MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence, language, horror images, slime and gore.
Runtime: 87 minutes
Director/Writer:
Paul W. S. Anderson (Mortal Kombat, Event Horizon, Soldier, Resident Evil)
Cast:
Sanaa Lathan - (Blade, The Wood, Love & Basketball, Out Of Time) as Alexa Woods
Raoul Bova - (Rewind, Under The Tuscan Sun) as Sebastian de Rosa
Ewen Bremner - (Trainspotting, Snatch, Pearl Harbor, Black Hawk Down) as Graeme Miller
Lance Henriksen - (Dog Day Afternoon, The Terminator, Aliens, Millenium (TV)) as Charles Weyland
Colin Salmon - (Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day, Resident Evil) as Maxwell Stafford
Tommy Flanagan - (Braveheart, The Saint, Gladiator, all About The Benjamins) as Mark Verheiden
Billionaire Charles Weyland has a problem, and a proposition for you. One of his orbital satellites has picked up the thermal signature of a structure on an Antarctic island - it turns out this structure is a pyramid and it's not "on" the island, it's 2000 feet below the surface of the ice. Not only can no-one figure out how it got there, to make matters even more enticing, the pyramid seems to be part Incan, part Cambodian and part Egyptian in design. Smelling an opportunity, he wants to get there before his competition does. So how do you feel about being part of the best team of experts he can get in 15 minutes or thereabout, and heading off to find riches and glory? Fun, eh?
Well, what he finds isn't exactly what he's looking for. It seems that not only has our backwater little planet long been a combat zone for aliens and predators (and this pyramid is the latest battleground of choice), but it's time for the next round.
I went to see this with my son, more as an enjoyable father-son outing than anything. I had no expectations other than figuring I'd see a super-gore-fest-cheesy-cgi-slasher-movie-with-actors-in-rubber-suits kind of thing. I was pleasantly surprised - this film will never be anything other than a summer sci-fi action vehicle, but overall it's a creditable one that doesn't disrespect the traditions of Alien, Aliens or Predator (the rest of the sequels don't really amount to much, IMO).
In this ensemble cast, Sanaa Lathan is first among equals as the appointed leader of the expedition and she pulls it off in a rather pleasingly believable manner - although her gorgeous looks and complexion don't exactly add up to someone who has spent their life on rock faces and ice shelfs. As for the rest of the cast, everyone pulls their own weight even though there is little character building, and little enough time for it, to be honest. A couple of notables though are Ewen Bremner as the chemical engineer and Raoul Bova as the archeologist. You develop a rapport with these three, hoping against hope that they survive the ordeal. Lance Henriksen has several moments, a couple of which tie nicely back to the Alien series. WARNING: Small Spoilers: A magazine cover shows Weyland's full name to be Charles Bishop Weyland, which harkens back (or forward) to the android character of Bishop in Aliens, and also in a moment of nervousness he plays with a knife at his desk, sticking it into the desktop between his fingers - tying back to the mess hall scene, again in Aliens. Many old friends are here - the queen alien and her warriors, the eggs and their spidery critters, along with the predators who seem even more fearsome, implacable and dangerous. It's a fast-paced 87 minutes that ramps up from a fairly quiet first 20 minutes to a roller-coaster finish.
I'm usually pretty easy-going and able to "suspend my disbelief" for movies like this, although I have to admit to a couple of things sticking out a bit too far. They weren't really distracting, but did come to mind afterwards. I won't go into them here, but we can a bit later if you are interested.
Visually, this film is surprisingly good. Most scenes are night- or interior-shots with the expected dark tones and muted color palettes. Detail is quite good throughout although due to the nature of dark shots, it's subtle in most scenes. The creatures are combinations of full-size suits, cgi and robotics, all of which are very effective and seamless in presentation. Kudos to the production staff! Displayed in 2.35:1, scenes are well framed, although a couple of the close-in fight scenes are VERY choppy and hard to follow.
Sonically, it's pretty standard sci-fi-action fare. Steady use of surrounds and sub-woofers. Lot's of flying, jumping, crashing, slicing, sticking, gushing things to keep your attention and shock you at just the right moments.
In all, this movie came off MUCH better than I expected it to. Then again as I mentioned at first, I had no expectations of anything watchable coming out of this. I do like these kinds of surprises. :T
I give AVP: Alien Vs. Predator :25: out of :5:.
WARNING: MAJOR SPOILER - don't read this until you've seen the movie! One nice little connection my son put together was at the very last moment of the film, on board the predator's ship as it leaves orbit, the alien pops out of the last warrior's chest as it rests on its bier. That very well could have led to the ship crashing on LV421, the planet Ripley's ship sets down on in Alien, thus bringing us full circle. Nice touch, don't you think?
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