Movie Review - Alien vs. Predator

As a huge fan of both series, I was more than just excited when the announcement was first made there would be a blending of the movies: Alien vs. Predator.

There is that moment near the end of Predator 2 when Danny Glover is in the Preadtor spaceship and he sees the trophy wall with the Alien skull. Suddenly, there were so many directions that could be had as two of the better sci-fi franchises went wild.

Be careful what you wish for.

With a movie series that I thought to be extremely difficult to mess up, somehow the crew behind AVP found a way.

I think what was most disapointing about the movie was the lack of energy put towards certain rules that were established in the previous movies. I'm okay with taking a franchise in a new direction (a four-legged xenomorph in Alien3 for example) but basically there were some pretty hard-and-fast rules that were played with here.

First, you have to deal with location. The movie is set in Antarctica, essentially one large ice cube. Apparently, the Predator species is no longer drawn to heat and conflict. Apparently, they tolerate the cold just fine. Forget that in Predator and Predator2 there was scenes dedicated to how hot the temperature was. Forget that in Predator2, the special forces team was going to neutralize the Predator with some kind of cold gas. These AVP Predators seem to just shake off the cold as no big deal.

One theory I've heard on this is that because it was a training mission the young Predators were put in an adverse climate. I would buy that if in some of the AVP flashbacks, the Predators weren't seen training in what appeared to be a desert climate. If they return to the same location every 100 years, it isn't as though the ice just suddenly appeared there.

Second, when it comes to the time between a host being attacked by a facehugger to the appearance of a chestburster, there is little to no continuity to the previous films. In Alien, there is enough time for the infected character to wake up, talk, go to the cafeteria and have a meal before the embryo exits the host. In Alien3, the character of Ripley goes through the course of the movie carrying an embryo. In Alien Resurrection, one character lasts throughout the second half of the movie with an embryo.

However, in AVP the time elapsed appears to be mere seconds. One explanation I've heard for this (from audio commentaries on AVP Requiem) is that the Predators gentically engineered a faster-gestation period to speed up the hunt. I find it fairly sad that an audio commentary from the sequel movie has to explain a plot hole from the first movie.

Third, the Predator species is one founded on the notion of honor. In Predator and Predator2 there was one fact repeatedly beat over your head: Predators do not attack anyone without a weapon because there is no sport. Yet, in AVP the Predator forms a kinship with the human protagonist after she kills one of the aliens, in a near-accidental way. As the xenomorph falls on a spear the protagonist is holding and dies, she shows fear clearly and it wasn't as though she really did much for that kill. Yet, this still managed to impress the Predator enough for him to mark the protagonist, essentially giving her a mark of his family.

Fourth, I found it interesting that AVP made such a point of marking one of the xenomorphs, to distinguish it from the others. In the audio commentary, this is mentioned as one of the movies goals because it had not been done before. Yet, when it came to deciding the masks of the Predators, one with a fairly bland mask survived the longest of the three youth Predators. Essentially the most unique mask was used as a bit of a set-up gag, to surprise you when it eventually falls victim to the marked xenomorph at the film's midway point.

The movie has fault after fault, but there are some redeeming qualities. Seeing the first real 'Alien vs. Predator' scene is fairly amazing. The director put quite a bit of work into the whole scene and it really is the part of the movie that stands out to me.

Overall though, the payoffs are few and far between, the movie doesn't deliver on enough levels to be considered anything but a 'wait for it on TV movie', and its full-of-fail qualities make me want to write a screenplay that would erase this movie from the minds' of fans of the franchises.

1 star out of 5.