9 THINGS THAT BUG ME ABOUT
THE PREDALIEN:
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THE PREDALIEN:
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1) "IT'S NOT A HYBRID!" 
While I'm not a fan of the concept of the Alien taking on physical attributes of its host (an idea grunted out by someone during the production from Hell that was Alien 3), I understand it is now pretty much part of the mythos (sigh). However, the Predalien is referred to as a HYBRID and looks the part. This is inaccurate. Were the previous aliens Human-Alien hybrids? No. They were simply Aliens. If the Predalien was the result of gene-splicing, a scientific construct, then ok. But no, it is the result of a facehugger using a Predator as HOST. If anything, MINOR physical attributes would be there... basically just the mandibles (ie jaw structure). The Predalien, as it is as a Hybrid, makes no sense. It should simply be an Alien, from a Predator host.
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While I'm not a fan of the concept of the Alien taking on physical attributes of its host (an idea grunted out by someone during the production from Hell that was Alien 3), I understand it is now pretty much part of the mythos (sigh). However, the Predalien is referred to as a HYBRID and looks the part. This is inaccurate. Were the previous aliens Human-Alien hybrids? No. They were simply Aliens. If the Predalien was the result of gene-splicing, a scientific construct, then ok. But no, it is the result of a facehugger using a Predator as HOST. If anything, MINOR physical attributes would be there... basically just the mandibles (ie jaw structure). The Predalien, as it is as a Hybrid, makes no sense. It should simply be an Alien, from a Predator host.
Ok, I get that most people wanted the dreadlocks. Personally I think its a stupid idea, but whatever. What bugs me about the dreadlocks are A)It shouldn't have them. Why does the Predalien take on so much of the Predator's attributes when it doesn't do so with Humans? Their mere presence are an abomination, B)They arc up and out, bouncing with each step... its silly. And C)The texture of the dreadlocks. The Predator's are smooth and you're not sure of what they are... not necessarily hair. The Predaliens looks like he had his hair braided at a sleepover. If you look at some of the previz art, most have the smooth dreadlocks and it works so much better. I still hate the idea of an alien with dreads, tho.---
3) PUMPKINHEAD ALIENS.
Or "The loss of the Biomechanical".
This is the biggest offense of the Alien Saga, including the Aliens as well. Begininning with Alien 3, the creature has lost the biomechanical aspect, which to me is essential and what makes the Alien stand out from any other "monster" of film. The Aliens and Predalien now look like PUMPKINHEAD; soft and fleshy. Makes sense since the ADI guys have been in charge of the Aliens' look since Alien 3. Plus they worked on Pumpkinhead (pre-ADI), but Tom Woodruff Jr (ADI co-creator) is inside Pumpkinhead and the aliens from Alien3-on. If the Predalien was biomechanical like Giger's first Alien, it would be so much easier to swallow. Like so...
Or "The loss of the Biomechanical".
This is the biggest offense of the Alien Saga, including the Aliens as well. Begininning with Alien 3, the creature has lost the biomechanical aspect, which to me is essential and what makes the Alien stand out from any other "monster" of film. The Aliens and Predalien now look like PUMPKINHEAD; soft and fleshy. Makes sense since the ADI guys have been in charge of the Aliens' look since Alien 3. Plus they worked on Pumpkinhead (pre-ADI), but Tom Woodruff Jr (ADI co-creator) is inside Pumpkinhead and the aliens from Alien3-on. If the Predalien was biomechanical like Giger's first Alien, it would be so much easier to swallow. Like so...
[Black & Biomechanical Predalien - still lame, but a huge improvement]
*Note: With the Film version, they DID incorporate a slight element of biomech... the clear dome on the forehead.
4) THE COLORING.
This goes kind of with the previous bitch-moan about the lack of Biomechanical. The current coloring looks too much like a Predator; yellows and greens. If this is to be an ALIEN (that came from a Predator host), then it should be BLACK and look like an EXOSKELETON. Now it looks fleshy and almost wooden. Do a repaint and make the Predalien BLACK and my guess is it would look alot better.
This goes kind of with the previous bitch-moan about the lack of Biomechanical. The current coloring looks too much like a Predator; yellows and greens. If this is to be an ALIEN (that came from a Predator host), then it should be BLACK and look like an EXOSKELETON. Now it looks fleshy and almost wooden. Do a repaint and make the Predalien BLACK and my guess is it would look alot better.---
5) HEAD SHAPE. 
One of the obvious, classic aspects of the Alien design is its elongated shaped head. The Predalien's design abandons this, with the back of the head shorter and tapered off. To me, it looks very similar to the crappy "Alien Queen" toy from Kenner's silly '90s line. I really think that making the back of the head more "Alien-like" would improve the design and slightly lessen my hatred of the Predalien. Slightly.
One of the obvious, classic aspects of the Alien design is its elongated shaped head. The Predalien's design abandons this, with the back of the head shorter and tapered off. To me, it looks very similar to the crappy "Alien Queen" toy from Kenner's silly '90s line. I really think that making the back of the head more "Alien-like" would improve the design and slightly lessen my hatred of the Predalien. Slightly.
[ Incorporating Alien head drastically improves design ]---
Jesus christ, they're huge and look like parts from another, larger creature glued on. I have no problem with the Predalien having the jaw structure of a Predator. It makes sense and could be cool. But these are waaaaay too large and look silly. They look like two plastic toy grabby-arms stuck to the sides of his head! "Pinch! Pinch! Grab! Grab!"---
7) NEW LIFE-CYCLE BULLSHIT. 
