Alien vs. Predador

Alien vs. Predator (2004) is a movie in my DVD collection that I recently watched on Amazon Prime. The storyline follows a research expedition that recently was discovered miles under the ice. The research team doesn't know the pyramid was setup as a hunting playground for Predators to test their hunting skills against the ultimate beings...and we aren't talking about humans.

This movie is directed by Paul W. S. Anderson (Event Horizon) and stars Sanaa Lathan (Love & Basketball), Lance Henriksen (Pumpkinhead), Ewen Bremner (Rundown), Tommy Flanagan (Gladiator), Raoul Bova (Under the Tuscan Sun).

The storyline for this picture was actually okay and was a good setup for this premise. I enjoyed the settings and the cast. I'd never complain about Lathan and Henriksen movies. The special effects were awesome and the kill and action scenes were very good, loved the depiction of both the Aliens and Predators. The alien vs predator fights were excellent, including how the face huggers were mixed in.

Overall is this a perfect movie? No, this premise had no chance of that. Is this worth viewing and entertaining? Absolutely. I'd score this a 6.5-7/10 and strongly recommend seeing this.

Alien Vs Predator can probably best be described as pure entertainment, in one of its most honest forms.

The titular contenders have never looked better, with the variety of three fully armed Predators shaking up the usual 'single hunter' formula, paired with the intense ferocity of the Xenomorphs posing as a threat not felt since 'Aliens'. The practical effects; costumes, miniatures, and set design are all really well-constructed and detailed. And the blend of occasional uses of CGI feels effectively complementary. The action and tension are decently directed. Sanaa Lathan as Alexa Woods was a strong lead, able to sell the quipy dialogue and the terror near-seemlessly. Lance Henriksen as Charles Bishop Weyland was a great casting choice, showing a concern for legacy and creating empathy from that. The rest of the cast did enough to not feel too generic, even if they were ultimately just quipy body bags. And the story, although almost bordering on blatantly campy, offers fun new lore that can best be i interpreted as good fan-fiction.

However, the Aliens and Predators, two creatures arguably most known for their abilities to remain hidden in the shadowy darkness, are very noticeably at each other's throats in very blunt manners, detracting from one of the factors that makes them very unique and at times m making them look like wrestlers in cosplay. The PG-13 rating causes a lot of cutaways and underwhelming kills, and the Unrated Cut is worse, with the addition of an almost pointless cold open, and distractingly useless stains of very obvious CGI blood.

Overall, AVP is a pretty good crossover film that, although misses the gore, manages to make up for it in great visuals and endlessly entertaining action.

Just watched it again yesterday - it's striking how good the action is compared to the ridiculous dialogue. I completely understand why this movie got such terrible reviews; after all, it marked the first "let's make a quick buck" entry in the two beloved Alien and Predator franchises and was done by a director who many felt didn't treat the material with the respect it deserved. When I watched it yesterday I got angry at times because some of the dialogue - well, most of it, actually - is truly awful. It's hard to take characters or a story seriously when nearly every sentence spoken resembles lines from a parody of cheap science-fiction and horror movies from the fifties and sixties. But despite all those flaws I have to admit I enjoyed the movie from start to finish - because of the amazing set- and creature-design and the more than decent action sequences and special effects. Whoever designed those really scored and seems to have a great love for the art of Giger and the previous films. So if you can get past the silly characters and you're able to ignore the more obvious shortcomings (like the idiotic decision to make the film PG-13) you're in for a fun ride. My vote: 6.5 out of 10.

Favorite films: http://www.IMDb.com/list/mkjOKvqlSBs/

Lesser-known Masterpieces: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls070242495/

Favorite Low-Budget and B-Movies: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls054808375/

Favorite TV-Shows reviewed: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls075552387/

First off, I'll try to make this short. Second off, I generally just don't write reviews as there's already plenty out there, mostly covering just about everything you'd want to read already.

That said, I watched AVP last night for the first time in I don't know how many years (probably since the 00's) and I must say, this flick absolutely does not deserve the hate it generally gets from fans and critics.

What you have here is an absolutely ridiculous concept taken from comic books adapted for a movie, and to be honest, it's constructed better than one would think for something of it's nature.

For a 2004 sci-fi flick combining two VERY heavy hitting characters and concepts, you've got the a blend that works well here story wise, and is it completely out there and unbelievable? YES, and that's exactly what you'd want to witness from an Alien Vs Predator flick.

Script: Well written and out there enough and still flows.

Set design & Cinematography: Kept my eyes peered to the screen the whole time, looking around every frame, trying to catch all the little details.

CGI: What use it has, honestly looks pretty sharp for 2004, and twenty years later, absolutely holds up compared to many other flicks in that era.

Concept: Totally insane and awesome, and as stated, executed rather well for what it is.

I flew through AVP's 100mins like it was a 18min short film, and honestly could have used a little more, even though it wrapped itself up setting itself up for a sequel (let's not talk about that one) in about as hilarious and daunting fashion as it could.

My one main complaint here is how all this fits into the whole franchise:

• How did we not know this was here before?

• Is this why the Weyland Corporation even sends Ripley's team out into space in the original Alien?

• Will we ever hear from the Queen at the bottom of the ocean again?

Other than that, this flick packs an out there concept into a tightly knit package that does it's best to stay true to both franchises, while blending it in a way that surprisingly Paul W. S. Anderson pulls off here, and well enough that I may just put this right under Event Horizon as his other best flick.

I hope I covered everything I wanted to that was swimming around in my head after watching this last night.

Long story short - this one actually holds up and is 1000000% worth another fun rewatch.

I went into this expecting a horrible movie. From all the reviews that I read I thought it would be HORRIBLE! I've seen many, many worse movies than this.

A previous comment stated the movie went a bit too fast in explaining things and developing the characters. While I can certainly agree on the former, the latter, well, you just know most of the people are going to get wasted so character development isn't that necessary. We came to see Predators hunt and fight with Aliens.

One thing I didn't like was the movie showed the Aliens more powerful than the Predators. I believe the canon shows the Predators are much more powerful than the Aliens. Regardless, I liked this movie.

This movie surprised me because there were many things I didn't expect. Were some scenes over the top? Absolutely, but this is Hollywood and we're talking Aliens V Predator here :) IF you are a fan of these genres you really should give this movie a chance.