Alien Vs. Predator: My Thoughts

[Ash]

Yee-Haw!
What a fun, wild ride this was!

I thought this was Anderson's best work so far.
(no, I'm not an avid Anderson hater like so many here on this board are)
It had a pretty good storyline but the special FX totally stole the show.
The Predators never looked cooler.
The Aliens, along with their queen seem even more vicious than in the previous Alien films.
The Alien effects were fantastic .
Tons of slime, hissing and acid blood.




MINOR SPOILERS!!

The story is very similar to Aliens only instead of Ripley and the Colonial Marines, we get a scientific research team...who happen to have packed automatic weapons..
A team assembled by Mr. Weyland travels to the unknown only to come under attack by both the Predators and Aliens.
Much of the cast, no, I take that back...all of them except one are fodder and end up with either an alien in their chest or a Predator's wrist blade slicing them up.

The sets are top notch...a lot of detail was put into them.
The pyramid where much of the movie takes place in is enormous.
It literally has everyone trapped "Like rats in a maze" as one chemical specialist/team member points out.



The cast is also suprisingly good.
All except one.
That goddam Italian professor Sebastian who feels the need to read some heiroglyphs every few minutes and tell the story matter of factly. (that's him in the very top picture)
It's the way he speaks, as if us, the audience, are total morons and will only understand the events happening in the movie if he tells us.
Aaagh!
Needless to say, I wanted him dead and when my wish came true, oh man was it good.  I thought for sure there was going to be one of those obligatory "Kill me" requests like in the previous Alien films but that never happened.
Never in a movie has one character been so annoying.
That was the one major drawback to the entire movie....one badly written character.



Another cool idea was the last surviving human and last surviving Predator teaming up together to fight.
Many people will no doubt find that utterly ridiculous and the worst part in the whole movie but I found it to be a cool, fun and action packed team up.
I thought it was a great idea.
The last surviving human, who I shall not reveal, is lucky that it's a teenage Predator they hooked with and not an older one.
An older one would've never considered such an alliance and probably would've gutted them on the spot.
There is a reason why the Predator allowed that person to tag along and to find out,  you'll just have to watch the film.
I'm not telling.

Oh and another thing...everything I read about this film says that there are 5 teenage Predators...
Nope.
There are only 3.



Overall I give this film 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.
It was a fun popcorn flick.

Have you seen it yet?
What did you think?



Post Edited (08-13-04 15:54)

[Scott]

Wow ! Going to see it tonight if we can get tickets. Looks good.

[daveblackeye15]

Wow I'm still surprised that a lot of people seem to enjoy this, I'm gonna go see it for myself! Maybe my bro can come along. So it's no problem that it's in current times and not in the future with space marines?

[Scott]

Just came back from seeing AVP. Interesting story about the Predator his earth traveling origins. Touched on a few neat legends of our world.  The action in the film is ok, not great. I don't want to say to much.


SPOILERS.............................SPOILERS..................................SPOILERS............ ....................

Things I liked about the film:

1) Ancient Civilization under Antartica idea
2)The idea of the Predator/Warrior/Hunter from another world
3) Predators return every 100 years
4) The female lead being reconized as a warrior by the Predator
5) The image of the Predator ruling over human civilization a top the Aztec type Temples
6) Finding the sacrificial tables and the Predator weapons
7) The whole in the ice made by the Predator ship to get to Temple.

Things I didn't like about the film:

1) Female lead as ice/mountain climber
2) The sickly corperate executive
3) His choices of experts, especially the guy who locates the girl by helicopter.

As you can tell I had mixed feelings about parts of the film, but enjoyed it for the most part. 3 out of 5 stars for me.

Also I had to contend with a full theater, baby crying throughout the film, people with flashlights looking for someone during the movie, man sitting behind me coughing through most of the film. Again the film was good overall.

[daveblackeye15]

(spoilers) I've just returned from the movie with my brother and we both enjoyed the movie. I'll give it 3/5 stars just because I had a good time. The aliens and predators were nicely done and I liked how each Predator had a different maskto help distiguish each one. The action in it was pretty good but I wish there had been a few more scenes of an Alien fighting a Predator. I think ASHTHECAT is right about the only reason the Predator allowed the human to tag along with him was because he was a young Predator.

I remember the first time the Aliens and the Predators fought was in the 12 part comic series called "Aliens vs. Predators"(I think this was the first time) I'm hoping there is a graphic novel of this because I only found the first issue. Another comic I found was a four parter called "Avs.P Adversary" (I think that's what it's called). This one was pretty good, it had four Predators searching for two Aliens on Earth while a Rich Guy (forgot all the characters names) has been finding all the technology of the Predators and he has found a way of using the organs of alien tissue to make him young again. (I believe he's done this many times before. weird) In the third issue the Predators find the two Aliens, one Alien is killed and two Predators are killed while the last Alien escapes injuried. (4th issue.) Rich Guy has a team that uses the Predators weapons but almost all of them are killed by the Predators and the last Alien kills one of the Predators but the Alien is finished off by a laser gun to it's head. While Rich Guy gets his heart ripped out by the other Predator. The surviving human finds herself in a hosptial at the end. (BTW she's the main character)

To the people who don't like Alien vs. Predator (the movie) I won't say anything against you for disliking this movie (I admit it's not perfect and could have been better still) I think it's WAY WAY WAY better than Alien Resurrection.

