Alien Vs. Predator

Filed Under: Film, Reviews | Article Tags : New on DVD

By: The Dweeb

February 2005

DVD Features Video: 2.35:1 Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1,  French Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 Commentary by Paul Thomas Anderson, Lance Henriksen and Sanaa Lathan Commentary by Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr., and John Bruno Alternate Opening Version of Feature AVP Making of Featurette Deleted Scenes Trailers and Promos Darkhorse AVP Comic Covers Gallery DVD-Rom Features: Darkhorse’s First Edition of the AVP Comic Book Making Of the AVP Comic Books Exclusive Look at the First 16 Pages of the Up-Coming AVP Graphic Novel Theatrical release: 8/13/2004 DVD released on 1/25/2005 by 20th Century Fox Running time of 101  minutes. Starring: Raoul Bova, Ewen Bremmer, Lance Henriksen, Sanaa Lathan Director: Paul W.S. Anderson Plot: It may be our planet, but it’s their war! The deadliest creatures from the scariest sci-fi movies ever made face off for the first time on film. The incredible adventure begins when the discovery of an ancient pyramid buried in Antarctica sends a team of scientists and adventurers to the frozen continent. There, they make an even more terrifying discovery: two alien races engaged in the ultimate battle.

Sometimes, the studios shouldn’t listen to the fans. But who am I kidding? There’s tons of money to be made, especially when you put two of the biggest film franchises together into one movie. Think of the possibilities! Now that’s going to be one awesome flick! So how come more often than not the end result doesn’t look as good as it did when it was on paper? Thanks a lot for tainting some of the best sci fi action series with this film guys.

Okay, so I was disappointed as were many others. Let’s look at what we have here. Two franchises that all had R ratings and were directed and or starred by some Hollywood greats with excellent scripts and filmmaking. Aliens vs. Predator? Lets make it PG-13. Okay, so now the gore is going to be toned down a bit. How about not signing any actors except Lance Henricksen (the original Bishop character from Aliens). Either they were smart not to appear, or the producers more likely couldn’t afford them. Fine. Now, lets mash these two back stories together so we can have some kind of cohesive storyline. This aspect does not work for me. I don’t think the Xenomorphs should have been treated like vermin to the Predators, in all the other Alien films they seemed a lot smarter then that. They looked like a bunch of rats flitting around the screen. At least the CGI was kept to a minimum, thank you!

So what we end with is a film filled with stock characters (eventually most of them are dead anyway so who cares.), who out of greed or whatever reason unknown decide to check out this mysterious pyramid in the Antarctic. Okay, a promising enough start to the film. Once the action gets going, its basically a mesh between Aliens and Predator, a bunch of people who are outgunned and outmatched running around inside a Pyramid this time. Paul Anderson decided to sprinkle in references to the other films, there are plenty of them and it will make it seem eerily familiar.

The opening of the film starts off with many potential story lines with all these different characters, but unfortunately these arcs are never resolved due to them getting killed. Why does the Weyland crew all of a sudden pull out the machine guns? There was not much of a reason for them to have it. I thought Charles Weyland (Lance Henricksen) was on this exploratory mission to leave his mark in history, because his heart was bad or something. Again another detail not explained well. I guess it doesn’t matter, he’s dead now.

The first act was intriguing, the second act a blood bath (and a bit like playing a session of Doom), but the third act and finale, what the hell was that? I’m afraid to say that it gets kinda dumb there at the end. I won’t get into specifics, but lets just say it would fit in with a movie like E.T., not Aliens. Needless to say it was weak and a disappointing finish. Maybe Sigourney was smart to pass on this one.

On the technical side of things the DVD is pretty good. Sound and picture quality, even though its a dark movie, is still nice and clear. Before you start there is the option of watching the extended opening version, although how much was altered I don’t know as I chose that one. Included are two commentary tracks and the standard material that one can find on almost all DVD’s new to the market these days.

Reviewer’s Opinion: RENT IT!!