With the Predalien, gone is the need for facehuggers. Now the Predalien pukes chestbursters down the throat of its victims (pregnant women) and the chestbursters then explode out of the womb. The change makes no sense. The directors' excuse is because "we do not know how Predators procreate". That is irrelevant. The Aliens' life cycle is its own without any relation to the host it gestated in. With their line of thinking, why do the Aliens -that come out of Humans- procreate with a Queen, eggs and facehuggers? The Predalien's new lifecylce makes no sense except for the directors wanting to do something different and put their take on the mythos. Plus its LAME and tasteless. Oh, and in addition, the Predalien goes from Chestburster to Full-Size Adult within minutes. sigh.NOTE: "Crookymike" brought up a good point in the Comments section... "If the Predalien took on predator characteristics, why attack pregnant women? Clearly a no-no as seen in Predator 2." Good point... the Predator in Predator 2 does NOT kill Leona it scans her and discovers she's pregnant.
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8) THE PHYSIQUE.
You can really tell its a dude in a suit now... not just because its, well, a dude in a suit, but by the new physical design changes. Again, when they ditched the biomechanical elements, they replaced it with thick, meaty, muscular body parts. The Predalien (and aliens now, too) are thick beasts ready to wrestle. Aliens are tall and skinny.---
9)PREDATOR BEHAVIOUR.
Besides the insulting new procreation methods, the Predalien looked and acted too much like a Predator. And back to the "Not a Hybrid" point again, it's supposed to be an Alien that came out of a Predator. Its not a result of an Alien and Predator gettin' it on, so why does it look SO much like a Predator? Why does it have that "warrior/hunter" attitude? I understand the concept of the Alien taking on some attributes of its host, but would it really fight mano-a-mano? Would it skin its victims and hang them from the ceiling? The Predalien is THIS close to running around in armor, using weapons and mimicking voices.*Note: The skinning of the Predators by the Predalien was cut out of the final theatrical edit, but it gives you an idea of the approach to the creature.
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Overall, I really hate the Predalien, primarily because of the origins tied to the visuals. I would have little problems with the current design if it was an actually hybrid, created through gene-splicing. But no, it came from a normal chestburster, delivered via facehugger like every other Alien. If its an ALIEN, then it should look like one. I've said before that I'd simply want an alien -that came out of a Predator- to look like a normal Alien (Giger's ALIEN or Stan Winston's ALIENS) but with small mandibles incorporated into the jaw (not glued to the side).More Alien elements. No Dreadlocks. Much smaller mandibles. Return to normal Alien procreation. Bring back the biomechanical and black coloring.
Here is the JimSmash Predalien:
[ The JimSmash Predalien - Normal Alien with small mandibles ]---
Here's an EARLY PRE-VIZ DESIGN of the Predalien. This I don't mind so much. It still keeps with the overall ALIEN look, but incorporates enough PREDATOR attributes to make it stand out on its own as a new creature without insulting the fans too much. Have it black and biomechanical and it would have worked....
.....the mandibles are still too large, though! Ha!---
JimSmash Movie Review: AVP-R
Posts
61 comments:
KICKASS!
How about having the Alien become the Predator as the next part of it's life cycle !? :)
You don't see wasps taking on spider characteristics when there eggs are laid inside the spider. I sorta bought it in Alien3 if you think maybe the facehugger grabs some DNA to construct its embryo or whatever. But I agree that the subsequent treatments have been ridiculous. The predalien looks stupid and I won't watch it.
Even for free!
You should have picketed outside of a studio, stalked producers, or done something to have been hired as the art designer of the movie before it was made. I mean you're in LA!
I say we start the petition now to get you hired for AvP-S (Aliens vs Predators in Space).
The franchise is destroyed. Sad day!
I re-read this post because there were no new updates today and my only thought was "wait, only NINE complaints?" Come on. I KNOW there is a 10th one.
If the Predalien took on predator characteristics, why attack pregnant women? Clearly a no-no as seen in predator 2
Thank you, Crookymike!!! GOOD POINT!!!!
Oh, and Scott.... I only did 9 reasons because I felt if I did 10, it would feel too "complete"... having 9 would hopefully encourage some imagination on others' to come up with #10, 11, etc.
In my mind it made sense.
Plus, its a way to keep the flood gates semi-closed, so to speak.
BITCHIN POST!
Wasn't the Predalien supposed to be an adolescent queen? correct me if i'm wrong...
That's the first I've heard of that concept. Although it would better explain the had shape and it reproducing on its own... kind of.
My hateful points still stand.
I'll have to do some further research regarding the Adolescent Queen concept.....
If you find anything out, please let me know!
The DVD commentary indicates that the Predalien is a young Queen, and effectively adds a new phase into the Alien reproductive cycle.
All young Queens are able to infect hosts with eggs through their secondary mouth, no doubt with eggs that are specially evolved to develop quickly (perhaps giving the resultant Drones a short lifepsan? Who knows...).
Anyway, this explains how young Queens can get a foothold in a new environment so quickly and effectively. They create a small, short term workforce to set up the basics of a hive, and once they are secure the Queen can finish maturation and develop her egg sack. If you think about it, this makes perfect sense. Why would a species as highly developed as the Aliens leave the glaring weakness in their reproductive cycle of having the Queen need to find a quiet place to lay her eggs, all the while just hoping that no-one discovers her? No, the Aliens have shown a tendency to use their own kind in a very "tools for the task" way, namely in the Facehugger creatures.
That deals with the new reproductive cycle and the half-formed antler-crest.
Concerning the construction of the Predalien itself, that's down to personal taste. I quite like the differences and the strengths of the clearly Predator features.It sets it apart from the human-spawned Aliens.
On that note, the criticism of the Predalien for being too different from the standard human-spawned sleek, black bio-mechanical look that you favour. Well, that's what you get when you use a different host according to the way the cannon has gone. The canine-Alien from A3 was sleeker still, bronzed and quadrapedal. Different host, different result. Same story with a Predator-host. I happen to think that this divergence of form fits in perfectly with the character of the Alien as an organism that adapts to be able to dominate whatever species environment it finds itself in. If an egg finds its way into a human colony, the Aliens will be the familar human-spawned variety. If that egg finds its way into a Predator colony, then it only makes sense that the resulting Aliens will incorporate aspects of the Predator physiology to better dominate that pre-species. Think about it - if Facehuggers created the human-spawned variety of Aliens from Preadots, then the new Aliens would be vastly inferior to the Predators they are going to try and consume. Once more, with the "ultimate survivor" role firmly in mind, it is perfectly reasonable to have the Aliens pick up large, key traits from their hosts. The Alien that emerged from the Space Jockey we see in Alien would probably have been vastly different again - no doubt larger and based on the concepts of the Jockies, a lot more gorilloid.
