actually explores Predators conducting an actual military campaign against an apostate faction. I've only heard of it in passing.)
Garbage species, in that unarmed Xenos dropped in the woods are inherrently more capable at dominating their environment and taking a seat at the top of the food chain.
(Garbage used in both cases somewhat unfairly to underscore a distinct inferiority)
The aliens were pretty much seeded about to take young hunters out on their first hunting trip.
Wasn't the Queen egg an accident in the first AVP? I thought the idea was they dropped a known quantity for the kids to have a go at, but the hostage queen fucked with the equipment meant to sort the eggs. (It's been a while)
The less thought given to the largely irrelevant AvP movies the better. The comics I remember having some neat moments but also likely won't ever be touched upon or actually be canon. I mean, both Xenos and Predator have fought Batman and Superman which is just... Yeah.
What I would like more of is stuff like this:
We did see Shaw's body all Giger-ed and twisted like the famous painting he did.
I think that's something the movie definitely could have done a bit better, is the world building. There are brief moments like that, like the other bits we see of David's room full of Protomorph lifecycle sketches, diagrams, etc. They really could do more with the source material Giger laid out for them. The temple he lives in also has the giant head statues we saw in Prometheus, once again a Giger design. When we first see the planet and the bodies everywhere, I was really curious. At first it felt like something the movie would never explain (something I would have been cool with. Imply maybe that David did it, but showing it outright while visually stunning, kinda immediately removes the mystery of the planet.) I want more of that stuff, where they give us a glimpse at something crazy looking and wild and just let you wonder what it meant.
I mean, while Scott, Weaver, and Cameron (IMO all very intelligent people and masters of their crafts) poo-poo'd the very idea of a crossover before it had even began production, there's a lot of potential for the idea.
The Jockeys/Engineers as inscrutable space gods; the Aliens as unfathomable wrath; the Predator as this ambiguous race of who-knows-what; and us, as both victim and pawn in an eons-old contest of survival.
There's a lot of horror and drama and action to be found in an epic story about all that. One could argue that the gravitas and class that the early Alien films contain could lend a lot of weight and thoughtfulness to the concepts first introduced in Predator.
Imagine seeing a group of Predators the way we see the marines in Aliens- dogged, worn down, desperate. Humans fresh-faced and curious, stumbling onto this insane, alien horror show.
But, nope, linebacker Predators and dog-bug xenos.
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My recollection was that Humanity's fighters were considered top tier hunting for the Predators, even before we left Earth on our own.
Sure, we may not have been as strong as the Predators, or have weapons as powerful as theirs, but we could be quick and clever with what we had and put up a fight capable of equaling and exceeding their best hunters. And that challenge is what made a trophy of a human skull worth while.
That meant the Preds kept their hunting in high temperature warzones as opposed to rampaging through mid-west suburbia, but that all added to the hunter mystique. They didn't want the easy kills, they wanted the badass stories that they could pass around with their boys while drinking a space beer.
The aliens were pretty much seeded about to take young hunters out on their first hunting trip. Practically training wheels if they used shoulder cannons. Sure, the aliens could be fast and nasty. And if they accidentally seeded a planet that already had Xenomorph compatible life things could get out of hand, but the Preds generally had to limit their weapon choices to give them anything like a challenging hunt when facing a young hive of aliens.
So there is no small amount of head cannon at play here on my part, but:
Garbage warriors, more in that were have garbage military. Our special forces are fodder for their hunting parties. We may be dangerous game, but that's all our interactions are to them: A game. They've never brought any real strategic firepower to bear on us, one imagines it would not go well.
(There is a more recent AVP story I've been meaning to read that I think actually explores Predators conducting an actual military campaign against an apostate faction. I've only heard of it in passing.)
Garbage species, in that unarmed Xenos dropped in the woods are inherrently more capable at dominating their environment and taking a seat at the top of the food chain.
(Garbage used in both cases somewhat unfairly to underscore a distinct inferiority)
Wasn't the Queen egg an accident in the first AVP? I thought the idea was they dropped a known quantity for the kids to have a go at, but the hostage queen fucked with the equipment meant to sort the eggs. (It's been a while)
What I would like more of is stuff like this:
I think that's something the movie definitely could have done a bit better, is the world building. There are brief moments like that, like the other bits we see of David's room full of Protomorph lifecycle sketches, diagrams, etc. They really could do more with the source material Giger laid out for them. The temple he lives in also has the giant head statues we saw in Prometheus, once again a Giger design. When we first see the planet and the bodies everywhere, I was really curious. At first it felt like something the movie would never explain (something I would have been cool with. Imply maybe that David did it, but showing it outright while visually stunning, kinda immediately removes the mystery of the planet.) I want more of that stuff, where they give us a glimpse at something crazy looking and wild and just let you wonder what it meant.
The Jockeys/Engineers as inscrutable space gods; the Aliens as unfathomable wrath; the Predator as this ambiguous race of who-knows-what; and us, as both victim and pawn in an eons-old contest of survival.
There's a lot of horror and drama and action to be found in an epic story about all that. One could argue that the gravitas and class that the early Alien films contain could lend a lot of weight and thoughtfulness to the concepts first introduced in Predator.
Imagine seeing a group of Predators the way we see the marines in Aliens- dogged, worn down, desperate. Humans fresh-faced and curious, stumbling onto this insane, alien horror show.
But, nope, linebacker Predators and dog-bug xenos.