The ancestor of "Predator" is the first part of "Alien" released in North America in 1979. Before 2010, the quartet "Alien", three "Predator", and two "Alien vs. Predator", combined with countless animations and games derived from it, formed the "Alien-Predator Universe". The timeline of the series of feature films is roughly as follows:
Alien (1979)
Aliens 2 Aliens (1986)
Predator (1987)
Predator 2 (1990)
Alien³ (1992)
Alien: Resurrection (1997)
--------------2000 dividing line --------------
Alien vs. Predator AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004)
Aliens vs Predator 2 AVPR: Aliens vs Predator-Requiem (2007)
New Predators (2010)
--------------2010 dividing line --------------
Prometheus (2012)
Alien: Covenant (2017)
The Predator (2018)
Friends who are familiar with these movies can clearly see. 2000 was the first stage of the Alien-Predator Universe. The first two "Alien" directed by Ridley Scott and James Cameron created a box office miracle on a global scale. "Alien" invested US$11 million in the first part, and earned 203 million at the global box office (including rescreening), "Alien 2" invested 18.5 million, and the global box office was 131 million. It is precisely because these two movies have set off a continuous alien fever that gave birth to the first "Predator".
The human protagonist of "Predator" is Major Dach, played by Schwarzenegger. He led a U.S. special force to Central America to rescue the hostages. Unexpectedly, he encountered an alien warrior with high intelligence in the jungle, and his comrades died one after another. . In the face of desperation, Schwarzenegger made a desperate move and decided to fight the alien warriors to the death.
This immature movie has many shadows of popular movies at the time: the scene selection looks like "First Blood", the lone hero singles out a strong non-human opponent like "Rocky 4", and the alien warrior's jaw shape. It is exactly the same as the alien larvae in the Alien series, which is combined with the scorpion and crab shape-it is said that in the original design, the alien warrior is similar to the long-necked dragon shape, and it is difficult to make special effects. James Cameron is filming "Alien 2" After giving McTiernan some guidance, it was changed into a high-tech Amazon Berserker image with alien larvae jaws. This setting resulted in some comic works linking the two sources: Alien and Predator were originally the same creature, but in the long evolutionary process, the former was ant tribe, basically giving up rationality, and the latter was nomadic and militarized. When the two appear on the human timeline, they are already two groups with completely different behaviors.
In 1987, the original "Predator" was released in North America for five weeks at a cost of 18 million U.S. dollars, and it earned about 60 million U.S. dollars in box office. If only North America is the reference standard, compared with the 85 million North American box office of "Alien 2", "Predator" as McTiernan's first attempt at a genre film is considered to be a good result, so the shooting of the sequel is naturally ranked Up the schedule. The return of Fox’s investment in McTiernan gave him more creative freedom. McTiernan turned to filming "Die Hard", which would make him famous in the future. The second "Predator" was made by Stephen Hopkins, the newly promoted B-level film director, takes the shot. According to conscience, McTiernan's "Predator" is essentially just a follow-up work of Flowserve after tasting the sweetness of "Alien 1&2". With the successful setting of alien warriors, it took advantage of the bloody universe. The outlet of science fiction has achieved box office success. Stephen Hopkins, the director of "Predator 2", has just finished "Most Ghost Street 5" soon, and he obviously hasn't been relieved from the blood clot world of the B-level horror film: cost 35 million US dollars, more than three months Seizing the slow shooting time, I told a police story about hunting down tough alien warriors in Los Angeles. From the setting to the plot, the work has basically nothing to do with the previous work. Instead, it seems to follow the trend of another popular urban science fiction ranger movie "Robocop" (this movie happened to have a sequel in 1990), and finally Of course, even the cost has not been recovered. After disappointing the expectations of many fans, the "Predator" series was put on hold, and there will be no sequels in the first phase of the Alien-Predator Universe.
In fact, since David Fincher's "Alien 3" encountered Waterloo in 1992, the alien disaster film represented by the alien has gradually declined, and no new big IP has appeared. Of course, from the box office, "Alien 3" is not a failure. With 50 million investment, North America received about 55 million and the world received 159 million. Jean-Pierre Gennet’s "Alien 4" invested 75 million yuan, 1.5 times that of "Alien 3", but the North American box office was 10 million less than the previous one, and the global box office was barely flat. Since then, the "Alien" series has also come to an end, and the first phase of the Alien-Predator Universe is over.
If the leader of the first stage is an alien, the predator is just following the wind. Then, in the second stage of the universe, the predator became the well-deserved protagonist. After seven years of silence, in 2004, "Alien vs. Predator" turned out. PG13 rating, directed by Paul Anderson, spent 60 million to shoot, and nearly 200 million recovered globally. It is the second largest box office since the creation of the Alien-Predator Universe, second only to the founder of Alien 1. What is the story of "Alien vs. Predator"? It can be said in a few words: The American rich man discovered a mysterious Aztec temple hidden under the Antarctic glacier. He quickly formed a team for people to explore on the spot, and found a sleeping alien there. After Alien woke up, the predators who slaughtered Alien also followed, and a great battle started.
It sounds like a brainless film, and it looks like it does. Seeing that this extraterrestrial war movie that caters to the vulgar and curiosity of the audience in the sound and light special effects has achieved a brilliant record, Foss has successively invested in "Alien vs. Predator 2" and the "Predator" series of orthodox sequel "New" Predator". The filming of "The New Predator" is quite interesting. It seems that Foss wants to test whether the predator can hold up the sky independently without the big IP of Alien. "New Predator" originally had the opportunity to prop up a new world. On the one hand, it pays tribute to the original ancestor "Predator" in the setting of the plot. , The casting is also all powerful, but it is a pity that the director Nimrod Antal was not strong enough, and the execution was a mess, and in the end only a third-rate film was produced. Unfortunately, after the Predator IP, the restart failed to turn over and entered the dormant period again.