You seem to take the alternative view of the Aliens, in that what spawns from the host is largely a "pure" Alien, and that is the way the Aliens should look. This rules out a lot of the inherrited traits cannon that has been built into the concept of the Alien over the years, and you're fully entitled to think that it's lame. However, as I attempted to do above, it can be rationalised in the context and the theme of the Aliens, so don't be so quick to completely discredit it. Worse still are the posters further down who have compared the Aliens to wasps laying eggs in spiders and so forth - news flash, we're dealing with science fiction, aliens and a species that has developed a drone-carrier for its eggs. Once you've accepted that as "okay", it would be foolish to rule anything out.
I can see why you hold the frustrations that you do, but having read your post through several times, most of it is grounded firmly in a divergence between the franchise direction and your personal tastes. Sad that the franchise has gone a way that would cost it an obviously articulate fan, but as far as I at least am concerned the concept of the Aliens still holds plenty of credibility and can incorporate the new ideas with minimal effort.
Fantastic comment, Chet!
Thank you!
For years, I was a HUGE fan of the series, back when there was only 2 films. During that time is where I became fanatical about the creature and became the psychotic fan you see before you. In my eyes, the creature was PERFECTION (as stated by Ash in his final moments, too! heh).
For me, Alien3 is where the franchise went wrong. When Alien3 was in development, I absorbed as much information as I could from Production interviews. Sadly, it was mostly filled with horrific tales of multi-scripts, directors, and ideas being thrown around by everyone and anyone. Some of those ideas ranged from talking aliens, headbursters and the alien taking on physical attributes of its host. It is that last idea that stayed in the final script that really irked me.
Like I said,I felt the creature was perfect before. The Alien's physical look was it's peek of evolution. To change it was only a step down, in my opinion.
Also, the Kenner toy line in the 90s further confirmed my fears of what the possibilities were for other Alien incarnations; Gorilla Alien, Mantis Alien, Snake Alien, Bull Alien, etc. It just got silly. So, for me, I still have a hard time accepting those concepts into the "official" mythos of the Alien.
Everything you said is valid. And it really does come down to my own opinion and tastes. But for me, as an Alien "purist" of sorts, I just can't get over what they've done to the franchise and the creature.
A friend of mine once said, "well, just think of it like this... your favorite incarnation is the 'human alien'." I've tried, but that would mean accepting the other stuff I hate. Can't do it. haha
So that's where I'm coming from. I just can't get over the whole physical attribution change, which extends to the life-cycle.
Hey, thanks again for the comment post! It was awesome!
i liked the predalien in the video games such as avp-2 and extiction but i dont like the design too much ether but ched is right i agree
who do you think would have lived in that last fight between scar and the predalien?
I agree for the most part but the best predalien type alien would be from aliens extinctions. Yes the aliens seemed to take after some mental traits of the host. Human born aliens were far smarter than the canine born ones. Not only was the Predalien an alien-predator hybrid but also a predator-alien-queen hybrid. Yet, I still liked the movie regardless of how crappy it was
I got one for you to stew on...
We know ow the Aliens make egg's and then the face hugger then the chest buster then the alien...
What do we know about Predators... NOTHING! So here's one for ya!
Maybe Preds breed that way "injecting egg's/sperm with there vagina mouths" and none of you know this because the man took it to his grave and only the people with the rights to the movie have the actual story behind the Preds... What makes everyone think that preds breed the way humans do? Why is it that Humans are so narrow minded that they only think the way you reproduce is sticking your D@#k into something? Fish don't "not all I believe I'm not a pro @ knowing all fish in the sea"... and a few other creatures on this planet don't have actual intercourse to reproduce... Like Coral!
As for the aliens that the Predalien produces... They don't look different, every single Alien has looked different when it use's a diff host then a human, as for them still looking like Aliens well the Alien DNA is a virus that is perfect for any environment even space so the initial half breed looks very diff but as the breeding continues "even shown in the past Alien movies" The Aliens when using a human as a host they look like the Alien were all used to seeing, but if the Predalien was to impregnate a pregnant dog or cow it would take on those traits...
So to some up... If the Predalien was to impregnate another Pred it would look like the Predalien... not just a full blooded Alien...
But also note that there are Soldier Aliens and they look diff even when produced from a human...
But I do agree with the color it should remain black and sleek like the original Alien..
"Now this is just my opinion"
Thanks for the comment, ONEEND!
For me, I dislike the concept that the Alien is essentially a virus.
I was a huge fan of the original and the 2nd. For years, that's all the "franchise" was. And it was during those years I became the giant fan you see before you.
So when Alien3 came around and introduced the concept of the Alien taking on physical attributes of its host, it was hard to swallow.
That's where I'm coming from.
Working within what has been established by FOX over the years, then yes.... many of my gripes would "fit".
But that's the thing... all that "new stuff" post-ALIENS really bugs me.
Like I said, it was during that timeframe where only ALIEN and ALIENS existed is where I became a huge fan. Since then, my love of ALIEN/S has diminished.
Thanks again for your comment. I liked how you spotlighted that even when the Predalien procreated via humans, the aliens looked like the James Cameron verisons (more or less)... so THAT incarnation of the Alien is what HUMAN-derived aliens look like.
In the end, yes, it all comes down to personal opinions.
And mine are correct.
(heh, couldn't resist)
:)
I have to agree with Jim, here.
One point to add: massive changes to the Alien physiology make no sense going by current biological theory.
At best, the traits an Alien would show would not be visible, like in Alien3, where the design was essentially very similar to previous designs, with minimal changes to make it dog-like.
