DVD Blue Boxes: Predator Chronicles

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Predator
Chronicles

Now also
available via Bittorrent
by Uncanny Antman
What is it about?
This creates a kind of, “What if the Predator series spawned a series of
short TV films, a la Masters of Horror?” Created to be able to watch these
stories without cringing all the time. They’ll never be great films, but they
are now at least fun films.

How to get
it? via RAPIDSHARE and via
BITTORRENT

Original film name: Alien vs Predator, and Aliens vs Predator: Requiem
New film name: Predator Chronicles
Film studio name: 20th Century Fox
Edit crew name: Uncanny Antman
Date Original Film Was Released: 2004 and
2008
Date Edit Was Released: June
2008
Original Runtime: 1h48m and
1h41m.
New Runtime: 57m and
55m.
Amount of time Cut/Added: I’m
terrible at math.
Your intention for this fan
edit: To create a kind of, “What if the Predator series spawned a series
of short TV films, a la Masters of Horror?”

I also wanted to emulate the kind of storytelling that Dark Horse did with
their one-shot Predator comics. Straight forward Predator stories, (that just
happen to also feature the Aliens) with paper-thin characters. The films
themselves had very little in the way of interesting characterization, so I felt
my only choice was to embrace that approach. Also, as with many of the comics,
these edits assume you have a reasonable knowledge of the Alien and/or Predator
universe(s). Things such as the Alien’s lifecycle, and the Predator’s M.O. are
not fleshed out just for the benefit of the uninitiated.

In the end, I just wanted to be able to watch these stories without cringing
all the time. They’ll never be great films, but I hope they are now at least fun
films.

Cuts removed/added/extended: Too many
to list individually, but these are some of the major alterations:

AvP: (Both theatrical and unrated versions were utilised.)

• Removal of all Predator ship interiors. They are incongruous with
Predator 2, and also keeps the actions of the Predators more mysterious,
rather than showing us every step they take.
• Altered all Predator P.O.V. shots (Except when in “Alien Mode”) to
resemble the ‘correct’ heat vision from Predator 1 and 2. Also added in triple
heartbeat sound effect, which was oddly absent.
• Removed all mention of “metric time”. Not only is it unnecessary, but
it’s complete bunk. 10 minutes is not
metric time.
• Removed all instances of the super-long-wrist blades.
• The Queen is no longer activated by a secret switch on the floor. She is
revived by the Predators directly. In this version, the humans are not lured
to the pyramid on purpose, but are merely caught in the wrong place at the
wrong time.
• Removed the first batch of eggs/facehuggers. The assumption is that when
the Queen was unfrozen, so were a bunch of warriors. This removes the problem
of the ridiculously sped-up gestation time. (Not to mention that Rousseau’s
chestburster scene was abysmal.)
• Removed Scar killing the unarmed Quinn.
• All but the more minor references to the rite of passage removed. The
less of the supposed back-story we know, the less ridiculous it is.
• Removed Scar marking Lex as a fellow warrior.
• Trimmed several of the not-so-great shots of Scar’s unmasked face.

Most scenes have been reworked in other ways, including re-sequencing events,
re-scoring, sound effects replacement (Such as the Predator plasma cannon
sound), and minor effects work on some shots. Some efforts have also been made
to minimize the “chunky Predator” appearance when possible.

AvP:R:

• All connection to AvP removed. (This edit also done in AvP.) The
PredAlien on board is from a different, unknown-to-the-audience incident.
• Altered Predator P.O.V. shots so that the PredAlien is the same color as
regular Aliens. I do not care for many of the ways in which the PredAlien was
made to be apart from the rest of its species. In fact, much of the PredAlien
has been trimmed out until we get to the roof fight.
• Removed Buddy Benson’s arm melting off, and the oddly “black” looking
facehugger.
• Removed all the early teen-angst scenes. We now only see Ricky when he’s
interacting with his brother.
• Removed PredAlien’s new reproduction method entirely.
• Removed all early scenes with Kelly O’Brien. She and Molly do not appear
until the department store.
• Removed all instances of the Predator’s magic blue liquid. The Predator
is here on a hunt, not to clean up the town. (His motives were inconsistent in
the film at the best of times, so this makes more sense.) Also, the liquid and
it’s never-empty bottle is just plain stupid.
• Some of the more egregious shots of Aliens simply not defending
themselves against the Predator have been removed. Couldn’t take ‘em all out,
or there would be almost no fighting left.
• All uses of the Predator’s power-punch-glove-thing are gone. More
ill-thought-out ridiculousness.
• Removed early references to nuking the town. It works better if it’s as
much a surprise to us as it is to the townspeople.
• Reworked roof fight to remove such things as the Predator coming up
through the ground, stomping on an Alien’s acid-filled head, the unmasking
scene where the PredAlien patiently waits for the Predator to disarm himself,
and the Predator pulling the PredAlien’s tongue out.

As with AvP, there is also major re-sequencing of events in the early stages
of the story, some minor scoring alterations and additions, sound effects
alterations, and some effects shots.

Note: As anyone who bought the AvP:R DVD knows, the image is hideously,
impenetrably dark. I’ve made every attempt to brighten the image to an
acceptable level without ruining the contrast or revealing the digital break-up
within the black areas. It’s not perfect, but it’s the best I could do. The end
result varies depending on your set-up, so apologies if you see too much
macro-blocking. There are also several instances where there simply was no image
to ‘reveal’, so they remain brightened, yet difficult to make out.

Both stories now have a few “nobody” characters who disappear from the
narrative, but I didn’t consider them important enough to worry about resolution
for them. Both stories end in situations that makes their final fates clear, so
there’s no real problem there.

Fan edit details (please add here details
about DVD contents as well as video and audio information): 16×9, 5.1
audio. The DVD also features some supplemental Predator activities (Some footage
that was not used in the edits is presented here) three Predator related
parodies, and the Chronicles teaser.

Hardware and software information (what did
you use to create your fan edit): Premiere, DVDLabPro.
Time needed for the edition: My original
attempts at AvP stretched out over about eight months, but the revised
“Chronicles” version took about two months all together.
Persons involved: One.
Additional download links: Teaser trailer -

http://rapidshare.com/files/117306631/PChronTeaser.avi

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