[Wycked nick]

While this is probbaly the best movie Anderson has directed thats still not saying much. It did have a better story than what I thought it was going to have but Anderson still ruined things with choppy incoherent fight scenes, irratating loud noises placed through out the film which I guess was supposed to make us jump but didn't do anything more than give me a headache,flat boring charectors, who felt no connection to at all, and lastly bad visual effects for the Predators.
I was really disapointed with how the Predators looked. You would think that in 2004 they could make them look better than the original but they actually looked worse. When the Predator at the end took his helmet off it was clear that it was a varey porely done mask. You could easly see that the skin tones were very flat and that the mouth was not made very well.I do have to say though that the Aliens and especially the Queen looked really good.
As for the whole back story with the Predators helping to bring about the rise of many of the anchient human civilzations, I felt it was a pretty cheap attempt to fill in holes in the plot.
As I said the charectors in the movie were very flat and one dimensional, I really didn't care who was going to live or die in the film even though I knew exactly who were going to live and die.

In my opinion 2 1/2 stars out of five.

[Prophet Tenebrae]

Personally, I felt that this film hit a pretty outstanding level... of cliches and cheese. That's not to say it wasn't in some ways enjoyable but you're not going to watch this film for the plot (weak), the characters (don't get attatched to anyone except the girl but hell - how could you?) or that kind of nonsense, which is just as well.

It seems obvious that no one really thought too much about the story for this film - because it constantly falls back on such tried and tested formula. In essence for the first  30-40 minutes, this could be pretty much any people going off to get killed by monster film. Not to mention that is in fact about half the film - although, I'm sure that we wouldn't want a repeat of Van Helsing where we had to sit through an additional hour of tedium. Somehow I get the impression if this film were to have had an additional hour, it might well have been after the climax with the lead feeling really sad her predator boyfriend had got toasted. Then she and the Alien Queen would probably have had to had counselling. You get the impression the female lead was actually cut in the image of Ripley but then someone got cold feet half-way and so rubbed out half the character. At least she didn't have any kids.

The film often takes itself far too seriously - which is in itself hilarious. Barely 5 minutes usually go by without one of the characters doing something that deserves a moment of laughing out loud. Usually showing their kids to someone (alien, predator, soon to die human - all the same really) or damaging the self-esteem of aliens (calling them ugly - probably explains why they're always p**sed off and curling their lips). This would be forgivable only if there were more action and I feel that while there were adequate amounts, there really should have been a lot more.

While that's the case the quality of the action is rather good, the predators get their ass kicked a bit. The stupidity of try wrestling moves on a xenomorph is surely something that film students will be reflecting on for years to come. The predators and aliens though, do look better than ever before. The CGI isn't used excessively and while generally I'd say people should look to Anderson as a "How To" on not to make films - here he has managed to buck the common trend for CGI and consequently greatly improve the feel of the action scenes. That said, some of them are still editted together in the traditionally annoying blur of action. So, all in all it's a bit of a mixed bag.

Ultimately, this film could have been a lot better - not surprisingly - but at the same time it could have been a lot worse and given the stupid scenario for a meeting of the three species, it was an acceptable use of a poor situation. In my opinion there was far too little AvP action, that seems to have been replaced with more running around Aztec temples that magically "reconfigure" themselves. That felt like they stole it from the film "Cube" much like the bit where part of an aliens face was cut, then slid off - which Anderson had already used in Resident Evil. It seemed that the film really only got going when the last human and last predator - predictably - teamed up to beat the aliens. Which gave us some decent action and I have no complaints about the final Queen/Predator bit. Although the end where we see a Predator form Alien burst out of the Predator's stomach with a view of the Earth, someone tell me that didn't seem like a stupid after thought.

Final verdict - 2 out of 5. Too much cliche, waiting around for stuff to happen and really not enough action to call it an action film, while at the same no real suspense. Not to mention that it's very sad when the title roles of the film get a Darth Maul level of screen time.

[Genetic Mishap]

Wycked nick wrote:


> I was really disapointed with how the Predators looked. You
> would think that in 2004 they could make them look better than
> the original but they actually looked worse. When the Predator
> at the end took his helmet off it was clear that it was a varey
> porely done mask. You could easly see that the skin tones were
> very flat and that the mouth was not made very well.

