Alien vs. Predator (2004)

Movie Info

Could we get a Predator movie set in this period?

Scientists detect an unusual heat spike near Antarctica and a team is assembled by Charles Bishop Weyland (Lance Henriksen) to investigate.  Led by Alexa Woods (Sanaa Lathan), the dangers of Antarctica are deadly, but the team is walking into a deadlier trap.  They are about to find themselves in the middle of a hunting ground where two different species of alien are facing off for a deadly battle…and the hunters become the prey.

Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, Alien vs. Predator is a science-fiction action-adventure film that serves as a mash-up of the Alien and Predator lines.  Based on the Dark Horse Comics series which first premiered in Dark Horse Presents #34-36 (November 1989-February 1990), the film followed the releases of Alien: Resurrection (1997) and Predator 2 (1990).  Alien vs. Predator (sometimes called AvP) was released to negative reviews but a strong box office.  It received a Razzie nominations for Worst Remake or Sequel.

Well…this could be a problem

Alien vs. Predators was a Holy Grail growing up.  The Alien films were cool and the Predator films (at least Predator) was cool.  In Predator 2, the future of the franchise was hinted to by showing an alien skull in the predator ship…and the fan-boys went crazy!  My friends and I couldn’t wait for the aliens and the predators to finally face off…until they did.

The movie has the tricky aspect of setting up the film.  The movie has to establish the aliens, hatch more aliens, establish the predators, and introduce humans to the mix.  It does manage to get going pretty quick, but the film largely doesn’t know what to do for most of the movie.  Two of the three predators are quickly dispersed along with almost all the scientists leaving Alexa.  It felt like a lot of work to get to that point.  The movie does gain some traction once it is Alexa and the predator battling the ever growing alien population and the queen, but the movie quickly ends once it finally hits a semi-stride.

Hey…we’re contractually obligated to do this fight. It’s in the title

The cast is rather generic.  I like Sanaa Lathan as the lead, but most of the rest of the cast is dispensable (and quick is dispensed).  They spend too much time setting up Raoul Bova’s character and Ewen Bremner.  Colin Salmon and his military guys are essentially just egg incubators, but the inclusion of Lance Henriksen was a nice way to attempt to bring the story in line with the Alien films.

A big problem with Alien vs. Predator is the editing.  The movie is dark and gloppy.  The monumental fights that you have been waiting for are hard to see and poorly put together.  The final fight with the Queen shows a little more potential (and it is cool to see the Queen run), but it is too little and too late.

There is…another!

Alien vs. Predator was such a letdown because it was promised for years.  Like the Star Wars prequels and Freddy vs. Jason is was probably damned for criticism because of anticipation that developed over the time fans waited for it to finally happen.  In many ways, the criticism was legitimate…there was probably multiple fan fictions about Alien vs. Predators that was better than the movie.  The flipside of this is that no one was going to be happy with it regardless.  Alien vs. Predator ends on a cliffhanger which was resolved in the sequel Alien vs. Predator:  Requiem in 2007.

Related Links:

Aliens vs. Predator:  Requiem (2007)

Alien (1979)

Aliens (1986)

Alien3 (1992)

Alien:  Resurrection (1997)

Prometheus (2012)

Alien:  Covenant (2017)

Predator (1987)

Predator 2 (1990)

Predators (2010)

The Predator (2018)