Movies: Happy Feet, Unhappy Humans

[woodwardiocom]

Happy Feet microreview: "I don't remember Moulin Rouge having penguins in it."

(Or a heavy-handed environmental message, but, hey . . . )

AVP2: Requiem review: Apparently, they decided that the way to make a good Aliens vs. Predator flick was to constantly throw in homages to the earlier films in both series. Unfortunately, this mostly serves to starkly illustrate that this is the worst of the lot. Yes, it's worse than A3; while that movie was overblown with its artsy-ness, at least it was trying to say something. AVP2 is also worse than A4 and P2, both of which had quotable dialogue and characters you occasionally rooted for. This one just has a bunch of nonentities who say stupid stuff before dying horribly. Oh, and, in the dark, 'cause they apparently didn't have the budget to make their FX good enough to survive daylight. Even AVP1 was better, though maybe just 'cause I'm a sucker for Antarctic ruins and doomed explorers thereof.

Just for fun, here are the IMDb ratings for the eight movies in these franchises:

A1: 8.5 (#49 movie of all time)
A2: 8.4 (#65 movie of all time)

P1: 7.7 (You need a 7.9 to break the Top 250 at the IMDb.)
P2: 5.8

A3: 6.4
A4: 6.1

AVP1: 5.4
AVP2: 5.1

However, if you're interested in the AVP mythos, you do get to meet Ms. Yutani in the last scene, in which she gets her hands on a piece of Predator tech, with the strong suggestion she will use it to promote space exploration.

Comments

[trowa-barton.livejournal.com]

I actually liked P2 and A4, especially with Ron Perlman as Jonah.
I have no intention of seeing any of the AVP movies, Company origins or no Company origins.

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

I thought Alien Resurrection was awesome. And went to see it in the theater twice.

(You may start mocking me now.)

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

No, it's cool. AR was different, I will give it that. You don't see many all-villain movies.