Predator Tagged Articles at Cinematical

When I closed my eyes and pictured the greatest villain costumes in sci-fi movies, I was surprised how often hair -- and headpieces -- come into play. That makes sense for those of us who are not costume purists because we're thinking of the character as a whole, and in movies we're very often looking at close-ups of villains. We want to get up close and personal, to study the sneer, to examine the evil eyes, to absorb the dismissive scowl, to observe the raised eyebrows.

Isn't it the whole package that sells a character as a villain? The actor makes all the difference in the world, no matter if he's buried under a ton of makeup or becomes nearly unrecognizable, but the costume plays an important role. In honor of all those who will sally forth this weekend in costumes that are good, bad, and ugly, we salute the designers of the top ten (plus a couple of bonus selections) greatest villain costumes in sci-fi movies, and the actors who wear them.

The Emperor Ming (Flash Gordon)

It takes a truly evil villain to pull off this particular outfit. Arrayed in varying shades of deep red and gold, Ming (the always game Max von Sydow) threatens to steal the show when those eyebrows are raised. Somehow Ming looks both sartorially forward-thinking -- what is that raised cowl doing back there except to frame his bald head -- and ridiculously, gloriously silly.

Read the rest over at SciFi Squad

Oh, that Sylvester Stallone. Rambo V has just been greenlit, and rumors have been bouncing around like decapitated heads about the storyline. Originally, Sly was said to be "fighting his way through human traffickers and drug lords to rescue a young girl abducted near the U.S.-Mexico border," according to Variety just over a week ago. (Hence the aliens. Get it?)

Well, Sly Stallone decided to go straight to Harry Knowles at Ain't It Cool News with the straight story -- in fact, he left the Head Geek a freaking voicemail, which you can listen to here. (Can you imagine waking up to a VM from him? Just sayin'.) The plot of Rambo V: The Savage Hunt, as CS points out, is very similar to a book that Sly owns the rights to: Hunter by James Byron Huggins, which seems quite popular with the author's fans over at Amazon. ("BIGFOOT ON STEROIDS WITH AN ATTITUDE TO MATCH" trumpets one review headline.) You can peep a hard-to-read scan of the plot summary at AICN, or give your eyes a break and check out the official write-up over at SciFi Squad ...

We spoke to Robert Rodriguez on video at Comic-Con, and then we sat down with him for a full interview to get an update on all of his projects, and to find out about his upcoming movie Shorts. He's definitely a man wearing a lot of hats, since he writes, directs, edits, scores, does special effects, and produces. In fact, just about the only thing he doesn't do in these films is act. He brought us up to date on Red Sonja, Sin City 2 and Predators, and spoke about being back at Comic-Con.

Read on after the break for his full interview, including more about Shorts and how his kids help inspire his movies. It's just after the jump, and is (mostly) free of information about who he's dating.

As far as hustling movie producer archetypes go, I tend to prefer Joel Silver over Harvey Weinstein. Sure, Weinstein played a role in some of the great American independent films from the last decade of the twentieth century, but Silver's production credits have more spice to them -- The Matrix, Predator, 48 Hrs. -- hinting at the zany force behind their existence. The movies he has produced don't always please everyone (consider those last two Matrix movies), and sometimes his productions run into unforeseeable setbacks (Joss Whedon's troublesome Wonder Woman script). But now, Silver's trying a radical maneuver that reaffirms his maverick abilities: He's shopping around Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla, which tells the story of a drama surrounding a stolen painting and stars Gerard Butler, to other studios despite the plan to release it through Warner Bros. in October.

According to Patrick Goldstein in The Los Angeles Times, Silver said he showed the movie to Lionsgate and Sony Pictures to get some advice on how to market the film. However, when Goldstein asked Warner Bros.' top executive Alan Horn about the situation, Horn called the movie "very English," not "broadly commercial," and said the studio "might not be willing to spend the marketing money he wants us to." So it follows that Silver probably wants to sell the movie to somebody else.

