Predator

Are you like me and are way too cool to be in Austin, Texas, attending this year's SXSW? I mean, who wants to spend a week in the city with the best movie theaters and BBQ in the country and attend a festival filled to the brim with amazing movies? Who wants to be there in person as Robert Rodriguez and Nimrod Antal premiere footage from the upcoming Predators?

Pssh. Certainly not this guy.

Because you and me are too cool to be blowing the roof off SXSW 2010, we get to stay at home and visit the brand-spankin' new Predators website and partake in a two-minute sneak peek, read an official synopsis and take a look at some concept art for a nasty looking "Predator Hound." The site is pretty bare bones right now, but the little details in the sound and imagery are going to send chills down the spines of any card-carrying members of the Official Predator Fan Club. You are a member, right?

Of course, the highlight is the sneak peek, which, for a minor promotional piece with very little footage, manages to deliver in spades. We get Rodriguez talking about this and that, we get some behind-the-scenes stuff, we get some gorgeous and atmospheric footage of Adrien Brody and company looking concerned in the jungle, we get some running, we get a two second of shot of- OH MY GOD IT'S A PREDATOR!

Will this be the return to form that so many fans are hoping for following the disastrous Alien Vs. Predator motion picture nightmares? It's too early to tell, but the fact that I'm seeing a lot more of Nimrod Antal's claustrophobic and intense style in the snippets of footage rather than Rodriguez's overly digital and silly style makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

Meanwhile, Cinematical was on hand for the trailer footage from SXSW and they have a full report right here. Click on over there to check 'em out.

The full trailer for Predators will be online on March 18 and the movie will be in theaters this July.

This Japanese poster for AVP2: Requiem uses a bold silhouette of the "Predator-ized" xenomorph to great effect, creating a very cool poster for a movie that most people found disappointing. Audiences didn't exactly flock to see the Predators fight the Aliens in a present-day, rural Colorado town. Fox has since decided to "reboot" both franchises, separate from one another.

Most science fiction films announce their arrival with a bang. If a movie is about aliens, we'll be seeing aliens in the first ten minutes. If the movie features time traveling robots, we'll see some time traveling robot action within the first act. Most movies wear their genre on their sleeve and display it proudly.

Some movies don't announce their true identities so soon. For better or for worse, some movies don't let their freak flag fly until late in the narrative, long after it's lured in viewers who would normally never watch a science fiction story. Below, I've taken the time to dissect eight science fiction movies that may not, at first, appear to be science fiction movies. I know I've missed too many to count, so feel free to abuse and educate me in the comments below!

Oh, and it gets about as spoilery as you can get from here on out, so tread lightly.


1. Predator (1987)



How Does It Start?

Well, technically the very first shot tells us this is a science fiction film, but no one remembers that shot. They remember the dawn arrival of a helicopter filled with the toughest team of mercenaries ever put on film, the bicep-bulging reunion of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Dutch and Carl Weathers' Dylan and the lousy tough-guy jokes on the chopper flight into hostile territory. The first act of Predator is the best men-on-a-mission action film of the 1980s, complete with the standard Arnie death-puns ("Stick around!"). It's the manliest non-homo erotic movie ever made, the story of a team of bad*ss super soldiers ruining nameless guerillas in the jungle...

Whoa! What Was That?

...And then an invisible monster brutally shuffles the mortal coil of Shane Black's Comic Relief Commando. An alien big game hunter, eh? That sucks. You just can't plan for some things.

Now What?

The science fiction twist of Predator (which isn't really a twist since everyone knows it's going to happen, but whatever, this is my article) is brilliant not only for its concept, but for how and when it is revealed in the movie. By hiding the titular villain for the first thirty minutes or so, we get to spend time watching Schwarzenegger, Weathers, Jesse Ventura, Bill Duke and Sonny Landham prove that they're the toughest guys on the planet. They're relentless and deadly and pretty much unstoppable in that 1980s action movie kind of way.

Once we're comfortable with the fact that no human being can possibly bring these guys down, a super-intelligent creature with highly advanced weaponry pops up and begins picking them off with relentless ease. I don't think anyone who watches Predator will ever forget Ventura's sudden demise, where his minigun-toting Blain goes down without a fight.

Of course, this all culminates in the classic climax, where Arnie goes mano-a-beastie with the Predator, a sequence that manages to feel equal parts Conan the Barbarian and Alien. The science fiction element ups the ante, increases the threat and manages to make a goofy flick into one of the great sci-fi action hybrids of all time.

What exactly do producer Robert Rodriguez and director Nimrod Antal have up their sleeves that will re-vitalize the Predator franchise after suffering increasingly lukewarm installments? SXSW attendees will get to find out on March 12 at 10:15pm, when Rodriguez and Antal take the stage at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz in Austin, Texas for a special extended sneak preview of this Summer's Predators.