In addition, it makes more sense for Aliens to grasp physical changes from the basic type of host rather than the specific species; you'd have primate-types and quadraped-types, and little else.
Aliens, by design and philosophy, were perfect in the first two films.
Thanks for the post, Alexander! Well said!
i really am a fan of the giger alien creature, and original concept of ridley and o´bannon, and my point is: in the first movie we can see how the erotism of the creature plays a key role in the whole movie, i mean, the alien has a penis for head, a femenine figure and that penetrating tonge, and the derelict space-jokey ship has vaginas for doors.. added to that lt. ripley only wants to save her pussy (jones) from the alien creature, and also the facehugger has this rape thing going on (fingers firmly tied to your head while introducing a phalus-like tube through your troat at the same time it chokes you with the tail i mean, its rape!!) well, i think i made my point, it has erotic elements in it, so i must admit i loved this pubert-alien-queen reproductive cycle, it keeps the erotic, rape and original concept right.. in my particular point of view.
for the part where the alien takes some of the traits of the hosts is other thing i actually liked, i mean, look at the space-jockey chest hole!! its huge, obviously it was an enormous chestburster, so its not that crazy idea.. but i agree with jim, that predalien had nothing biomechanical, or gigeresque aside from the dome in the head and the skull underneath it.. i will go with the biomechanical look all the way
other thing i will like to discus is the fact that the predalien is a queen, as we all know, and i hate to say it, the alien queen is the only pure alien breed existent, meaning, independently of its host she will be the same because she retains the cleanest and purest gene-pool, so no dread-locks and no double jaws for you missie.
the part of the dread locks and jaws.. im divided in my oppinions here, i mean its an necessary evil, the jaws definitely should stay, smaller or whatever but stay.. for design sake, the dreadlocks are expendable.. but actually would look cooler in a smaller more tube like way (they did them with a mold of the baby-bambi alien tail from alien3) therefore the texture and form.
the colors, damn you're right!! i mean the alien in the first movie wasnt caucacian!! and we humans are not black and silver..!! so, no need for greens and yellows..
that is my point of view i dont totally hate it, but it isnt the best..
in cyber-space no one in fox will hear you say.. bullshit!!
Keeping with the established idea that aliens absorb DNA from the host, maybe the Predator DNA is exceptionally potent. I mean, their blood does glow... (I know glowing blood doesn't equal strong DNA, but it's the kinda BS Fox would use to justify the change. :P) Or, seeing as how the Predator and Alien species seem to have a lot of history together, maybe the predalien is some kind of super form evolved to help better defend against Predators. Perhaps their long history has made the Aliens better able to use Predator DNA.
great ideas, anonymous! If I was to accept the DNA stuff and the Predalien, those are good "bandaids" to help justify! :)
In the end this entire post boils down to my own opinions which include:
1) I never liked the introduction of the idea that the alien took physical attributes from its host. This was something that came into play during Alien 3. Remember, I had enjoyed the ALIEN series for 12 years before that was introduced. So it was a "BS" moment for me as a fan.
2) I hate how the Predalien looks and behaves. So I simply hate the Predalien.
3) One of the many reasons why I love the Alien so much is the idea that it is perfect... and I think the design is perfect. Its one of the most beautiful things I've seen. So it bugs me when its altered; dog alien, Resurrection Aqua Aliens, Pumpkinhead aliens in AVP, etc.
again, its just my opinion.
well, the reson the predalien took so much resembelence from a predalien than from a human may be the viability of the predator in difference of the human
human traits are shit if you compare to the predator when it comes to surviving in battle, plus the alien queen is not necesarry to have hatched from a human host the predators could have bred it from something else, and the head design is due to it being a young queen.
Yeah, with anything like this, there's always some sort of explanation(s) to be found or created by us fans... the most common one I'm hearing is that the Predator's dna is so "strong" or whathaveyou. Which can work. Its too bad the writers/directors did not implement something of the like into the storytelling. It wouldn't necessarily have to be spoonfed, but aluding would be nice.
I always liked the original idea that the alien was this "perfect" organism and looked the same regardless of its host. It wasn't until Alien 3 did the concept of taking on physical attributes of the host come into play.
In the end, I just don't like the final design and execution of the Predalien seen in AVP-R. And so this post was born. Also remember, its all super geek talk, tongue-in-cheek fun.... to an extent. I truly hate the fucker. :)
The Predalian was supposed to be an adolescent queen, that is why it's physical features are different. And Jim, does it really matter? I mean both the mother fuckers died anyway xD.
Yeah, I heard the Guys Behind The Camera say it was supposed to be a queen. It would have been more "acceptable" to me if the young queen behaved more like an actual alien. Maybe we could have seen her begin growing an egg sack and witness her hive begin to grow. That would have been sweet.
But no, instead it rapes pregnant women, dispensing "bellybursters" down their throat. The Predalien, which could have been cool, instead became a stupid B-Movie Horror Monster. For me, the Predalien is too far removed from the Alien and The Predator.
In the end it doesn't matter at all because its just a stupid movie. But the Alien Series is something I'm passionate about and it pisses me off when new people come to the Franchise and fuck with the Mythos. Like with Alien 3... now its "official" that the Alien takes on physical attributes of its host... which opens the door to Gorilla Alien, Elephant Alien, Potato Bug Alien, etc.
I fucking hate the Predalien.
Yeah, I heard the Guys Behind The Camera say it was supposed to be a queen. It would have been more "acceptable" to me if the young queen behaved more like an actual alien. Maybe we could have seen her begin growing an egg sack and witness her hive begin to grow. That would have been sweet.
But no, instead it rapes pregnant women, dispensing "bellybursters" down their throat. The Predalien, which could have been cool, instead became a stupid B-Movie Horror Monster. For me, the Predalien is too far removed from the Alien and The Predator.
