Review: Alien vs Predator (AVP)
Published August 21, 2004
This was all major A1 level boring, but I got my first jolt of excitement when they cut to a ship in space, and eventually they do a Predator reveal. Cool. Next bit of coolness is when we see our first Alien, frozen and captured, being revived after a century of captivity and apparent death.
Our explorers find a perfectly circular tunnel that goes down to the pyramid "at a perfect 30 degree angle". No one on earth could have done this in 24 hours, so hmmm... whatever, lets just go down the tunnel. There was another little tribute here echoing the scene from Aliens where Bishop is being dragged across the deck at the end of the movie.
There's lots of exploring and getting split up so they can get picked off, and at some point an explanation is given for how and why both races are here. No point in my giving more detail than that. What I really didn't like during this part of the film was that I felt like I was watching two different movies that had been spliced together: a Predator film and an Alien film. Things just didn't mesh well here. At one point a bunch of characters pull machine guns out of their backpacks, gear, or whatever. I don't understand why they brought machine guns on an archaelogical expedition, and it's never explained.
Another odd thing was how fast the gestation of the Aliens happened here... in the original Alien it took about 24 hours for the face-hugger to fall off and then about another hour for the little fella to come out of someone's chest, and then a few more hours for the creature to become full-grown. In AVP this whole process seems to happen in about 30 minutes tops.
Paul Anderson, who wrote and directed, did put in some great moments with our two antagonists, it's just his people stuff that was awful. The first meeting between a Predator and Alien just brought a big fat smile to my face, and the ensuing battle truly fit the opponents. This was no cakewalk for either of them. It was brutal and they were pretty evenly matched: The Aliens' ferocity vs the Predators' fearlessness and skill. There were some great wins on both sides during various fight scenes, and I felt that they fit well as opposed to feeling that they were just trying to give each side a win, tit for tat.
If you're a fan of the Predator movies and think there's no cooler villain than those in the Alien series, just show up late, sit back, and enjoy the battle without the nuisance of speaking characters. Don't look for deep thoughts here, just check your brain at the door and enjoy the ride.
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- Review: Alien vs Predator (AVP)
- Published: August 21, 2004
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- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Video: SF
- Writer: Screen Rant
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One of the few things that "Alien vs. Predator" made absolutely clear was which of the two species strikes the darker and more sinister image. The xenomorphs may have menacing double jaws and eerie movements, but they are mindlessly predictable and obvious. The yautjas raise the chill the factor a couple of notches higher with their phantom presence, rattling snarls, expressionless masks, and shifting perspective. Besides, for sheer intimidation, the Alien screech pales in comparison to the Predator roar.
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just wonted to add:
there is almost no suspence(because none of the characters are likeable), vary little real gore and the imageination around the predators and aliens (the predators especaily) is insulting, ex. the ONLY real differance between the predators and us is their skin coulor and the wierd things around their mouths, they even have the same kind of emotions as humans(fear, pain, anger, hate, you get the idea) there is no wonder in the predators, none at all and that is bad for a science-fiction movie. the aliens are better but they still react like some animal under most cercomestances, and when one gets his head cut off you see that it even has a spine. it comes down to this: these creatures, if ever really exist, will more likely come from earth than from space.
also all the action is shot in the dark mostly in close ups, so it's usually imposibil to see what's going on.
if you most see it, it would probably be better in theaters just don't expect to much of ANYTHING.
question: once the humans "pick a side" is there really any question of which side will win? was there one in the beggining?GGGGOD that's bad directing