The sci-fi action film stars Adrien Brody as a mercenary who bands with a group of cutthroat human survivors on an alien world, awaiting their turn as the Predators' game. The film co-stars Topher Grace, Alice Braga, and Lawrence Fishburne. "My director Nimród Antal and I are excited to bring this first look at Predators to Austin's SXSW Film Festival, an event that's become vital to the filmmaking scene," said Rodriguez in a press statement. "Austin is my home and I'm proud that Predators was conceived and filmed here."

Most are viewing Predators as the second sequel to 1987's Predator, and not the fifth in the series -- ignoring the two AVP films all together. One of the problems with the franchise has been finding a decent foil for the Predator to hunt. No one has come close to the swaggering, larger-than-life hero that Arnold Schwarzenegger played so well in the original film. On paper, it doesn't seem like Brody is any better a choice than Danny Glover or Sanaa Lathan, but we'll know if Brody's got the goods by the time Predators hits theatres on July 9, 2010.

I was already excited about Sega/Rebellion's Alien Vs. Predator video game, but I fear they may have driven me into a rabid level of anticipation with their new pre-order goodies. Alien Vs. Predator: Hunter Edition is the name of the $99 set that includes the game, four multi-player maps that won't be made public until a later date, an articulated facehugger, a hardcover Dark Horse Alien Vs. Predator book, a Weyland-Yutani sleeve badge, and a 3-D postcard.

I'm hoping a demo is on the way soon. It's a great pre-order incentive, but the game still has to be pretty good to justify the cost. I don't know about you, but I don't want to wait until February 16 (the game's planned launch date) to find out.

Figures.com has a picture of the collector's set, which you can view after the jump.

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.

Is it too late for someone to come up with a cooler name than "Predalien" for the Alien/Predator hybrid that made its debut in 2007's Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem? Gamespot interviewed Tim Jones, AVP project lead for Sega/Rebellion's new first-person shooter, and he confirmed that the monster mash-up would make an appearance in the game.

"I can confirm that the Predalien will feature in the game, and there will be other alien types too, including a couple of things that have never been seen before in the Aliens or Predator universe," Jones states. I'm not sure fans are clamoring for more of the Predalien, but, if the character turns out to be playable, that would probably get folks more excited.

Story details are still under wraps, but Jones reveals that the game takes place thirty years after the events of Alien 3. Alien Vs. Predator is scheduled for release on March 31, 2010 for PC, Playstation 3, and X-Box 360.

By: Jenni Miller

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 read the official write-up courtesy of ComingSoon after the jump.

The wait is over and as the 2009 San Diego Comic Con gets underway, we can now unveil the winners of our two Ultimate Fan Polls on SciFi Squad and Horror Squad. Reuters broke the story early this morning, and now we're here to make it official. With roughly 100,000 votes between the polls, our top winners may surprise you. Check them out below, along with a little commentary from yours truly ...

SciFi Squad Ultimate Poll Winners
1. What is the best sci-fi movie franchise of all time? [Winner: Star Wars] -- In a race that wasn't as tight as we thought it might be, Star Wars beat Star Trek with 56% of the vote. So much for all that Trekkie support, huh?
2. What is the best sci-fi film of 2009 so far? [Winner: Star Trek] -- Though it didn't come up with a franchise win, J.J. Abrams' reboot did manage to beat out Transformers 2 and Terminator Salvation in this category with a whopping 69% of the vote.
3. What is your most anticipated upcoming sci-fi film? [Winner: District 9] -- In a very surprising move, Neill Blomkamp's District 9 actually beat Avatar with 34% of the vote to Avatar's 28%. Meanwhile, New Moon finished third with 22%.
4. Who is the all-time best sci-fi action heroine? [Winner: Ripley from Alien] -- This was a no brainer, although the gal was up against some pretty heavy competition -- especially from Princess Leia, who managed to take a respectible 25% of the vote.
5. What is the greatest all-time sci-fi creature/alien? [Winner: Alien] -- In a head-to-head match-up, it looks like folks are bigger fans of Alien than Predator, as the former beat out the latter with 37% of the vote. Coming in third was Chewbacca followed by E.T. and The Thing. C'mon, where's all the love for The Thing!?

You can check out the final results in greater detail over here, and head on over to Horror Squad to see how their Ultimate Fan Poll shaped up.

In anticipation of this year's San Diego Comic Con, SciFi Squad and Horror Squad have launched the ultimate fan polls, asking you readers to vote not only for the best films of all time in their respective genre, but also on favorite characters, female heroines, films from the past year and so on. We're going to ask you to make some tough choices here, but that's the point -- how else are we to determine the best of the best? So check out our Ultimate Sci-Fi Fan Poll below and vote away! When you're done, head on over to Horror Squad and do the same. We'll announce the winners just in time for this year's Comic Con.