In the end it doesn't matter at all because its just a stupid movie. But the Alien Series is something I'm passionate about and it pisses me off when new people come to the Franchise and fuck with the Mythos. Like with Alien 3... now its "official" that the Alien takes on physical attributes of its host... which opens the door to Gorilla Alien, Elephant Alien, Potato Bug Alien, etc.
I fucking hate the Predalien.
I believe the idea of xenomorphs taking something from their hosts was part of the mythos before Alien 3. However the whole "Kane's son" line from "Alien" should not be taken litterally to mean this. At the same time, before Alien 3, we only saw Xeno's born from human hosts.
That being said, the Predalien was a concept developed well before AvP: Requeim. The monster from that film . . . along with the film itself, was terribly executed. I mean implanting embryos via the mouth!?
I LOVE the idea of the xenomorphs taking on traits of their birth hosts but I also agree with you that the appearance of said creatures should look more xeno then anything else. The xenomorph DNA should be dominant, only taking a couple of attributes here and there.
The Predalien featured in the new AvP game from Rebellion looks a lot more like how you and I would have wanted in "Requeim". There are plenty of clips of it now on Youtube.
Well done. You hit each of my predalien complaints spot-on. What I hated most was the change in life-cycle. Also, the huge glued-on mandibles.
I'm a predator nut more than an alien nut so I have all the same rants about how they portrayed the predators as well. And I agree on every point you made about the alien and predalien designs. I love the idea of a predalien and have seen many incarnations in comics and games. All of which have been done better than "Chet". Oh and to explain the rapid growth thing, that was started in the first AVP thanks to Paul Idiot Anderson. Never gets explained in the movie, but his comment about that was that steroids were used to increase the growth rate of the alien so the predators could hunt them sooner. LAME!. Anyways, just glad to read a post where someone agrees with my sentiments. Especially concerning the mandibles on the predalien. Like I said, I'm a predator nut, so the mandibles have very specific mechanics. They botched them bad in AVP, and again in AVPR. Though the Wold predator was way better than the goofy foot ball player predators from AVP. But the mandibles on the predalien are so far botched as to not even be of predator origin :P
My two cents.
Cheers.
nice post, but the the whole pointy head thing, i mean it is starting to grow a crest with a point like the alien queen from the side. the whole smooth dome doesn't work since the movie creators decided they wanted a "ribbed" dome. and the bio-mechanical thing, i think is an aspect taken from the derelict species the face huggers came from. the second episode also had an alien straight from the derelict craft which, in itself was a bio-mechanical looking species and ship, so the alien probably took on that original host characteristic then lost it after generations. the first and that is probably why the first alien was bigger. the one before that which was straight from the species was probably the size of a queen, if not bigger due the before host and shrunk a lot by the human host.
I understand the pointy head thing... the Predalien was supposed to be a Queen. Nonetheless, the execution of the design still bugs me. Perhaps if the crest was larger, I wouldn't hate it so much. But the way it is, it reminds me too much of the crappy toy (pic posted). While the concept is there, I find the end result lame.
In regards to the smooth/ribbed dome... I suppose I should have been more specific... either would have worked in my example. I liked that the guys-behind-the-camera decided to go with the ribbed look (I love the 2nd movie ribbed aliens.... the AVP-R ribbed ones look like shit, tho).
Interesting theory about the lack of biomechanical... that it was remnant from the "Space Jockey Alien/Queen"... and that the physical attributes are carried over to the next generation, albeit "diluted".
You all know how much I dislike the concept of the alien taking on the physical attributes of its host, so this bugs me to no end. However, it is now a part of the mythos (sigh). But much (most) of my disdain for the alien designs from Alien3 and on stem from my dislike of that concept.
I still absolutely loathe the Predalien design.
Thanks for the comment!
Well until proven otherwise from the upcoming "prequel" to Alien, I don't think the Xeno's we see from the movies are bio-mechanical in appearance because they decended from the one that burst out of the "Space Jockey". If anything the "Jockey" race created the Xenomorphs artificially.
Anyway, I think the taking of attributes from hosts was a good idea that was originally from the "Alien" script. However, the Predalien went too far with the concept especially in regards to adopting Predator behaviour. This was probably a nod to the whole "hive mind" concept created in the comics but I perfer the Xeno's being mentally more animal then sentient. Unless of course if you enjoy the original script of Alien's creepy ending. ;)
VERY good article, I should point out that the Aliens taking traits from their hosts is not an idea borne from Alien 3, but that it actually predates this with Scott and Cameron commenting on the issue several times, as well as others involved with the production of the first two. Still, give ADI an inch and they take a mile - and promptly screw up the Alien design for 4 movies (Alien3 Alien was passable - but not biomech was a sin!) I'm gonna follow because of this article, top notch.
Predalien is the most ridiculous design i've ever seen
Sooo... I realize this article is over 2 years old, but through the marvels of the internet I stumbled upon it today. In a way, I'm ashamed to admit I own all of the Alien movies, including the 2 AVP's... That said, my favorite is still Aliens. From a theatrical, as well as design standpoint - Its arguably the most ripped off movie in Sci Fi.
From the minute I saw AVP-R I disliked it. It's poorly written, acted, directed, and designed, not to mention that it was cobbled together ridiculously fast compared with a long layover between the last alien or predator, and AVP. (which still pretty well blew)
As stand alone designs, for the back of a collectors edition, or some concept artists portfolio I think the predalien (stupid name) is cool, kinda. There's alot of cool detailing in the textures, and while its more bio - than mechanical, its still somewhat biomechanical.. that babypoop green color however, makes it look far too organic, and i whole heartedly agree that's corny. The greenish look, is overdone also, because of the overwhelming use of green lighting. They should have kept the black color.. I do like the dome in the head, with the transparency - the original ridley scott/geiger creature had that huge smooth penile dome head? but they only made a couple, and one broke. To avoid this issue in the sequel, Cameron decided to "ridge out" the dome some, to strengthen it for practicality.. I personally enjoy practical effects, mixed with cg, for best believability. But Shit, at this point, with good enough cg, you could probably create a more believable creature with a smoothed out dome, or a ridgidy one, than the dreadlocked -half ridged, queen dome mess this creature became.
