My confession is that I haven't seen the entire Alien movie (the first and original) the full way through. Don't get me wrong I have seen the movie but not from start to finish. Over the past many years I have managed to successfully watch half an hour at a time before I finally cave into the terror and turn it off. With this movie however I have made several high brow critical comments such as 'if the rats run that direction follow them you idiots,' 'that is not a rat you friggin tosser' and 'dude could get away with pretending he is a tall Rastafarian with these bunch of idiots.' I'm not rating it highly as you can tell.
The reason why the original works for me is because I feel physically tense when I watch it. Even though I know what is coming and the element of surprise is somewhat diminished it is still uncomfortable enough to be interesting and scary. In this movie I am more like 'yeah, yeah, yeah facehugger blah blah blah.' I will also forever love the fact that the original introduced one of the first strong female characters in a genre where women were pretty much cannon fodder. Without Ripley who knows if we would have had Scully, or Buffy or any other kickass female ending with 'y' like....Gerry for example!
Watching this though reminds me of a conversation I had once with my friend the Fluffy Duck. In Alien vs Predator there are two primary opponents, the aforementioned Alien and the aforementioned Predator. Humans are merely the background event, primarily running around like fools trying and failing to not get impregnated or killed. We aren't rooting for the humans merely just hoping that the ones we like will get out alive. In this particular good vs. bad guy movie we are supposed to be backing the Predator. He (are there any she's?) is the 'good guy.' I could now launch into a pseudo feminist rant about how the Alien's are all female, the Predators are all male and that this is a sexist movie designed to perpetuate that female's are crazy hormonal creatures driven soley by their purpose to reproduce and males are the strong 'heroic' balance restorers. But I wont.
What I will say though is we are supposed to be supporting this guy:-
Really? REALLY? Now don't get me wrong, if I am faced with Mr. Pincer above I have a better chance of surviving than faced with Ms. Slimey below.
One look at me and any self respecting Alien would go 'hmmm hello nice fleshy incubator' but then they aren't particularly discerning. Predator would have a look over and walk off laughing. Worthy opponent I am not.
But for some reason we are supposed to find this decent behaviour? If you are weaponless and defenceless you are supposed to go 'why thank you mighty warrior alien race for not destroying me, you are of strong and wonderous character.' As I said to my friend, the Alien isn't inherently evil. I don't want to come face to face with one but they are acting on their base urges. Evolved to ensure their species survives whatever the cost. Pleasant? No. Neither is the real life Spider Wasp which Alien was supposed to be based on. Check it out here if you want.
We are led to believe the Predator has a higher degree of consciousness yet they are still very happy to hunt other species. Hmm familiar. It is a creature with a supposed higher moral compass that is quite happy to kill other sentient creatures for funsies. I am curious as to this guy's motivation if I'm completely honest. If a shark or lion or other predatory animal attacks there is usually some basic evolutionary motivation behind it. Food, threat, reproductive challenges. If a person attacks another person what is their reasoning? If you know what is right and what is wrong and still act in a detrimental way to others is that not wrong?
I feel like I need to sit the Predator down and find out exactly when he felt that his mummy stopped loving him.
That all being said I really am rooting for the dreadlock guy but here is a nice video to further support the fact that he is a douche.
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