I apologize to James Lileks
Category: Movies...
Posted Thursday, February 03, 2005 at 03:38 PM [GMT-6]

I've been bad...very bad. But it's not my fault, really.

You see, I normally read The Bleat around 6:30 in the a.m., at which point I've had only one cup of coffee, and so, well, sometimes I read things that Mr. Lileks didn't write. And thus it was that I accused him of dissing "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" based on this post, and he called me on it (my comment is first on the list; you'll have to scroll down a bit to see his terse response).

I admit it. After a fully-caffeinated re-read, I realize that I deserve the Chastening Perry Head.

But he's still wrong about "Alien vs. Predator."

Permalink
Comments

Wow, that makes you almost famous! I'm jealous. Trading barbs with the best writer on the net on the fifth best writers blog.

Posted by: anselm at February 3, 2005 03:49 PM

FIFTH best? I demand to know who is ahead of me! Besides James, I mean.

Well , fifth isn't so bad. But I still want to know who I have to kill.

Posted by: michele at February 3, 2005 03:53 PM

Anselm, thankfully, he took pity on my obvious lack of mental capacity, otherwise I'd be a smoking heap on the carpet about right now.

And, Michele, I'm very happy to affirm that I'm not in the top 3, so please don't kill me. I'd hate to have two of the top...and I mean VERY top...bloggers after me in one day. Although, now that I think about it, that might be some kind of record. A sick, cruel record, but, nevertheless...

Posted by: Eric at February 3, 2005 03:59 PM

I can't blame him for disliking AvP.

There were bound to be problems the moment Fox decided to make the movie "PG-13" for the summer vacation kiddie audience. Both franchises have always been extremely messy.

That's inevitable with an alien species (Internecivus Raptus) that punches out of a human host's chest, has acid for blood, and eats people when it isn't getting them infected in a particularly icky way.

Predators like hunting armed humans and it only gets worse when they land "the big one". Like most hunters, they enjoy "harvesting" trophies. Predators prefer the, ehem, European Mount.

Let's face it. With aliens (or predators) behaving like that, neither series has ever been PG-13 material. Not without some significant compromises in the action and the inevitable camera cut-aways (again and again and again).

Even if we accept a "kinder, gentler (and PG-Thirteen friendly)" Alien and Predator movie, then there's the plot inconsistencies.

This is where Paul W.S. Anderson's "vision" contradicts so many different established concepts in both franchises, it's almost comical. Anderson casually threw aside that "almost" plausibility that made both film series enjoyable.

I'm going to paraphrase the AvP tag line: "No matter who wins, if Anderson directs, we lose."

Posted by: Mr. Freen at February 4, 2005 03:43 AM
Post a comment [Take your time...we're in no hurry.]
Note: You must provide either a website URL or an email address...but there's no rule that says you have to tell the truth. If you don't want your email address published on this site, just input a website URL, or make up an email address.









Remember personal info?