That said? the human bred aliens in this movie are terrible also. The faces have a strangely bumped out mouth, with large lips. Just look at the box art, vs the box art of even the original avp. Awful. Mind you, this comes strictly from an artistic and design perspective, not even bothering to debate the dubious "life cycle" and whatnot.
Thanks for reading, Im gonna go watch one of the classics, and draw some shit.
Shanes
No I'm not saying that all of what you say makes no sense but for the record, the original alien design incorporated incredibly human characteristics, such as thumbs, humanoid body shape, and also, if you look at the original alien skull, the faint outline of a human nose and eye sockets under the semi-translucent armor.
Now, yeah the PredAlien was way too far off, but also with the mandibles, if you've seen the skull design of the predator, it has enormous mandibles. but the bulk of them hide under the skin and go back into sockets in the skull. With an Alien, not having flexible skin and more robotic, segmented, insect-like exoskeleton, could not pull this off, so they just showed the entirety of the mandibles.
Also, in Alien: Resurrection, the queen after mutation gave live birth to a human-xenomorph hybrid as well. Although this isn't all that solid a defense as to the PredAlein, considering it was a clone queen that was grown inside a human along with the D.N.A. of Ripley inside her. Which in itself makes no sense, because unless when a facehugger plants an egg, it also mutates human D.N.A. into partial Alien as well, then the baby queen shouldn't have grown inside the Ripley clone.
But I'm getting side-tracked. my point is, that Ridley Scott wanted characteristics of the host blended into the creature.
I agree that the PredAlien shouldn't have dreadlocks, considering that the dreads in a predator are grown near their version of "puberty", and considering Xenomorphs don't have specific genders, there should be no dreads. The mandibles, already stated my opinion as an explanation as to their gigantic size.
I have to post this in two parts cuz it was too large for one single post. the one right above is also mine this is the second half sorry.
No, it is not a hybrid, that is very much clear. Although if somehow the Xenomorph has some sort of mutative property when inside a host, then that might explain why they take on host characteristics. Yes, it should be thin like a normal Xenomorph, although not AS thin as one spawned from a human host, but not with big, thick muscles like a Predator. Somewhere in between.
The PredAlien should most definitely contain the mechanical characteristics, and the black exoskeleton, as that is one of the largest features of the Alien. The head shape I agree should be more like a typical Alien's, although maybe a little flatter, not all that much, just a bit.
Also, behavior is a problem. I mean, yeah, the human-Xenomorph at the end of Resurrection acted human and had love towards Ripley, but that was a huge failure of a movie. The PredAlien would be the same in behavior, if not just slightly more aggressive, but that's it.
As for reproduction...yeah. That's just stupid. There's no basis whatsoever behind that type of reproduction. Aliens use facehuggers, and Predators? They're freaking reptiles! They obviously lay eggs, or give birth to live young. So no, injecting a body with eggs, that's just wrong. Period.
There's one thing that also incredibly bothers me about the PredAlien, as well as the Xenomorphs from the fourth alien movie. Digitigrade legs. The original and second movies, the aliens spawned from human hosts had regular, if not a bit thinner, feet. like a normal human. and their toes were the same, but clawed. Here in the fourth movie, somehow, aliens spawned from humans now have digitigrade, dinosaur-like legs, with thick, taloned feet. PredAlien as well, has digitigrade feet. Yet the original Aliens, or at least human-hosted ones, have normal, slightly elongated feet. and Predators have regular feet as well. They don't stand on their toes, that doesn't work. In order to be digitigrade, you need to have a thick tail to counterbalance the rest of your body shifting forward. Yet the PredAlien's tail is long, and thin. Not nearly enough weight to keep it upright.
In conclusion, yeah, the PredAlien could have a lot of work done to it. But it doesn't necessarily have to look like a regular alien with small mandibles. Just, maybe a slightly larger, slightly more muscular Alien, with mandibles, and maybe a beastly roar. I mean come on, even if it doesn't follow the regulations of a Xenomorph's typical growls, hisses, and shrieks, a roar is a roar. and roars are awesome.
Ok, I'm done with my rant. Just wanted to share my opinion with people who understand the true awesomeness of what we know as the Xenomorph.
(I have to post this in two parts cuz it was too large for one single post. the one right above is also mine this is the second half sorry.)
No, it is not a hybrid, that is very much clear. Although if somehow the Xenomorph has some sort of mutative property when inside a host, then that might explain why they take on host characteristics. Yes, it should be thin like a normal Xenomorph, although not AS thin as one spawned from a human host, but not with big, thick muscles like a Predator. Somewhere in between.
The PredAlien should most definitely contain the mechanical characteristics, and the black exoskeleton, as that is one of the largest features of the Alien. The head shape I agree should be more like a typical Alien's, although maybe a little flatter, not all that much, just a bit.
Also, behavior is a problem. I mean, yeah, the human-Xenomorph at the end of Resurrection acted human and had love towards Ripley, but that was a huge failure of a movie. The PredAlien would be the same in behavior, if not just slightly more aggressive, but that's it.
As for reproduction...yeah. That's just stupid. There's no basis whatsoever behind that type of reproduction. Aliens use facehuggers, and Predators? They're freaking reptiles! They obviously lay eggs, or give birth to live young. So no, injecting a body with eggs, that's just wrong. Period.
There's one thing that also incredibly bothers me about the PredAlien, as well as the Xenomorphs from the fourth alien movie. Digitigrade legs. The original and second movies, the aliens spawned from human hosts had regular, if not a bit thinner, feet. like a normal human. and their toes were the same, but clawed. Here in the fourth movie, somehow, aliens spawned from humans now have digitigrade, dinosaur-like legs, with thick, taloned feet. PredAlien as well, has digitigrade feet. Yet the original Aliens, or at least human-hosted ones, have normal, slightly elongated feet. and Predators have regular feet as well. They don't stand on their toes, that doesn't work. In order to be digitigrade, you need to have a thick tail to counterbalance the rest of your body shifting forward. Yet the PredAlien's tail is long, and thin. Not nearly enough weight to keep it upright.
