Movies Alien movies (also featuring Predator)

Predator: Badlands (2025) - Saw this today. I am no "Predator purist" at all, sorry, so I don't have a fixed idea on what a Predator movie "should" be like. I know some people aren't happy it's PG13 or whatever (though it does seem to be have been generally very well recieved.) I thought Prey was very good and all I was hoping is this would be as good. And I think it was! It is a fun sci-fi action adventure buddy movie - a little bit Star Trek and quite a bit Star Wars, but doesn't feel like a copy of either. With the Yautja being the main character, it can't really just be him hunting and killing people (or aliens): you need some kind of character arc and Dek definitely goes through a full evolution here. Elle Fanning is adorable as a very cheery synth (and her not so cheery twin) and she and Dek make for a strong double act. There's a second sidekick character that I thought was going to be too cute at first but it does have story reason to be there and is eating heads by the end, so that works out fine! Most of the comedy is funny.

The action is good and never stops for long. There's a lot of violence against synths who looks just like humans but bleed milk blood so you can get away with it.

Sound design was excellent.

I liked that Dek still killed his dad in the end and wans't all "no, I am good now!" Dad had it coming anyway. I was pleased there was no fan service "look, an egg from Alien!" type moments and they just used Weyland-Yutani as the standard evil corporation for this universe.

I did think they could have explained a bit more what made Thea so different from Tessa, as I think the movie said they both have "increased emotional sensitivity" or something but Thea is lovely and Tessa is pretty evil?

So yeah, FUN FOR ALL AGES, really, I will recommend it and it seems to be doing pretty well at the box office so that's good FOR THE FRANCHISE.

I have only watched one Alien movie from beginning to end, and that was Alien: Resurrection. And that was back when the movie came out, so I can't remember shit from it aside from Fork/Fuck.

Oddly enough I have the Quadrilogy in a DVD set. And I have never seen a Predator movie. Although I should watch the classics.

Some people very happy about this, some very much the opposite. Covenant was the movie I liked the least when I watched them all last year, and I don't think any of Scott's recent movies have been well received, so I'm not really into this news. But Fassbender was Fasstastic (fantastic) as David so he'll be good again, at least.

It's fascinating to me that after the first 4 movies it's like the people in charge of the franchise have little interest in doing anything with the "Alien" and seem to go off on tangents such as "what's it like to be a robot made out of cum?" or "what's it like to be a cum robot obsessed with making space monsters?" or "what if Peter Pan was a cum robot clone?" and occasionally "What if Predator? What if he had half a cum robot buddy?"

I started predator badlands the other day, only managed about 15 minutes, the next day I couldn't even remember what film I had tried to see.

I hear it gets better later, but I am glad there wasn't a jaws film that started with a small shark getting bullied by other sharks for 15 minutes before they introduce any human characters.

I liked it.

I'm sure it gets better, it was late when I was watching it, and I could have kept watching, or had a wank, so you can see my dilemma.

I recall thinking Badlands wasn't awful but I don't remember much about it at the time except thinking it felt oddly family oriented/friendly for a Predator entry. I did eyeroll at the old-timey kung fu movie type opening title graphic, like yeah, we get it director/producer/whatever, you're that kinda guy. Great. I could have also done without the little alien buddy thing too even though it was executed well enough.

Getting more of the Predator culture is a curse as much as it is a gift, there's practically no mystery left to these assholes anymore as they're yet another martial "warrior" culture with a vague sense of honour yadda yadda yadda, but it *is* kinda fun to visit with them even though anybody interested enough to watch this movie has seen this kind of shit a thousand times before.

All this nerd shit is just congealing into slop with time. Ridley Scott needs to retire and just go on UFO podcasts until his brains completely melt.