Written by Jay West Friday, 14 December 2007 00:00

Downtown Los Angeles, California -- location: the Los Angeles Theatre -- an opulent historic monument that represents the grandeur and spectacle of Hollywood's yesteryears -- a fantastic setting for those fortunate enough to attend the heralded "Alien vs Predator" night on December 14th (part of the "Jules Verne Film Festival"). Ironically, this incredible two thousand seat theatre is just a mere short walk from the infamous "Bradbury Building" (literally being on the same street) -- the filming location of the climatic showdown between Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer in "Alien" director Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner".

Half of the theatre was regulated to Alien fans, while the other half for Predator fans -- and it was clearly a divisive crowd about who stood for which of the Alien species. Dividing the audience proved to be beneficial as tensions were running high as some of the fans in attendance either tried to through "Alien acid blood" at the Predator fans... or the Predator fans tried to impale the Alien fans with shurikens... ultimately, the Predator fans were forced up into the balcony area... where they belong.... Ugh! Did I just say type that? I mean, where they respectively had equally as nice viewing area seats as that of the Alien fans who sat in the Orchestra.

OK... reality check, the second paragraph DIDN'T happen... but ah... in a perfect world...

What DID happen was a jammin' night for cinema and sci-fi aficionados to indulge in -- retrospective showings of the original "Alien" (the 2003 Director's Cut) and original "Predator" -- a synergy of a double feature to celebrate the coming of AVP-R -- with both movies shown on the theatre's majestic HUGE screen -- in the attendance of several hundred moviegoers.

The evening was kicked off by a Q&A panel with the Brothers Strause (who made their movie convention debut Downtown L.A. approximately a month prior discussing AVP-R -- see my previous article) -- who shared more teaser footage from AVP-R -- and who were on hand to further elaborate on their creative insight and direction into manifesting the eagerly awaited next entry of the Alien and Predator species.

Audience members who asked questions came prepared to share their rants and raves about the previous installments of the Aliens and Predators -- and as with their previous panel, Colin and Greg displayed great candor and knowledge of both franchises -- discussing how they've worked hard to incorporate the best of both into their directorial feature debut -- and answered questions regarding what to expect while trying to avoid giving away too many spoilers.

The theatre then darkened... and the familiar 20th Century Fox logo and drum roll greeted the audience... "Alien" began... met by cheers from the audience... then thereafter, "Predator" was shown -- met by "hisses" from the Alien fans... ah, there I digress again -- as "Triumph - the Insult Comic Dog" would say... "I kid, I kid..." -- ah yes, "Predator" was also met by cheers from the audience...!

Viewing "Alien" and "Predator" in this theatrical setting were sights to behold -- the sheer size of the canvas of the screen, framed by the incredible "movie palace" architecture -- represented a rare indulgence for cinema aficionados -- especially given that multiplex movie auditoriums these days rarely differ from any notable degree from one multiplex to another -- and are typically radically smaller in size.

Ultimately, it's easy to see not only how these movies have stood the test of time for their sheer entertainment value (on many levels) -- but for their communal movie experience that they both create. Watching both original installments with all of these elements exhibited the magic that can occur at the movies... and how audiences can be spellbound by a cinema experience that captivates when truly great story telling and filmmaking is realized.

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