In conclusion, yeah, the PredAlien could have a lot of work done to it. But it doesn't necessarily have to look like a regular alien with small mandibles. Just, maybe a slightly larger, slightly more muscular Alien, with mandibles, and maybe a beastly roar. I mean come on, even if it doesn't follow the regulations of a Xenomorph's typical growls, hisses, and shrieks, a roar is a roar. and roars are awesome.
Ok, I'm done with my rant. Just wanted to share my opinion with people who understand the true awesomeness of what we know as the Xenomorph.
Im sorry for the double post above my computer crapped out.
For me even the second film "ruined" the Alien...
In the very first film it is not only amazing, biomechanical and creepy as hell, there's not even such a clear and Cameron-ised dumbed down "they're like wasps" crap as in Aliens... It's truly Alien and horrible. Its parasitism is obvious in film 1, but its instars or stages of growth are alien to Earth life.
Even reducing it to having such a simplistic hollywood solution as a killable queen is dumb imo. That is a big evolutionary backward step to film 1 where all it takes is one egg, one facehuggers, one alien, which grows rapidly but not ridiculously so, it lays more eggs- more facehuggers, and so on.
Aliens began the downward slide with way too many cliches and moving it from true horror genre to the typical mindless pap catering to the Homer Simpson asperger generation of carbon units.
/rant
:)
Fair enough!
I'm a huge Alien & Aliens fan but completly understand your feelings on the matter & why.
While I do love the queen -although wish she looked more biomechanical & Giger- you could almost not have her (& the wasp factor) in the film. It would stay true to the first one and still be an amazing film.
Thanks for chiming in!!
I like the "Predalien" from "AVP:R"
cause of its design makes it looks very strong and inteeligent.
Why are y'all complain about it? It's kind of cool that facehugger can impregnate other species besides a human.
To read my complaints, see the post above.
I have no problem with the idea that the facehugger can impregnate a Predator. That was never an issue... and its the way the life-cycle works.
My complaint is that the Predalien looks like a HYBRID. Its not a Hybrid... its an ALIEN that came out of a Predator. It shouldn't be 50/50 Alien/Predator design. It should be an ALIEN with (for sake of argument) slight physical attributes of the Predator.
The color scheme is wrong... the huge mandibles are lame... the dreadlocks (its fucking HAIR... would an Alien have an afro if it's host was a Jackson Five member? (NO).... its life-cycle is not of an Alien, but of something else entirely (dumping multiple chesburters down the throat of pregnant women)... etc etc etc.
It's the DESIGN and EXECUTION of the Prealien seen in AVP-R that I have a problem with.
If it looked more like an actual Alien; black, biomechanical, stayed true to the life-cycle... you know, everything that makes the Alien the Alien... then I wouldn't have a problem with it.
With all due respect to this great article, and you are right on most although I disagree, do me a favor and remove reason No. 8.
you already pointed out before that you hate the loss of the bio-mechanic.
writing that it looks like a guy in a suit?!
COME ON!
in the old movies you can see the wrinkles in the suit and almost hear the guy inside muttering how he wonts to get out!
with all your hate to the design,
please don't compare the real guy in a suit to great (although badly designed) computer work.
#8 is more about the physical DESIGN of the Predalien, than the guy in suit aspect. Like I said, it now has "thick, meaty, muscular body parts; Aliens are tall and skinny." it's the stocky, beefy physique that bugs me, which also brings attention to the fact it's a guy in a suit. This might also have to do with how it was lit & shot(?).
Perhaps I can rephrase my #8 wording.
I hear you but personally disagree about the guy in suit part in Alien & Aliens. The alien in the first 2 never looked like a guy in a suit...to me... atleast enough to pull me from the film or cause me to hate their designs.
*ok there's that one shot in ALIEN when it's dangling out of the shuttle. The aliens in A3 and A4 do not apply to my critique because they, too, sucked.
The Predalien is not entirely computer work. Most shots are indeed a guy in a suit: Tom Woodruff Jr, who was in the alien suit for A3, A4, AVP & AVP-R (and co-owner of ADI who did the creature FX). It's those moments, especially the final fight with the Wolf Predator, that scream guy in suit.
So #8 is still a complaint if mine: the Predalien is too thick & muscular for my tastes. And in the end, this post on this silly blog is merely MY opinion, not an in-depth analysis. :)
HI, iam a huge Alien/Predator fan too, first sry for my bad english(iam from Switzerland) but iam 100 sure that a predalien is not going to be an Alien queen! and it has nothing do do with it! Lifecycle = Facehugger(Or Queenfacehugger) then queen-chestburster=Queen(or normal chestburster then going the normal Alien stadium morphing to praetorian and morphes to an full Queen) fill but its a secret if an Queenfacehugger exists or not rumors etc. but in Alien 3 Ripley hat the queen inside from a normal facehugger i think.. not sure, but the idea that the Predalien will be an queen etc. thats bullshit in my opinion, just movie crap.. greetings from Switzerland
Well, why do you even consider "Alien versus Predator" in any way related to the original Alien? It's not. It's just fan craption of the shittiest kind. Might as well get upset about some doofus posting Alien/Predator porn on Deviantarts (I'll bet there is something of the sort on there, couldn't be arsed to check), not worth the bother at all.