This kind of thing has happened before. Jonathan Levine's teen horror flick All the Boys Love Mandy Lane was set for a release through The Weinstein Company, but when it was determined that the distributor might not provide the best home for the film, it went to the more agreeable Senator Films (although Senator has yet to release it). What troubles me is Horn's assertion that RocknRolla is "very English." Yeah ... so?

Make-up, animatronics and effects legend Stan Winston passed away on Sunday at the too-young age of 62. In memoriam, Cinematical humbly presents this list of the man's most enduring achievements.

Some of my most treasured movie memories -- childhood and otherwise -- are courtesy of Stan Winston. What impressed me about this list as I was making it was that Winston specialized in realizing the imaginations of our greatest filmmakers -- directors like Burton, Spielberg, Cameron. Winston was a genius himself, of course, but he also facilitated genius, and that's just as important. Those guys owe him so much.

He had many accomplishments beyond the ones I've listed. That's what the comment thread is for.


1. Jurassic Park's Dinosaurs.

It's hard to describe the impression Jurassic Park made back in 1993. I was 9 years old, which was just old enough to be properly amazed. This was the new generation of popular cinema: perfect, lifelike wonders on the screen as if it were the most natural thing on the planet. Earlier technicians did a lot with simple puppetry, stop-motion and miniatures, but now all bets were off, and all barriers seemed lifted. Once you accepted the scientific goofiness of the film's premise, no further suspension of disbelief was necessary. Winston opened the gates to a whole new cinematic playground.

A number of sources are reporting that pioneering make-up, special effects, and animatronics wizard Stan Winston has died at age 62 -- far too soon. No word yet on cause of death.

The word "legend" gets tossed around a lot when famous people die, but Stan Winston is a legend. He brought to life the Terminator, Jurassic Park's dinosaurs, Predator, Edward Scissorhands, and the Penguin, just to name a few. Even now, when one would think the advent of CGI would have started to make him obsolete, his practical effects genius got him work on movies like Iron Man and the forthcoming Terminator Salvation. I guess it was inevitable that in the age of computers, Winston would go from creating wonders to perfecting them. But Iron Man owes a great deal to him. He kept Tony Stark from looking silly in that metal suit.

Far from being obsolete, Stan Winston is irreplaceable. Movie lovers will never forget him.

Ah, the ways in which they go about promoting movies these days. Just got an email from these people who set up a new online game built to pimp out the DVD release of Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. The game itself isn't much of a game as it is a gimmick, but you do need to be over 18 to play (though this one is based on the honor system). Basically, you can upload an image of yourself into the character they provide and are sent on a first-person mission through what appears to be some sort of human meat locker. You then move your soldier through the room, while an Alien scurries across the wall.

Then it gets interesting.

Both an Alien and a Predator catch you, hang you up on the door and begin to slowly rip apart your limbs. Remember, the image you uploaded can now be seen, and, well, it's all sort of creepy. They give you the option to kick and punch while you're hanging there, but c'mon -- kicking and punching is not going to stop these beasts from dissecting you one limb at a time. It's quite the gory online promotional item, hence the need to be over 18 -- so be aware that there's blood, guts and your sad sack of a face all mixed together. Definitely worth a pop in ... feel free to use the face of an ex-boyfriend or girlfriend and have a ball.

The DVD for Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem hits shelves on April 15.

The Strause Brothers -- or Brothers Strause, as the directing duo insists on being called -- have created a weirdly meta film in Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. I can't recommend it as a good movie on its own merits, stocked as it is with cardboard cutout characters and a barely coherent plot, but it's miles more interesting than the last Alien vs. Predator film and fans of the Alien and Predator film series may find it so strangely reference-heavy as to be entertaining on at least one level. This is a movie that starts out with the premise of 'Several Aliens and a Predator invade a small town' but ends up as a partial rehash of Aliens, complete with undisguised Ripley and Newt clones trying to escape an impending nuclear explosion via air transport and military guys getting picked off one at a time. It references entire shot sequences from Predator and a major plot device of Predator 2. It even references Yutani (!) in such a way that if you don't know what that is, you won't have a clue what's happening in the scene.

