Is this the greatest film with Predators and Aliens ever made? No, of course not. But is it the worst along with "Alien Resurrection" or "Predator: Requiem"? No, I don't think this film falls into that category either. Despite not exactly being a masterpiece, what "AVP" is, is a good solid base film for an essentially new franchise. And given the popularity of storylines about Aliens and Predators in general (Alien Vs. Predator comic books have been Dark Horse comics number one seller since the 1990's) there was reason to think there might be fandom in significant numbers for a feature film. And this film is an admirable, if imperfect, comic-to-film transition.
The actors all fill their roles realistically and are convincing as a team of various experts sent by the wealthy Mr Weyland (Lance Henrikson) to investigate a mysterious heat bloom caught on satellite imagery at the top of the world in Antarctica. So Weyland throws together a team of various specialists and experts and has to do it in a big hurry - all because Weyland doesn't want somebody else to discover what it is that made the mysterious heat bloom before he does.
After making their way their via an Icebreaker ship, what Weyland's team discovers is a disused underground complex beneath the ice. The complex is full of statues, structures and artifacts (including a queen Alien frozen in the ice) and other weird things that indicate no humans were involved in making any of this. The team is amazed by what they find, and at first can't understand who built all of it, and why. And unfortunately for the humans, the bizarre complex turns out to be an elaborate hunting range for an extra-terrestrial race of Predators, who have somehow placed a Queen Alien (i.e. The same species as the so-called "Xenomorphs" from Alien and Aliens) in the complex, to provide the hunter's prey. And along come the humans, who eventually realize they are now trapped in the middle of a battle between alien Predators (who created it all as a sort of game preserve to allow them to hunt Aliens for sport} and Alien "xenomorphs" who do what they do in all Alien films, kill every other living creature in sight.
As the Predator race has already planted a queen Alien (restrained only by chains), the newly thawed queen Xenomorph begins laying Alien eggs in great numbers; which then hatch a so-called "face hugger" who immediately latches onto the face of the nearest creature it can find, lays some kind of larva inside its unfortunate host, and then rips its way out of their chest later, all toothy and ready to kill any other being within reach.
Maybe the least enjoyable part of the film is how obvious it is, that no human in this movie stands a chance to survive. The Predators and Aliens seem a good match for each other in a fight: the Alien has raw power, extreme aggression, and incredible speed to go along with its lethal teeth, claws and tail. Whereas the Predators, while slightly humanoid in appearance, are all much bigger, stronger, and have far more advanced weapons and technology than the humans do, and come to the underground city well equipped to fight the Xenomorphs. Moreover the Predators have a cloaking ability to turn themselves virtually invisible (they know how to bend light),although this would seem to be little advantage when fighting Aliens, (who have no eyes, and take in their world in a way that somehow doesn't require vision).
And once the two alien species begin to fight in earnest, no human, armed or not, stands a chance in a battle against either species, let alone both together. So it soon becomes obvious that every human there is now trapped in a situation where they are doomed and there's literally nothing they can do about it, except try to fight back with weapons that are wholly inadequate and have little effect on either Predator or Xenomorph.
The rest of the movie is just watching the people of Weyland's Expedition team be killed off one by one, along with countless Predators and Aliens. And the absence of anything that might give the humans a fighting chance is glaring - the closest they ever get to anything that might even the odds a little, is after one of the humans finds a Predator gun. But even that ultimately comes to nothing.
There were lots of things I liked about this movie. It was fast-paced with little screen time going to backstory. Since everyone is in a big hurry to join Weyland's hastily organized expedition, it lends real urgency. Despite the relative lack of dialogue, the adding of which would have added much to the character development, I actually cared what happened to the characters right up to the point where they are killed. And the cast is first-rate, but all have such limited screen time no one is really allowed to shine.
I felt the movie would have been much better if it had been at least half an hour longer (and that's not something I'd recommend for most movies being made either); if only to give more depth to the characters and to introduce additional plot elements.
There are lots of things to like about this movie: the POV Predator view (they see using thermal technology in their masks), the cool Predator weapons, the ferocious battles between the Aliens and Predators (which are very well done in my opinion).
But all in all, something seems to be missing from this movie and I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it's the lack of character development especially compared to the original "Predator". But while the movie seems to tick all the boxes on the sci-fi action film list right up to the final "boss battle" (which despite being made using miniatures still comes across as impressively brutal). But I guess none of those elements are enough to really elevate it to any kind of fan-favorite film.
