The basic plot-line of the Predators building a initiation dungeon on Earth, manned by human cattle and filled with defrosted Aliens, is pretty cool, to be honest, and the "pyramid" dungeon, with its odd, claustrophobic passages and huge, spooky chambers, and its regularly shifting walls, really makes this movie work.
For all that does work, there are two basic flaws, both of which can be laid at the feet of writer/director Paul Anderson. First off, the movie is way too short. Everything plows along at high speed, allowing for minimal suspense. An article I read the other day said that a distinct effort was made to keep the Aliens from showing up immediately, and it's true that they don't. But they still show up too quickly, and even if, arguably, there's no need to drag out a lot of people getting bushwhacked, the time interval between "He's in trouble" and "Oh, he's dead now" is disturbingly short. Ditto for most of what else goes on. Characters barely get a few words, gestures, and moments for the audience to say, "Hey, she's cool, I wonder — oh, she's been killed," or, "Hey, I wonder if we'll see another scene with — oh, he's dead, too."
Rush, rush, rush.
The other major plot flaw is that, when all is said and done, nothing has changed. The main protagonist stays pretty much the same (aside from some new scars, an interesting walking stick, and, one would imagine, both a lot of bruises and some serious frostbite). She hasn't really grown, that we've seen. She hasn't resolved any internal issue. Aside from some interesting experiences in the Antarctic, she could be plopped right back into where we first saw her and she'd seemingly never bat an eyelash.
Since she's literally the only human survivor, that's about that for that. Everyone else dies, quickly or slowly, with only a scream or a curse. And she simply just walks/SnowCats away, making us wonder exactly what she'll tell the folks back on the ship.
As for the very end of the film — yeah, okay, we needed something to punch it up. Does this spell sequel? It could. Or it could simply be a mediocre twist ending.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
very fine job Dave, great to have you back, thanks!
2 - jadester
you do of course realise, that there is a whole series of Aliens Vs Predator novels and comics?
I'm not sure if the plot of the film closely follows any of these in particular, and as you'd expect there is a fair amonut of "duds" in the group, but equally there are some pretty good stories to be had.
3 - *** Dave
I'm not only aware of it, I even make reference to it in the first paragraph.
While there may very well be some very good AvP comics/novels out there, I don't believe that the impetus to produce them, or this film, was the desire to make great literature. It was more, "Predators vs Aliens -- would that be cool, or what?!"
There's nothing wrong with that (or with cross-overs in general -- I particularly liked a Walt Simonson-drawn Robocop vs Terminators series, of the same ilk). One can certainly tell good stories that way. And there are elements of this film that certainly qualify -- like I said, I'm happy I went to see it, and think I'll probably pick up the DVD.
But it's not a great movie, or even (IMO) a great sf/action movie. Aliens, at least, was better. That it's fair-to-good is nothing to sneeze at, esp. since I think most people are expecting less of it than that.
4 - Tom Johnson
From what little I've read from fans of the comics and films, PWS Anderson has basically destroyed both franchises with this one - taking little bits here and there that he liked out of each one and ignoring everything else that didn't suit his needs, like the Alien lifecycle (I hear that someone gets face-hugged and minutes later a chestburster appears. It's always been an un-listed amount of time, but seemingly several days, and then the creature runs off to mature for a couple of days.)
I'm a huge fan of the Alien franchise, not so much of Predator, but I think I'm holding off on this one until the DVD - especially if it'll contain extra footage.
5 - jon
the part where she kills an alien and gets 'marked' for her efforts is lifted out of an AvP novel from some years back. well, in that novel, at least the predators brought the female protagonist (she was asian in the book i think; japanese, if i remember correctly) to the predator homeworld where she was accepted because she had the mark of the warrior that the predator whom she fought the aliens with, had given her.
come to think of it, the novel had the same premise as well: pesky humans occupying and setting up base on a planet used for the predator's hunting.
oh well.
was her name machinko in the novel? somehow that name comes to mind.