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Genre
Science Fiction
Length
100 minutes
Director
Paul W.S. Anderson
Major Stars
Sanaa Lathan
Raoul Bova
Lance Henricksen
MPAA Rating
PG13
Year Released
2004
Review Posted on
6/1/2005
Rating
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Review by Jack Mangan
In AVP: Alien Vs. Predator, a bunch of people you don't care about are led to the middle of Antarctica and they get stuck inside of a big underground pyramid where the hunter creatures from the Predator films used to use human sacrifices to feed and reproduce the ultimate hunting trophies: the less-sophisticated, but extremely deadly species of 'Aliens' from the Alien franchise. The inside of the pyramid moves and shifts around like the first level of a video game on the old Nintendo Entertainment System.
This movie's negatives are too many to list here, so I'll give the extremely short list of positives:
Lance Henrikson has a role in the film. His part is not especially good or interesting; he probably should have declined the part. But he's there. The first time we see an Alien fight against a Predator one-on-one is mildly cool. Sanaa Lathan is not bad in the leading role. AVP is still somehow better than Alien: Resurrection.
Oh, the possibilities of an Alien vs. Predator film. Oh what a terrible film this is. When people lament the big soulless Hollywood studio system, with no care or reverence for respected film franchises, this is the movie they're talking about. There's not a centimeter of depth to the characters or the story. The method used to mix the Alien and Predator species is the opposite of clever.
Paul W.S. Anderson has been given some of the blame for this debacle, as he should, but it's not entirely his fault. I think it could actually have been significantly worse in the hands of a less-skilled, less-seasoned director.
There are a handful of talented people involved in this film, but none of them seemed to really care, or apply any effort to it, save the FX and make-up people. AVP was apparently just a job. I highly doubt that in private, Paul. W.S. Anderson says to his friends, "Have you seen AVP? I'm really proud of that movie." Ditto for Lance Henrikson. (Note: I'm just a humble reviewer making idle speculations; I don't claim to know anything about what goes on in Anderson's or Henrikson's heads or social circles). During production, no one stopped to say, "Hey, there's some integrity to these two film franchises, especially 'Alien', so let's do a movie that cares more about pleasing audiences rather than just taking their money. We could make something special here." FYI: if anyone had invested some TLC into the AVP DVD, then maybe the film would have had a chance. Instead we, the audience and the fans, are SOL.
The DVD has a semi-interesting 'making-of' featurette, plus the option of the theatrical version or an extended bonus cut. Oh boy!
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| Posted by ChristopherS on 6/1/2005 |
| I think you're being too kind to Anderson. While movies are a collaboration, Andersen was the director and screenwriter. He gets a great deal of the blame for this. |
| Posted by Jack Mangan on 6/3/2005 |
| You are right, ChristopherS. According to www.imdb.org, PWSAnderson is the sole perpetrator of the screenplay, though Dan O'Bannon & Ronald Shusett, writers of the original "Alien" film, get "screen story" credit for AVP, whatever that means. Those 2 only get "Characters" writing credits for the other Alien films. Did they actually come back to take an active role in AVP?? Are they partially responsible for that ridiculous pyramid? |
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