Hollywood has a love for churning out shockingly cheap rubbish - the kind that you just know is going to be total garbage without even watching (but often you watch anyway). It has a special gift, however, for taking something wonderful and cherished, like Aliens or Predator - and turning it into Aliens vs Predator (AVP).

However now Hollywood (as if I can collectively group all film makers in the same container) is claiming it is about to redeem itself of the travesty that is AVP and of course the complete train wreck that is the Aliens franchise by making.... prequels and remakes.

That's right, the slimy acid-monsters and their fearsome hunters are coming back, thankfully in separate movies, which aim to show us how it all began.

Ordinarily, anyone with half a brain would run a mile from either of these films or at least consign them to the "wait for TV (bittorrent)" bin, however in both cases, there's something of a buzz that they may in fact turn out to be good movies.

Here's why.

In the case of the Aliens Prequel, the guy making it is none other than Riddley Scott himself - the man who made Alien (the original, back in 1979). And if George Lucas has taught us anything, with the Phantom Menace, it's that there's no possible way a person who made a great movie 30 years ago can screw it up now, right? Well, sort of. In the case of the Phantom Menace, Lucas didn't direct it himself. However in the case of the new Alien Prequel, hence forth to be called Aliens-to-the-Future, Scott will be directing it himself, as well as taking an active role. Putting his own neck on the line, as it were.

In the case of the Predator movie, we're most likely talking about a remake. The guy writing it, Robert Rodriguez, has a chequered history with Predator, having had his version of the original-sequel (if such a thing exists) cut, after including some terrible ideas (like Dutch gets kidnapped by Predators and taking back to their World, to battle it out, gladiator style). However people are saying positive things about this new version, not because of his involvement, but because of the talk about the rest of the team, such as cult followed Hungarian director, Nimrod Antal (who I have never heard of but people who know say is good).

So what will come of the latest attempt to wring a few more drops of acidic blood money from one of the most over-worked and under performing franchise in mainstream Hollywood? Something worth your time and money or just more of the same?