Alien vs. Predator
7/16/2
Sometimes, and horribly mostly in the checkout line of the grocery store, Aisai will convert to full on geek mode. Not only will she wish for or compare sci-fi technologies, but she�ll always use Star Trek terms. Sure, I am actually more geeky and sci-fi than Aisai [though she is the expert on ST:TOS and vampire lore] but I know when not to say, after a box of cereal has been found to be mildly crushed, �Structural integrity is low. More power to the inertial dampers.�
The time to not say that is in public.
That said, I could argue why the inertial dampers are the main and best technology on Star Trek, and that frankly, why target the engine of the other ship when you can target the inertial dampers and paint the alien ship red [or whatever] with their blood.
But that�s not what I want to talk about today. Today, the long in development hell movie Alien Vs. Predator was mentioned in Yahoo�s Most Emailed Content. A strange thing for geeky things to emerge where the main topic of discussion is Bin Ladin�s health, how much alcohol some drunk doctor says is good for you, and which Muppets have the clap.
But when geeky stuff, and mixing franchises always geeks it up more, is noticed by the popular culture, that means good things. Now, the executives which funded the movies but never saw them [or didn�t understand them] will fund this.
And in my opinion, Alien Vs. Predator should be renamed Predator Vs. Alien. Sure, it doesn�t have the right ring, and I�d not rename it since movies are made for money and not for enjoyment [most of the time], but we�re talking about a single or group of Predators hunting Aliens.
The H. R. Giger Aleins don�t really hunt. They move in. They move into your cargo freighter. They move into your terraforming station. They move into your pathetic monk hovel. But best, they move into your chest, and then pop out singing, �Hello my baby, Hello my honey, Hello my ragtime gal��
Or was that Spaceballs?
It was odd seeing the President from Independence Day as Lone Starr hanging out with John Candy as Barf, the half man, half dog. �I�m a mog.� I couldn�t watch the whole movie. It was too shameful.
So, all the Aliens want to do is kill everyone and lay some eggs for people to discover later. Sounds reasonable to me. All Predators want to do is have a good time, kill some cool stuff, and not have Danny Glover mess it all up.
So, it�s up to the producers to pick the time and place. If they do it without humans at all, which would be cool, they could do it with no spoken words. Very cool.
Now, there is this issue of cannon. And Enterprise is currently stepping all over this one by having holograms which are very good before Captain Kirk, who had no technology like that. Heck, they are having the same transporter glitches that they did on Star Trek: The Movie on Enterprise. Grrr.
[Though transporter problems are cool. Even that episode where the orchid made Neelix and Tuvoc combine. The real tragedy in that episode is that that Tulix [whatever] didn�t, in a very Tuvoc voice, say �The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.� And kill himself, and thus Neelix.]
[And, Neelix wise, they got rid of him the second episode from the end? We�d been wanting him gone since, what, the first freakin� episode?]
But back to what I was saying, the writers and producers must be careful with this film so that the geek community doesn�t reject it. There should be no reenactment of the knife trick scene from Aliens but with Predators. In fact, I don�t think I want any of the personal private lives of the predators shown. Seeing a Predator drinking his breakfast drink of choice and checking the weather before heading out to pick up his new hunting garb, oh, that�d suck.
The Aliens, they don�t have personal lives really. �Hey, I think I�ll find a wet, hot place to secrete stuff on the walls and then attach myself to and wait for colonial marines to walk by so I can let the queen lay eggs in �em and have some new pals.�
But, that said, I�ll see it opening day.
Unless it sucks.