I thought that as well, but I realized an AVP apologist could make the case that, being an entire race of creatures, there would be a lot of variation between individuals, just like human beings.

Maybe that's how the Huntocracy started out- they were just taking out their low self-image on other creatures ;-)

[Eirik]

"To the people who don't like Alien vs. Predator (the movie) I won't say anything against you for disliking this movie (I admit it's not perfect and could have been better still) I think it's WAY WAY WAY better than Alien Resurrection."

I didn't like AVP.  You are correct, it is WAY WAY WAY better than Alien Resurrection.  Unfortunately to me your comparison is analogous to saying that chugging a gallon of pickle brine is WAY WAY WAY better than chugging  gallon of vomit.

[Harry]

I enjoyed it for one general reason: I didn't try to overanalyze it and take it too seriously.  Try and deny that it's really f**king cool to seen aliens or predators in a movie, they're just cool, and when they're both in the movie, and they're fighting, it's even cooler.  The plot didn't need to be much, they just needed to set up for what everyone went to see.  The plot was full of holes, and it was kinda cheesey, but I thought the idea of predators being worshiped as gods by an ancient civilization so they could breed aliens for the sole purpose of hunting is hardcore.  I also think it's hardcore that they risked the survival mankind to send three predators on a hunting trip.  You cannot deny that there were alot of hardcore scenes in the movie, and that's all I wanted from it...a collage of hardcore scenes.

[Jim H]

SPOILERS FOR AVP THE MOVIE AND THE FIRST COMIC SERIES...





I've heard it said that the only reason Scar (the predator that lives the longest) is because he is a teenager..  Well, it might be true to some extent, but the storyline in the second half is clearly derived from the first AVP comic series (which is novelized as AvP: Prey).  There's an Asian woman with martial arts training.  She is on a planet that is seeded by the predators with aliens for them to hunt (the humans just happen to be there, they're not even the primary host for the aliens in this case), and something goes wrong.  The elder predator (Cracked Tusk or Broken Tusk, I forget which) is injured and left for dead by the younger predators (or Yautja, if you want their real name).  He is helped by humans, and after the alien infestation gets out of hand he teams up with the asian woman and they fight their way through the hive.  His final moment is marking her face with acid, as he is injured badly in the final fight by the queen.

That should sound very familiar to those who have seen the movie.



***END SPOILERS***


Oh yeah, I realize the predator's are supposed to be young, but the final predator sure seemed to have a better idea about WTF he is doing than the others.  I thought perhaps he was an elder there to oversee the fight, but it looks like I'm wrong based on the film.  Meh.  

I enjoyed the film quite a quite.  Not great, some parts are laughable (I was especially disappointed by the new predator face, which is not nearly as good as that in the original films).  But it was enjoyable, with a couple decent fights.  I loved seeing the grid alien slice up a couple preds.  Good times.  It's a 4 slimer for me, though a "low" 4 slimer.  3 and a half maybe?

[Metalbeast]

I'll start off by saying that as a huge fan of the alien movies(well, the first two anyway...) and predator movies(I don't care what anyone else thinks, I thought Predator 2 kicked ass!) I came out of the movie thoroughly entertained by what I saw.  Hell I knew walking in it wouldn't be perfect. I rolled my eye's the first time I heard Paul W. Anderson was directing AND writing the script, and came close to giving up on it when I found out it was going to be PG-13, but I gave it a shot to prove me wrong anyway. And I must say that despite all the plot flaws(of which there are many.) the only thing that really dissappointed me was the look of the aliens. I really wanted them to use the alien warrior look from Aliens. I think that of all the Alien movies, they looked the most fearsome and terrifying in that one...  *sigh*, you can't have everything in life.

[Wycked nick]

Genetic  Mishap wrote:
> I thought that as well, but I realized an AVP apologist could
> make the case that, being an entire race of creatures, there
> would be a lot of variation between individuals, just like
> human beings.
>
> Maybe that's how the Huntocracy started out- they were just
> taking out their low self-image on other creatures ;-)

Thats not really what I ment. I understand that there faces would very but, the predators in this movie looked really bad. The skin tones were flat and the mouth and facial movements were poor. There were several parts in the movie I noticed that the skin around the predators mouth was very unflexable and looked completely unrealistic.

[Brother Ragnarok]

The comic storyline (which is hugely superior to the steaming load we're currently talking about) goes even farther, Jimbo.  There's a sequel where she has been inducted into the Yautja society, has her hair in dreads, a helmet (which I can't figure out how she uses, since all the controls are mandible-operated), armor, the works.  Once again, it's sad to see what could have been such an amazing story boiled down into a 90-minute PG-13 yawner.

[Prophet Tenebrae]

Yeah, Prey (followed up in comics and paperbacks) was pretty much the perfect AvP scenario but I guess Paul Anderson knew best. I'm pretty sure this film will get an oscar for its majesty, epicness and stuff.