And I can't help wondering how the movie might be different if the movie had been cast just a bit differently... what if director WS Anderson's lovely wife, who happened to be Milla Jovovitch could have played the lead role of Alexa Woods (instead of the lovely/talented Sanaa Lathan)? We'll never know, of course, but it's intriguing to imagine. And while I'm at it, it's also intriguing to imagine that perhaps someday a really good movie in the AVP franchise instead of the under-realized movies they've made since this film came out in 2004.
And I am the Queen of Sheba.
The actors all fill their roles realistically and are convincing as a team of various experts sent by the wealthy Mr Weyland (Lance Henrikson) to investigate a mysterious heat bloom caught on satellite imagery at the top of the world in Antarctica. So Weyland throws together a team of various specialists and experts and has to do it in a big hurry - all because Weyland doesn't want somebody else to discover what it is that made the mysterious heat bloom before he does.
After making their way their via an Icebreaker ship, what Weyland's team discovers is a disused underground complex beneath the ice. The complex is full of statues, structures and artifacts (including a queen Alien frozen in the ice) and other weird things that indicate no humans were involved in making any of this. The team is amazed by what they find, and at first can't understand who built all of it, and why. And unfortunately for the humans, the bizarre complex turns out to be an elaborate hunting range for an extra-terrestrial race of Predators, who have somehow placed a Queen Alien (i.e. The same species as the so-called "Xenomorphs" from Alien and Aliens) in the complex, to provide the hunter's prey. And along come the humans, who eventually realize they are now trapped in the middle of a battle between alien Predators (who created it all as a sort of game preserve to allow them to hunt Aliens for sport} and Alien "xenomorphs" who do what they do in all Alien films, kill every other living creature in sight.
As the Predator race has already planted a queen Alien (restrained only by chains), the newly thawed queen Xenomorph begins laying Alien eggs in great numbers; which then hatch a so-called "face hugger" who immediately latches onto the face of the nearest creature it can find, lays some kind of larva inside its unfortunate host, and then rips its way out of their chest later, all toothy and ready to kill any other being within reach.
Maybe the least enjoyable part of the film is how obvious it is, that no human in this movie stands a chance to survive. The Predators and Aliens seem a good match for each other in a fight: the Alien has raw power, extreme aggression, and incredible speed to go along with its lethal teeth, claws and tail. Whereas the Predators, while slightly humanoid in appearance, are all much bigger, stronger, and have far more advanced weapons and technology than the humans do, and come to the underground city well equipped to fight the Xenomorphs. Moreover the Predators have a cloaking ability to turn themselves virtually invisible (they know how to bend light),although this would seem to be little advantage when fighting Aliens, (who have no eyes, and take in their world in a way that somehow doesn't require vision).
And once the two alien species begin to fight in earnest, no human, armed or not, stands a chance in a battle against either species, let alone both together. So it soon becomes obvious that every human there is now trapped in a situation where they are doomed and there's literally nothing they can do about it, except try to fight back with weapons that are wholly inadequate and have little effect on either Predator or Xenomorph.
The rest of the movie is just watching the people of Weyland's Expedition team be killed off one by one, along with countless Predators and Aliens. And the absence of anything that might give the humans a fighting chance is glaring - the closest they ever get to anything that might even the odds a little, is after one of the humans finds a Predator gun. But even that ultimately comes to nothing.
There were lots of things I liked about this movie. It was fast-paced with little screen time going to backstory. Since everyone is in a big hurry to join Weyland's hastily organized expedition, it lends real urgency. Despite the relative lack of dialogue, the adding of which would have added much to the character development, I actually cared what happened to the characters right up to the point where they are killed. And the cast is first-rate, but all have such limited screen time no one is really allowed to shine.
I felt the movie would have been much better if it had been at least half an hour longer (and that's not something I'd recommend for most movies being made either); if only to give more depth to the characters and to introduce additional plot elements.
There are lots of things to like about this movie: the POV Predator view (they see using thermal technology in their masks), the cool Predator weapons, the ferocious battles between the Aliens and Predators (which are very well done in my opinion).
But all in all, something seems to be missing from this movie and I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it's the lack of character development especially compared to the original "Predator". But while the movie seems to tick all the boxes on the sci-fi action film list right up to the final "boss battle" (which despite being made using miniatures still comes across as impressively brutal). But I guess none of those elements are enough to really elevate it to any kind of fan-favorite film.
And I can't help wondering how the movie might be different if the movie had been cast just a bit differently... what if director WS Anderson's lovely wife, who happened to be Milla Jovovitch could have played the lead role of Alexa Woods (instead of the lovely/talented Sanaa Lathan)? We'll never know, of course, but it's intriguing to imagine. And while I'm at it, it's also intriguing to imagine that perhaps someday a really good movie in the AVP franchise instead of the under-realized movies they've made since this film came out in 2004.
And I am the Queen of Sheba.