AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004)

Director: Paul W.S. Anderson

Cast: Sanaa Lathan as Alexa Woods, Raoul Bova as Sebastian de Rosa, Lance Henriksen as Charles Bishop Weyland, Ewen Bremner as Graeme Miller, Colin Salmon as Maxwell Stafford, Tommy Flanagan as Mark Verheiden, Joseph Rye as Joe Connors, Agathe de La Boulaye as Adele Rousseau, Carsten Norgaard as Rusten Quinn, Sam Troughton as Thomas Parks, Petr Jákl as Stone, Pavel Bezdek as Bass, Kieran Bew as Klaus, Carsten Voigt as Mikkel, Jan Pavel Filipensky as Boris (as Jan Filipensky)

Most people going into this film want to see one thing: Aliens and
Predators rip into each other. I suspect a great many geeks and lame
individuals inhabiting message boards of every corner of the internet
will complain that this film spends too much time with the humans when
the name of the film is 'Alien versus Predator' and they couldn't care
about the humans, and another sect will whine about how shallow the
film is to jump right to the big fight as soon as it can possibly set
it up.

The nice thing about the Freddy vs Jason premise is the fact that most
of the Elm Street films and none of the Friday the 13th films had any
substance to them, so throwing the two juggernauts into a battle rumble
with each other with a side of useless characters and uninspired plot
shouldn't have phased anyone but the most deluded of fans. I really
liked FvsJ more so than all but the Craven-driven Elm Streets and the
all the F13s.

Alien vs Predator is quite a bit different since I love Ridley Scott's
Alien and James Cameron's Aliens, and though I don't hold Predator 1 &
2 on the same level, I'm still pretty fond of the original Predator
film (been too long since I've seen Predator 2). The Alien series (and
to a much lesser extent, the Predator series too) has always been about
depth . . . so to just throw the two monsters at each other and let
them rip into each other really does not do them any justice and strips
away what makes their films so good to begin with.

So . . . AVP takes a middle path. It attempts to build up the
characters to an extent, it attempts to give a valid reason for both
the Aliens and Predators to be in the same location, and it attempts to
do it as quickly as it can. How well does it succeed? I found myself
wishing it would either slow down more or pick up the pace.

I'm very pleased to see the stylish Paul Anderson lead this tangled and
difficult project. His nods to the original films, in jokes, and slower
paced setup were much appreciated from me. Ninety minutes of guys in
rubber suits cut with CG monsters fighting constantly just will not cut
it. I felt Anderson rushed the setup (or the studio rushed him); but
part of me did grow bored of the characters rather quickly, and I did
want to see the Alien and Predators get together sooner than they did.

The lingering time between bouts did create more tension and
anticipation for the coming fights, which I admired, and when the
beasts finally sank claws and teeth into one another I found myself
more or less satisfied. At first I felt somewhat let down by how
seemingly easily a few Predators went down; however, then I remembered
these things were fighting Aliens with bare fists and blades when Space
Marines were getting slaughtered with state of the art artillery.

A classless director would have started with a bang, ended with a bang,
and had a boring parade of bangs. When I want meaningless, yet
entertaining, bangs I buy firecrackers and save myself both time and
money. Paul Anderson strived for something more, and pretty much came
through. While I did like the film and the idea of Aliens and Predators
fighting it out, I couldn't help but compare it to the superior films
that inspired it. As fun as AVP is, and as much as I like Paul Anderson
. . . he is not Ridley Scott and this is not Alien.