ALIEN VS PREDATOR (2004)
Director: Paul Anderson
Genre: Sci-Fi/Survival Horror
THE MOVIE
The AVP concept goes back to the 1980’s when Dark Horse comics created a series of cross-overs using both the Alien and Predator licenses (of which they had been running successful comics series). The original story was set around the time of the Alien movies on a distant colony planet. It established that the Predator race kept the Aliens in captivity to be unleashed on distant planets to be hunted as part of their coming of age rituals. In the original comic, a group of human colonists are caught in the middle of the struggle and a lone female colonist teams up with a surviving Predator to destroy the Alien menace.
This was a very cool and exciting combination in the late 1980’s and spawned a slew of similar concepts featuring unlikely comics cross-overs (such as Robocop Vs. Terminator, Batman Vs. Predator, Superman Vs. Aliens, etc) and fans wondered if we would ever see a movie of AVP. We got a tantalizing hint at the end of 1990’s Predator 2 which featured a nice easter egg in the form of a bleached Alien skull among the trophies on the Predator ship at the end of the movie. In the early 2000’s, with the Predator series dormant after its only sequel and the Alien series having fizzled out with two financially unsuccessful movies, 20th Century Fox began to seriously consider doing a movie version of AVP.
They turned to Director Paul W.S. Anderson who had directed a number of hyperactive video game adaptations (Resident Evil, Mortal Kombat) that were popular with the Playstation crowd. This choice irritated a lot of people, particularly fans of the Alien movies who were used to a certain amount of respect for the material and quality directors. Also, irritating to fan boys was the continuity-bending fact that the film was to be set on Earth in the present (probably for budgetary reasons), and that the movie was being produced with a PG-13 rating in mind. Therefore, the movie was panned by hardcore sci-fi fans as well as critics who don’t like it when titles are not prescreened for them. Critics are also dismissive of anything with the word “versus” in the title, bringing to their minds Godzilla movies (to which I ask, what’s wrong with that?) As far as the tone of the movie, Anderson seems to be emulating Ridley Scott’s cool and austere British horror style more than James Cameron’s balls-on-the-wall American action movie style (like Scott, Anderson is a Brit). This might be another reason American fan boys don’t appreciate this much underrated monster flick.
So, what’s the deal with AVP? The movie has a lot going against it. The Earth setting is kinda dumb and negates the fact that the characters in the Alien movies were all working to keep the aliens from getting to earth. The characters are mostly dull. I hate the Jurassic Park-y exposition. The movie is frustratingly underlit and so frenetically edited that it is hard to see what is going on sometimes. What the hell are Predators doing in the Antarctic? And why do the Aliens mature so fast? What’s up with the ridiculously literal production design on the ice pyramid, with hilarious Alien and Predator hieroglyphics?
On the other hand, for all his reputation as a hack director, Anderson is clearly a big fan of the Alien and Predator movies and his film is filled with loving visual references to both the movies and the original AVP comics, which was pleasantly surprising. His knowledge of the Alien series and sci-fi in general goes deeper than expected and much of the inspiration for the pyramid comes from discarded early story ideas and concept art from Alien and much of the story itself seems to have been inspired by H. P. Lovecraft’s “At The Mountains of Madness.” There are even references to the fun but silly theories of ancient astronauts as proposed by Erich von Daniken.
The idea of a human female survivor who is “branded” into the Predator clan comes straight from the original AVP comic series from Dark Horse. And while the idea of Alexa suiting up with make-shift Alien weapons doesn’t work that well on film I have to respect that they put it in. It’s ironic that a movie that is such a labor of fan love is so reviled by fan boys.
THE MONSTERS/EFFECTS
One of the main reasons that I enjoy this movie so much is the fact that Giger’s Aliens have never looked better than they do in this movie. The Aliens go back to a classic design that resembles the creatures from the first and third movie with the domed head and they are brought to life with a combination of life-sized hydraulic puppet and CGI and as far as I know, there is no suit acting in this movie at all. This gives us Aliens that are more skeletal and less anthropomorphic than they have been before.
As I stated above, the Aliens in this movie seem to go from implant to chestburster to adult in a matter of hours (or perhaps even less) which is pretty fast compared to the previous movies. It seems to me in 1979’s Alien, the creature matures “overnight.” In Alien 3, the time period seems to be a day or two. These both seem too fast when you think about it but in AVP it is ludicrously fast. One gets the unpleasant feeling that the established continuity has been fudged to serve the plot needs of this movie. My own nerdy theory is that since these Aliens have been bred by the Predators to serve a particular purpose, they may have been altered to mature faster than normal. After all, it would suck to be a Predator and arrive at the temple only to be able to fight a bunch of chestbursters.
The Alien queen also makes a truly spectacular comeback in this movie after her rather lame appearance in Alien Resurrection. Her intro as she is frozen and chained in the bowels of the Antarctic temple is extremely cool and very inspired by the first AVP comic where she is similarly restrained aboard a Predator ship. She looks much like she did in Aliens only bigger, more skeletal and without the built in stiletto heels. Unless I am mistaken, she is completely CGI in this movie.
Unfortunately, the Predators in this movie don’t come out so well. Unlike the very tall and lean actor/dancer Kevin Peter Hall who played the Predator in the original two movies, the new Predators are very big and muscled and wear bulkier armor which gives them a weird linebacker-y appearance. Their arms also seem too short for their bodies. They also seem to have crazy extreme sports versions of their signature weapons. Their wrist gauntlets are now about four times longer than ever before and the very cool smart disc from P2 has been reimagined as a crazy giant throwing star. But, I guess if you are hunting aliens you need different equipment than if you are hunting humans.
MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE
The battle against the Queen at the end of the movie. Look at her go!
DVD AVAILABILITY
Widely available in a couple of different versions. There is an unrated version which is not that much different than the theatrical cut.
SEQUELS
Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem, also enjoyable and a lot more graphic with a more American sensibility. If Anderson is trying to emulate Alien, then the directors of AVP:R are trying to emulate Aliens and Predator. You may enjoy one more than the other depending on your tastes.
TRIVIA
James Cameron has apparently seen this movie and enjoyed it.
TRAILER
Patrick Garone
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Shame that Scar died and that fugly Prealien come out of his chest. Alexa was a cool kickass character who had a pair. AVPR was bad in my eyes because most of the people were annoying. They made it interesting by killing a child via Chestburster which has never been done on screen. That was interesting and sad because it's always sad when a kid dies on film. Although they do have a point: if Xenomorphs were real they would go after kids too.
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