Alien vs. Predator [2004]
So, I really, really like the Alien series. Like, it's not the best movie series out there, but the first two films are genuinely good, I'm a huge fan of the pretty disturbing designs of the xenomorphs, and the Aliens vs Predator game on the PlayStation 3 got me absolutely immersed in the lore of the series.
There's a new Alien movie out which I totally did not fucking realize and honest-to-god was coincidental, because I watched this movie a couple of weeks ago. I won't be able to watch that movie until at least a couple more weeks, but I can review Alien vs. Predator first.
Sadly, like many franchises, back in the 80's-90's both the Alien and Predator series suffers a fair bit from sequelitis. I don't think it ever got as bad as horror movies like the Freddy/Jason movies where the later sequels are literal shit, but some of the later Alien movies are pretty bad.
You can always rely on the series to deliver a pretty cool science-fiction horror-action combo, though. And some of the movies in this series that I haven't seen, ironically, is Alien vs Predator, the namesake of a video game very dear to my heart.
It sounds like a pretty strange thing, really, when you think about it. I think the existence of the movies and video games and comics have intrinsically bound the two sci-fi alien franchises together, despite the attempts of the filmmakers to utterly divorce the two of them from each other, essentially decanonizing the two Alien vs Predator movies with Prometheus and Predators. But shit, these two movies exist, apparently they're super-shit, and I'll be looking at them.
And I find out that... Alien vs Predator isn't actually terrible. We'll talk about Requiem probably when I'm a little more inebriated, but I actually enjoyed myself when I watched AvP. Sure, the movie has its share of loop holes that can probably only be chalked up to 'the Predators just really, really want to hunt the Aliens for sport', but shit, it's still a pretty cool movie. There's even an attempt to tie in the plot, such as it is, to the backstory of the Alien franchise with the appearance of mr. Weyland, founder of future corporation Weyland-Yutani which will play a huge role in the Alien movies. And we even get some lore for the Predator race, with apparently the ancient human race building pyramids and worshipping the Predators when they visited us in the past. Oh, and the human sacrifices done by ancient Aztec-Mayan-Incan people? They're actually being used as hosts to breed xenomorphs for teenage Predators to hunt. The archaeologist did get a bit too introdumpy for my tastes, but it's kind of necessary, I think, to really make sense of the setting.
So yeah, apparently the Predators built this Zelda-Temple-esque pyramid with a frozen Alien Queen in its basement, then attracts the Weyland corporation and a group of scientists, miners and bodyguards with a heat flare, and then the ancient contraptions in the pyramid starts to, well, put human and Predator alike in a deadly game where they just have to survive against the xenomorphs being unleashed upon them.
None of the human characters matter, of course. Alexa Woods (Sanaa Lathan), Sebastian (Raoul Bova) and Mr. Weyland (Lance Hendricksen) bear the brunt of the screentime, with a jittery scientist who keeps talking about his son -- and naturally dies -- bearing the brunt of the human scenes while the rest are just fodder, and Alexa makes it all the way to the end. She's pretty badass, actually. Not quite Ripley or Arnold Schwazznegger tier badass, but as what's basically a civilian, she manages to assist the lead Predator (a.k.a. "Scar", according to Wikipedia) in killing a couple of xenomorphs, earning the Predator's respect enough for him to arm her with an alien-tail spear.
The movie does what it does, alternating between horror and action pretty smoothly, and the relatively recent technology means that the xenomorphs look a fair lot more impressive than the older Alien movies. Despite being set in a pyramidal death trap, the setting is pretty atmospheric and alien enough. Prometheus would later take a page out of this movie by having the action take place in an ancient dusty tomb, and both really feel like they're inspired by Lovecraft's classic cosmic horror story At the Mountains of Madness.
Really liked the backstory given to the Predators, even if I don't really buy Scar befriending Alexa so quickly. Also felt that it was odd that Scar's mission went from "prove myself by killing the xenomorphs, fuck the humans, right?" to "shit, need all the help I can get to defeat the xenomorphs" though I suspect he just felt like things just got way too out of hand when both his buddies died. Also really liked the Yautja elder at the end, who knew Predators got old? Who knew Predators have medical gurneys in their fancy tribal-tech spaceship?
Both Alien and Predator fared pretty well, I think. The Alien Queen is an unstoppable juggernaut that's only defeated thanks to smartness (and the fact that she's merely dunked into the Arctic water really means that she's incapacitated rather than killed), the main Alien drone (nicknamed "Grid" by the fandom thanks to the marks that the Predators' net dug onto its carapace) is an absolute badass that gets to murder two Predators in what I think is the movie's highlight action sequence, Scar is also a badass in mowing down hordes of Alien Drones, and the final confrontation with the Alien Queen as she bursts out of the snow and rampages around the base is just a great treat. Especially that scene when Scar the Predator jumps and spear-chucks the Queen in the side of her face.
It's a pretty great action movie, and it combines the 'here and now' setting of Predator with the sheer, well, alien-ness of the Alien movies. See, the Predator movies tend to be set in the present day, while Alien movies are all set in far-flung futures and not even in the same planet. By placing the setting in the present-day Antarctic, which is both relatable to us yet still alien at the same time.
No, it's not particularly smart, it doesn't do things that any of the better Alien/Predator movies didn't already do and the opening might be a little too slow for my tastes, the characters are mostly flat and maybe some better storytelling pacing might be in order, but it's definitely an enjoyable movie that doesn't really deserve the hate it gets -- I mean, shit, you see Aliens fight Predator in a premise that's not too badly done. It's definitely a fun hour and a half, that's for sure.
I agree with your opinion. As an alien and predator fan, I loved this movie when it came out. I think the problem comes because people still expected quality on par with Alien or Predator. In a way, they placed the hope that this movie could save both franchises. If you look at it without those glasses, it's an entertaining monster movie. Dare I say it's the best movie Paul W.S Anderson ever directed, although that's not saying much.
ReplyDeleteWith AvP's position in the franchise -- with the Alien franchise dwindling heavily after the rather poorly-received third and fourth movies, and Predator itself not doing very well either, yeah, I can totally see the huge expectations thrown its way. The fact that fans seem to want it to be so much more epic than just "an alien nest and a bunch of predators in a ring, FIGHT!" I mean, like, yeah, the AvP games had so much more awesome/epic stuff and story going on but it's not a two-hour movie.
DeleteI like it, though. It might be weaker compared to more highly-lauded movies in the series like Aliens or Prometheus, with a very basic plot, but shit, it's a fun monster fight movie.
AvP:R, on the other hand...