The eventual "meeting of the minds" is the only thing that goes right. There are two major battles stuck in between countless smaller ones. Those two are spectacular on a visual level and a real treat for those special effects fans. The combination of great puppetry, men in suits, and CGI is handled surprisingly well. Anderson went almost entirely for standard effects, using CG only when absolutely necessary. He deserves major credit for that, though it hardly makes up for the rest of the film.
Eventually, you just sort of realize the movie is nothing more than a 90-minute trailer. Every shot of the monsters squaring off seems primed to show up somewhere during the ad campaign (how many times do we need a close up of the Aliens lip curl?) That's certainly fine if the rest of the film held up. If you've read all of this, it's not hard to figure out that it doesn't. There had to be a better script out there. This is just too far from the other films. (** out of *****)
Available in both a 2.35:1 widescreen and what has to be an almost unwatchable pan & scan version, "AVP" looks sharp on DVD. It follows the three C's: Clean, crisp, and clear. Color is rare, settling mostly for claustrophobic corridors and little light. Flares, giving off bright red hues, showcase no compression artifacts. The sheen coming from the greasy heads of the Aliens is flawlessly captured. Black levels are solid enough to finish everything off. (*****)
As a typical summer blockbuster, "AvP" is loud enough to cause deafness in either 5.1 or DTS 5.1. A brief moment in which the Predator's ship fires a beam at Earth is easily the most incredible shot of bass you'll ever. The Aliens creep around the sound field in their quest to munch on the actors with amazing separation, enough to make anyone's skin crawl. There's great subtlety too like whipping winds and the creaking of the ancient structure. (*****)
Expect a special edition soon. There's very little of any major interest on this disc, at least not enough to really get the feel for what went on behind the scenes. On an early side note, Fox pulled off a nice looking front end, featuring some related graphics that tie in nicely with the film.
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.