Aliens and Predators Shake Their Tarnished Cinematic Image With Awesome SD Toys

I've already revealed one of my three favorite movies in an earlier post, and now it's time to bring up the next one - "Aliens." I'm a big James Cameron fan, so I'm very happy to see that "Avatar" is doing well, but my first love will always be his action-oriented take on Ellen Ripley's continued struggle against the acid-bleeding menace. In addition to the "Aliens" property, I'm also a "Predator" fan, though that's not my third favorite movie (and I'm not telling you what is!).

Given my love for both franchises, then, I was understandably horrified by the trainwreck of the "Aliens vs. Predators" movies. Even though "Predators" looks like it has potential, the disastrous outcome of both "AVP" and its sequel really stifled my enthusiasm for future projects within both the "Alien" and "Predator" properties.

Leave it to Sideshow Collectibles to give me some renewed faith. While I'd never want to see their cute, super-deformed takes on the Aliens and Predators on the big screen, the company's new vinyl toys still give me some hope that there is legitimate fun to be had with these creatures. Combine that with the great new direction Dark Horse is taking the franchises in with their new comic book series - not to mention the aforementioned "Predators," which, again, could be cool - I'm hopeful that we'll get some new quality movies in the "Aliens" and "Predator" universes at some point in the future.

But I'm probably just setting myself up for an epic disappointment.