Both the "Alien" and "Predator" franchises were run into the ground, the Predator meeting an earlier fate. It's been 8 years since we last had a run in with the Aliens and 15 since the Predator tried to tear apart Danny Glover. Both come back together in the long time coming "Aliens vs. Predator," a meeting between two of Hollywood's most vicious.
A sudden rise in heat alerts people monitoring Antarctica that something is buried deep within the ice. The Weyland Corporation headed by of course Charles Weyland (Lance Henriksen), gets together a team to investigate what has shown to be a giant pyramid structure. It turns out that it's a source for a Predator ritual in which the young are sent to prove themselves worthy of manhood. The enemy is of course the Aliens, primed and ready to go after being birthed by the captured Queen.
Killing "Alien vs. Predator" from the start is its complete lack of acknowledgement for the films that came before it. Director and writer Paul W. Anderson claims to be a huge fan of both franchises, so why would he ignore them? The timeline is completely messed up, the Predator befriends a human (in what has to be the films most ridiculous idea), and it doesn't even follow it's own history. It's a mess.
That's still not the biggest complaint. The worst change you could do to this film is take away what made the originals such a treat for horror and sci-fi fans: the gore. No, it's not the director's fault, but the studios. Aiming for the PG-13 rating takes all the fun out of the deaths, not to mention the horrible cuts to get away from any scene that would be even mildly brutal. The rumored directors cut has yet to surface.
There is minimal time spent on developing characters, not that it really matters anyway. Many of them drop pretty quickly, most of the time before you even know why they are actually a part of this team. Going with another unknown female lead was nice touch. Unfortunately, she is the only character you'll ever really know anything about. If you haven't actually seen a previous movie in the Alien series, good luck trying to figure exactly what it is the Weyland Corporation does.
Article comments
1 - girl in USA
I agree - what a disapointment! The only relation this bears to the earlier films is that it contains aliens and predators. There is no linking of the storylines whatsoever and doubt any effort was made to do so. A massive anticlimax, which is a shame given how eagerly this film was anitcipated
2 - Aaman
A good example of the point in an earlier bc post that the trailer of some films captures the best parts - This would have a cool short film on iFilm - 90 seconds of tension.
3 - Marty Dodge
The games are fairly rubbish as well, so its not a shock the move was crap too.
4 - Matt Paprocki
Not all the games were bad. The original arcade beat-em-up by Capcom is a classic. The same goes for the Jaguar version. Not rally sure about the recent additions to the series, but the Xbox strategy styled one is pretty weak. Seems the classics are the only way to go.