Whoever Wins, We Loose - Contains Spoilers

Rating: Null/10 (4 November 2004)

Whoever Wins, We Loose  Spoilers Within
Well, I can't say I was disappointed - I'm in the UK and heard all the 'hype' prior to the release. I had decided to avoid this at the cinema due to all the bad things I'd heard but after watching Film 2004 with 'Jonathan Ross' I was swayed. He confirmed what I already suspected, that AVP was a commercial attempt at resurrecting two classic pillars of sci-fi history but surprised me by saying that it was equally watchable and visually pleasing. I decided to take his advice and give the film a chance.
I feel I must apologise to the other people in the cinema, for my outbursts of laughter and sniggering. I remember some years ago, coming out of a cinema in Cambridge and praying that there would never be another Aliens sequel following the Resurrections desperate attempts to re-kindle the dying embers of a once great story. Compared to AVP, Resurrection is a classic...
Before I start I'd like to say I don't have a problem with Anderson - a lot of people don't like his work. I think Resident Evil was a great adaptation of a Computer Game, and Solider was just plain entertaining, commercial but entertaining.
Don't get me wrong, as a commercial film AVP will no doubt succeed at the box office, I'm sure the twelve to fifteen yr-olds will love it. It looks very expensive, has a couple of big explosions and some great looking aliens. But that's where it ends. The potential greatness of this movie has had me excited for ages and I thought there was nothing they could do to spoil it. Anderson shouldn't have accepted the script if he had no love for the project.
Story Line - Great Idea for a plot  loads of potential, the timescale ties the two alien races in together nicely, the idea of the pyramid was understandable and reinforced the predators desire for honour in combat. I still can't comprehend why a huge killing machine like the predator would team up with a lowly human? The relationship between predators and humans has always been as hunter and pray, any 'friendship' was always based on the respect for the prey, not a deep seeded need to work as a team and be nice to each other, as someone commented, It was like watching an episode of the care bears.
Continuity  This is where the film really missed the target. Both the Predator and Aliens series are bathed in cult status and should have been respected far more. Applying a few rules to a sequel/prequel is essential in making the continuing story both believable and consistent. I'm unsure what Anderson was thinking when someone decided to lay this films timeline out over a few hours? but it ruined the atmosphere. It really was the first mistake that cascaded into the disaster that we see today. The restrictive timeline meant that the Full Alien Development Cycle was drastically shortened to an amazing (get this) 15 mins ! That's from the queen laying the first egg to face hugger hatching to human host being inseminated to chest-burster erupting and growing into a full battle hardened alien?
Characters - While this whirlwind of chaos was unravelling we were subjected to a tedious flash back explaining every detail of why these alien species were on earth. (not required and insulting to anyone with an ounce of grey matter) and then it was over. Before I knew what was happening our heroes (now best of friends) emerge on the ice for one last slog with the Alien queen, the fact that I can't remember the lead characters name is bad but the fact that I couldn't care less, even more worrying I was praying for the female character to be killed off in some kind of justification but no, now we get the one to one respect scene, that should have been the culmination of the human/predator relationship.
I left the cinema feeling violated, not a whimper of sympathy for any of the characters (Plenty for the actors) No respect for Anderson or the creative Team, and not even a glimmer of interest in the oh, so obviously nauseating 'suggestion' of the impending sequel. I refuse to believe that there is anyone stupid enough (even in Hollywood) to forget or overlook all of these and many other glaringly obvious plot holes. My only conclusion is that they weren't stupid. they just didn't care. And that is an unforgivable crime in my eyes as making movies should be about telling a story and creating a vision. Not creating piles of cash
My summation AVP is a top rate commercial achievement. No creativity  Minimal writing Talent  Just a huge pile of cash made off the back of a successful series, if you loved the previous movies please don't bother this will make you cringe  if your fairly laid back and want something to put on at your kids sleep over, this'll be right up your street.