Alien vs. Predator Review
by John Ulmer (johnulmer2003 AT msn DOT com)August 14th, 2004
Alien vs. Predator
2.5/5
Review by John Ulmer
Paul W.S. Anderson has always been good at one thing: Set design. In "Event Horizon" he perfectly captured the dark essence of the "Alien" series; with "Resident Evil" he managed to mimic the gothic structure of all great zombie movies.
And that's about it. Because he's never been any good at three other vital elements of filmmaking: Story, characters and actual direction. "Alien vs. Predator" a project 14 astonishing years in the making (longer than "Freddy vs. Jason") doesn't do much to change this.
Of course, we don't go to see movies about dueling alien species to see deep themes and character development. But a little sympathy would be nice.
I couldn't feel sympathy for any of the characters in "AvP" because they were all unlikable clichιs: The Heroine, The Hero, The Nerd, The Tomboy, The Gruff Leader, et al. They are all assembled together by Charles Bishop Weyland (Lance Henriksen) to venture into the Antarctic, where they will uncover an ancient pyramid recently discovered by Weyland's multi-million dollar satellites hovering about in space.
The pyramid is buried deep within the wastelands of the Antarctic (2,000 feet, actually). Apparently, this is a good location for battles. After venturing deep into the pyramid, the team of scientists soon realizes that the pyramid is surprise, surprise! actually the home of an alien hive. And furthermore, a pack of teenaged Predators -- on an annual "manhood" hunting ritual -- are there, too, and they begin to draw the humans into their fight, using them as "bait."
A plot like this takes ten seconds to brainstorm, and it took Paul Anderson (not to be confused with the brilliant Paul Thomas Anderson) two years to turn it into a mess of unresolved threads and silly concepts. Rumored to be in pre-production since 2002, finally entering production in October of 2003, Anderson initially came up with the idea, basing it on previously established material. In short, he stole a lot of it; and allegedly "borrowed" 40 pages from an unused original "Alien" script written back in the 70s.
But in movies like these, plots really aren't a big deal. "Alien" wasn't ingenious, was it? Spacecraft stumbles upon alien; alien gets on spaceship. All that matters, really, is how it's handled and "AvP" is handled quite poorly.
The movie's cast is comprised of many newcomers and (to be blunt) they are all unimpressive. Sanaa Lathan, as Alexa, the heroine, is frankly rather annoying. Raoul Bova, playing the hero Sebastian, is the most likable of the characters but even then, he's just no Arnold. The dialogue is all lame yeah, "Predator" had lame dialogue ("Knock, knock!") but at least it was funny and delivered with charisma. There was really only one line I laughed at in this a sign that the movie is taking itself way too seriously.
Even Henriksen is on cruise control here. Re-playing perhaps one of his only well-known roles (as Bishop, the robot from "Aliens"), Henriksen is just in it for the paycheck. According to the story's roots, Weyland is the billionaire who creates the Bishop robots, modeled after his own image. (Why the Bishop robots look eighteen years younger than Weyland is never explained.) Besides, it is no coincidence that the only returning cast member from either series happens to be the same actor who has appeared in a number of recent straight-to-video duds. Desperation?
Kudos must be given to one other aspect of "AvP": Its creature effects. I had expected lots of CGI, and to be fair there is quite a bit of it (more than Anderson claimed there would be in interviews). But there are also many close-ups of the Predators and Aliens played by thankless actors in suits (and some good ol'-fashioned animatronics). Kevin Peter Hall (the original Predator) passed away shortly after the release of the film's sequel, but Anderson has comprised an acceptable team of replacements (most of the actors being some seven feet tall!).
That, and the set design, and one or two OK action sequences, makes "AvP" suitable, I suppose. If you're just looking for the average Saturday night blow-em-up action flick, you could do worse. It's an amiable effort. But, considering the potential, this movie continually disappoints and worst of all, due to its disgraceful rating, the fights (which take place all too often and rapidly become boring) are all over the place. We are not "allowed" to see anything, which hinders the flow of the film.
I had been looking forward to this movie for quite some time now, being a fan of both "Alien" (1979) and "Predator" (1987). With its out-of-place PG-13 rating, poor acting, awful writing and mediocre direction, "AvP" disappoints the fans at every turn Fox has taken two of their greatest franchises and turned them into a joke. This is nothing more than typical action fare which, all considered, isn't much of a compliment at all.
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