Decent Yet Unsatisfying

Rating: 5/10 (13 August 2004)

Alien vs Predator is a film that isn't as bad as many people make it out to be. It isn't a great film by any stretch but bringing the Alien and Predator together on-screen isn't exactly an easy task, especially with 20th Century Fox pulling the strings. Paul W. Anderson seemed to impress them well enough with his concept and this is what Fox whipped up.
The basic premise of the film goes against continuity set in the Alien films by placing Aliens on present day Earth. They manage to get away with it however by setting the film in the remote region of Antarctica and keeping the Aliens beneath the surface. The setting is something I found to be fantastic about this film. I enjoyed the Arctic Whaling Station as well as the Pyramid beneath the ice. I wish more time was spent both on the surface and in the Pyramid to build up the atmosphere and tension of the film. The setting of the Pyramid was brilliant but it really wasn't used to it's full potential. Of course the reality of discovering a Pyramid so far beneath the ice is a stretch but we'll ignore that for now. If more time could have been used to create a sense of fear when wandering through the Pyramid, especially once separated from each other, the quality of the film could have been greatly improved.
As for the characters themselves... they were decent. I didn't hate any of them and some attempts at characterization where made but ultimately it feels as if they are rushed and just shoved upon us. I guess the trouble is that none of them are really that interesting and whether they live or die is of little consequence to us. Lance was definitely a welcomed addition to the cast, even if it goes against Alien continuity if you consider Bishop in Alien 3 to be human – this being the popular consensus.
Of course the real reason everyone wanted to see this film is because of the title creatures. While they are portrayed well enough although many issues are to be had with both. The Predators were not the Predators we had become accustomed to in the first two Predator films. They are bulkier and certainly aren't as wise as we have seen in the past. The wrist blades also appear different and perhaps the most notable change is the Thermal Vision. Many people feel the alteration of the Predators vision style severely hurt the quality of the film but it is never something that really bothered me. It was used well and the "Alien" vision mode the Predators had looked great. My only real issues was their wrist blades – I don't really mind the change of look but if your hunting a species with acid for blood shouldn't your primary weapon be more potent against them?
The Aliens, especially the Grid, were portrayed well although in behavior they seemed to shift between clever and mindless beasts throughout the film. The costume designs really aren't the greatest (they are the same suits as A: R with a black coat of paint) and the CGI appeared quite bad in certain parts. The Alien Queen however was fantastic and contributed to many great shots and moments in this film.
The name of this film however is "AVP" and that is one of the big let downs in this movie. There really weren't many scenes of Aliens fighting Predators. There was one major clash but not much beyond that. People who go to see a film titled Alien vs Predator expect to see lots of clashes between the two. The level of gore in this film is another reason it often faces criticism from series fans. I however don't think it is needed for there to be buckets of blood to make a good film. The PG-13 rating takes nothing away from this film what so ever. More Predator and Alien blood would have been welcome of course.
In conclusion this is an adequate film that would be greatly helped if fleshed out by 10-15 minutes of tension building scenes. Some people will argue it needs much more than that but I truly believe a few more quality scenes would help improve this film. The film really does start out with a lot of promise. It really does a fairly nice job of building up excitement yet unfortunately fails to deliver in the second half. More screen time for the title characters and certainly more duels would have made this film stand out a lot more. Once great element of the film is the cinematography as there are many beautiful shots in this film, especially on the Predator ship and within the Pyramid itself. The potential for this was great and the end result is all right but it could have been much more.