Hello. nice journalism on the Predalien. I'm not really the biggest fan of the franchise but i am a fan. Interesting discussion on its origins and biology. I was thinking, maybe the alien just has some kind of advanced parasitic reproductive process that involves splicing specific genetic attributes from various creatures. Maybe even only going after the most aggressive attributes or perhaps the most useful. I mean, isn't that the science these days? Face huggers might as well be creepy crawly giant sperm in that universe. Which means this might as well be an extension of the alien species reproductive process. So the large mandibles may just be a physical abnormality, kinda like the results of inbreeding, or in this case inter-species breeding. The dominant features simply prevail for the same reasons couples who are of mixed decent will tend to have children with mixed features. As for the predalien and pregnant women, the predator does not attack pregnant women simply cause he's still a predator in part 2. While as a predalien, those characteristics no longer apply. The predalien is an alien with predator features, and still functions under the mentality to feed rather than play hunting games. You just gotta love how science fiction works and how the possibilities are endless, and yes its nice when science fact can support these wonderful imaginative creations of the mind.
Pardon my late posting but I have been a fan of the series longer than I have been using the internet (trying to catch up).
On with the comment. I mostly agree with all your dislikes. The Predalien was in a word "disgraceful."
Realizing you dislike the host-characteristic-sharing I must say the human-hosted version are very humanoid aside from head and tail. They can walk upright, have hands with opposable digits, standard two arms, two legs with chest/abdominal regions. One could argue that perhaps the genetic splicing is a survival characteristic to create diversity within the xenomoprh population. These are an alien species after all and therefore we cannot necessarily compare their life-cycle to Earth species. Their blood and ability to survive in even the harsh vacuum of space is unlike anything on our planet, as far as I am aware.
In Alien 3 the major change was how it walked on all fours though the coloring changed which I found odd. But other than that it wasn't as huge a leap as what AVPR tried to pass off as a new alien.
The Predalien was severely over stylized, integrating far too many Yautja(Predator) features. It absolutely did not need dreads. The mandibles would have sufficed (though closer to the shape and size of its host would have been best). The Yautja are humanoid so they could have simply put the mandibles on the species that was in AVPR.
I am so happy though that someone else found the new life cycle as ridiculous, unwarranted and completely inexcusable. As you said, human-hosted version lays eggs utilizing face-huggers so to the writers... nice try at creativity but epic failure.
Why is it that average Joe's like us can see right through these dismal, illogical mistakes within seconds but the people making these films with all time they have before production seem unable to catch them?
But I digress. Very good blog. Glad there are still intelligent critics/fans out there.
Follow up on my previous comment. As I said and you can see, I am a novice in the internet world. I should have read all the earlier or at least the major comments above - namely Chet's. Apparently I have not read the novel that indicated where the juvenile queen can inject eggs into the host directly. It makes sense.
Still, as an artist myself I still feel the Predalien-queen could have been much sleeker. If you are arguing that she needs to be able to quickly start up her colony then why is she chunky and slow? She should be a strong, deadly-fast and graceful killer. Her fighting style looked like a man wearing an alien suit.. boxing. Even the drones seemed more adapt at survival than she did.
Also, the theory about them needing to take on the strengths of the species host in order to take on stronger adversaries. Why would the Xenomorph need to do this with their current incredible tolerance to the most extreme environments, speed, acidic blood and not to mention the fact that it takes a face-hugger to begin the cycle which is not bigger or stronger than it's potential Yautja host? Their quick maturation cycle and swarming numbers is a key factor in their survival as well. I just don't feel this fits in with the series.
Also, sorry for the multiple posting of the same comment. The 2nd was the edited version. Somehow I accidentally posted the first draft before proof-reading. If you want you could delete the first one. Please don't post a new thread entitled "HATING THE RUSS" (Though I couldn't blame you ^^)
Hey Russ - I removed your first post, by request. No harm done with the double posting. Thanks for chiming in! :)
Just throwing this out there, but we know that Predators will "seed" worlds with xenomorphs in order to train new hunters. We now know there are two sub-species of Predator, as well. My hypothesis is that xenomorphs are actually the creation of the predators in generations past, and that creation involved predator DNA.
the reason the predalien has dreadlocks is the predator has more potent genes and that implies the look and color are also from the powerfull genes
http://browse.deviantart.com/?order=9&q=predalien&offset=48#/d2uj26l
http://browse.deviantart.com/?order=9&q=predalien&offset=0#/d15h5l8
I believe this rectifies the problem
sweet, thanks Anon!
With the alien species being an inter-galactic parasite i can under stand how they take on the DNA of their hosts to allow them to adapt to that particular species, to counter attack one might say. those aliens are transbreed aliens, in other words they are a mixture of the hosts and the aliens DNA with the aliens being the more dominant in DNA. However the pure breeds of aliens such as the Praetorian and the Queen are designed to overpower any species encountered. The praetorian is the royal guard of the queen sporting a head crest similar to the queen. In the absence of a queen the praetorians fight amongst themselves and the winner undergoes a metamorphosis into a royal coocoon emerging after an unknown amount of time. Praetorians can spawn from any host whether it be predator, human or quadruped. So the idea that chet is a "young queen" is utter rubbish as praetorians are all black with the bio-mechanical body design, they define "pure-breed" and properly represent the alien species as the inter-galactic parasite that they are.
This following part is my opinion.
Predaliens should look like a human spawned alien but with mandible to define it but retain the black and silver coloration of all the others, and perhaps a different style tail blade maybe one that is crescent shaped.
On the whole i totally agree that the predalien from AVP-R is rubbish as it doesn't intergrate with previous alien mytho's.
I forgot to mention how praetorians are created, my apologies.
There are two theroies, The first and the more generaly accepted theory is that certain aliens have the potential to become a praetorian and eventually a queen, when the old queen dies these select few drones go into a state of shock and collapse as the queen dies and the cocoon and change into praetorians. In the case there is only one praetorian it will start the transformation into a queen automatically, As seen in AVP on the PS3 the praetorian kills all threats AND gathers a host or two, no belly bursters of any kind seen or otherwise noted before it turned into a queen.
This is the second theory, take your pick of the two as both are from games but not from the movies.
The queen can command any number of regular eggs to morph into what is known as praetorian eggs, these eggs are tougher, the facehuggers are larger and more armoured and have stronger tail for a longer leaping distance and they are a dark brown. No matter what host is used they will always be the same.
*and they cocoon*
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