The first five minutes of the film that were released online before opening weekend turn out to be a poorly edited version of the film's first ten minutes -- that 'plot stuff' is trimmed down considerably -- and we get to see an Alien-infested Predator ship crash into the woodsy hills of Colorado while a father and son on a hunting trip look on in wonder (wouldn't you?) Pretty soon Dad's arm is being melted off by Alien acid blood and Junior has a face-hugger attached to his face, in a nice bit of non-family friendly killing. The main idea of the film will be to have one Predator arrive in Colorado to face off against several Aliens. It's a good choice, since the Predator is easily humanized, but once that decision has been made, why do the Strauses devote so much of the film to setting up bland human interactions? The title isn't Aliens vs. Predator vs. Humans, after all. If the film was truly brave, it would eschew a human perspective all-together, and simply deliver what the title promises.

The first few lines of dialogue in Alien vs. Predator: Requiem include "take your time" and "slow down," which is pretty ironic considering how impatient the movie comes off in its initial five minutes. Thanks to Yahoo! you can now watch those five minutes and see for yourself. You'll agree that at least in the opening, the sequel is not trying to waste any time. Right away we see an Alien pop out of a Predator's chest, which leads to a quick Alien-Predator battle, which immediately results in the Predator's ship crashing down onto Earth. At this point we meet father and son hunters, the former of which utters those first words.

Oh, and that's when it gets awesome: the hunter shoots one of the baby Aliens, which bleeds acid on his arm, which then falls off. Then another baby Alien jumps onto his face and another baby Alien jumps onto the kid's face. Satisfied yet? Well, you still have the beacon, which is picked up on the Predator home planet, where the last few minutes' events are given an instant replay, which is viewed by another Predator, who abruptly gets into another spaceship and heads to the rescue. And then ... we see the title sequence.

Yeah, in case the red-band trailer hadn't been enough, I have to reiterate that I've never been so excited about a movie I've had such a low expectation for in my entire life. Will Alien vs. Predator: Requiem suck? It's possible, but if it continues with such disregard for pauses, it's going to at least be a quick and painless shot of entertainment.

One of the only cool things about the first AVP: Alien vs. Predator was that Lance Henriksen co-starred. Of course, he didn't play "Bishop", his beloved android character from Aliens (or even Bishop II), but it was still a nice touch to have him in there. That is why it's disappointing to hear that none of the past Alien or Predator actors will be appearing in Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. In an interview with the MTV Movies Blog, AVP2 co-directors Colin and Greg Strause revealed that they attempted to cast some surprise guests, but were unfortunately unable to do so. The brothers wouldn't name names, but said that one person sought after was too expensive -- even for a cameo? -- and another "shockingly" blew them off. Funny, because aside from Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Bill Paxton and Ian Holm, I can't imagine many of the Alien series players being too high profile that they couldn't do a fun little throwback appearance. Maybe the Strause Brothers were aiming too high, but surely they could have even made attempts for Charles S. Dutton, Ron Perlman, Veronica Cartwright, Tom Skerritt or even Paul Reiser, not to mention tons of others. And what about Carl Weathers, for the Predator way around? After seeing his recurring role in Arrested Development, I believe he would have been up for such an idea.

The Strause Brothers also discussed with MTV the title, although they didn't even mention the lame "Requiem" part. They only said that Fox is currently not into numbering their sequels and that the pluralization of "Alien" is directly referencing James Cameron's Aliens. Other highlights from the interview (as pointed out by Movieweb) include an acknowledgment that the studio -- not just the Strauses -- thought the first AVP was a disappointment for fans and that the R rating is a response to that (Colin: "I mean, we chest-burst a little kid!"), a discussion of the Alien/Predator hybrid (aka "The Predalien") and a hint that the duo want to do another sequel set in space. MTV Movies Blog has also been sharing some exclusive fight-scene photos from the upcoming sequel (out this Christmas) that are pretty neat.