The third stage of the Alien-Predator Universe was led by the Alien Prequel "Prometheus". In 2012, Ridley Scott, who had been away for 33 years, returned, invested 100 million to recover 400 million, and the alien line was successfully restarted. The second part was released in 2017. Everyone knows the box office and plot, so I won't go into details here.
The first and second phases of the Alien-Predator series films do not pursue cause and effect very much. The atmosphere is mainly contrasted. The story has a Cthulhu feel. The alien predator dragon is not seen at the beginning, adding a sense of horror. The third stage of the film is the trend of the times. In order to please old fans, but also let new audiences recognize and accept its settings, they are often obsessed with the various burdens and clues that have not been specifically explained to the previous N parts. Come to a satisfactory explanation. The benefits of this are as mentioned above-the focus of the fan forum for many years has an official explanation. The newcomer is familiar with the restart, and thinks that the setting is OK, and people have love. Not only will they buy the Blu-ray discs, they will have money. If you want to find P1S, HT and other manufacturers to buy hands, and then develop a mobile game with the same name, the film party can charge an extra license fee.
After talking about the cause for a long time, we still talk about returning to the "Predator" before our eyes. The name is completely copied from the original ancestor of the family, and there is no alien disorder in the story-after eight years, this is the second restart of the Predator series. Compared with the billion-dollar investment in the two "Prometheus", the restart investment of "Predator" this time reached 90 million US dollars, given that it did not use a line of superstars such as Fasha (this is also the predator series except the original ancestors Tradition), it can be said to be on the same level as Alien Restart. The director of the 2018 version of "Predator" Shane Black filmed "Tear-resistant Detective" in 2016, a remarkable detective comedy, which clearly arranged Gosling and Russell Crowe, and its retro style is blessed The senior leaders of Sri Lanka are quite admired. Perhaps the Foss big guys also realized that the restart shooting is too bizarre and surreal, and there is no way out in this era. It is better to pay tribute to retro, it is better to find someone to reproduce the glory of the original ancestor of "Predator" in a popular way. Moreover, Shane Black and the founder of "Predator" have a deep relationship-he once played the role of Hawkins, the radio operator of the governor team in the film that year. The young man with big glasses of the elderly was killed by the predator not long after he appeared on the stage. In other words, the director of the 2018 version of "Predator" is precisely the first person with a surname killed by the legendary character "Predator" in the history of science fiction movies. The slain Dragon Set came back to life and personally filmed the restarted series of new works. Based on his familiarity with Yuanzu movies and the excellent skills that have been proven by "Tear-resistant Detective", he made a new "Predator" in the new era. Isn't it just a handy catch? Perhaps-under the guidance of this idea, the 2018 version of "Predator" turned out.
I watched the German subtitled version in Lucerne, and the medium-sized theaters were full, which is rare in Switzerland. Considering that there are many diehard fans in the German-speaking area-Predator, and the surrounding area of the fat house has been selling well, it is not uncommon for dead fans to squeeze the theater line under the premise of unclear initial word-of-mouth. How do you say the film itself, probably because of the aforementioned Alien-Predator Universe Phase 3 fundamentals, Shane Black wanted too much to let new viewers figure out the settings, and at the same time, he was afraid of making mistakes, so he was very cautious in shooting. It directly leads to the fact that most of the film is very dull. However, Shane's film has a very significant advantage, that is, the rhythm is accurate-so dull to dull, the film looks very smooth as a whole, it is the kind of steady and steady feeling of the ancient suspense film style, every step is The completion is quite standard, and there are several scenes that can be called classics. For the specific look and feel, please refer to "Brave to Death Island".
Many classic settings of the "Predator" series are still in use, and some of the abilities that were not clearly explained are also explained in detail in this film. For example, the stealth technology of the predator is completed by a projectile-like sphere device, which can be easily used by humans. The mask's perspective, light sensitivity, infrared, scanning, communication, etc. are all missing. Because it is a retro tribute route, there are no big scenes except for the CG outer space performance used in the spacecraft communication a few times. After the film progressed to the last third, the mercenary protagonist and his son entered the predator mother ship, and the army, the protagonist team, and the predator had a three-way duel. The action scenes increased significantly. In addition, the scene continued to be dim, frequent cuts and close-ups, even with There was a strong feeling of hide-and-seek in the alien spaceship. On the other hand, it is precisely because of the dim picture that a large part of the scene is missing, and even the scene of the bombing of the ship seems warm and hasty. Compared with the previous part of the film, there is a scene in the laboratory where the captured predator escapes and is very bright, but it seems unnecessary. A stripped predator "corpse" was tied up in the center of a laboratory similar to the Radiation 4 Adult Base. Everything was clear, but it lost its sense of mystery. The drama in which the heroine and XXX are stripped and disinfected, and even this part of the dialogue, gives people the illusion of a B-level film in the 1970s.
Fortunately, the jungle battle at the end of the film still regained a city fiercely. The film begins in the jungle, and ends in the jungle. If you ignore the plot, ignore the popular father-son family drama, cut off the messy parts in the middle, it's just like the original ancestor "Predator". At dawn, the powerful ultimate alien warrior fell into a pool of fluorescent blood. The new generation of "Major Daqi" returned in uniform. Chunfeng triumphantly joined the new plan for aliens. His son gave him a high-five at the research base. Congratulations, in an atmosphere of joy and harmony, abnormalities suddenly appeared. After Foss released a big smoke bomb, he told everyone ambitiously:
"Don't worry, we are not going to restart AVP, we just want to pay tribute to Iron Man in another way."
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