This could have been soooo much better...

Rating: 4/10 (4 August 2006)

I love the "Alien" films (with strong reservations about "Alien: Resurrection"), but have no real feeling for the "Predator" franchise - Schwarzenegger killed it for me right at the beginning. However, it was with some enthusiasm that I took myself off to the cinema to watch this. I was hoping for more than I got, unfortunately.
None of the characters were worth wasting an iota of empathy on. (Spoiler coming) I really gave up when the Scottish bloke started talking about his family: anyone could tell he was going to die horribly - it was almost a parody of the scene in "Hot Shots", which was itself a parody!! God, talk about insulting one's intelligence ...
(Another spoiler) And then we were supposed to believe that the "Corporation" from the real "Alien" films was the same as the one in this film. For Weyland-Yutani to have lasted that long would be a greater feat than, say, having the Dutch East India Company around today! Rubbish!!! (Another spoiler) However, there is one (sort of) redeeming part of the film. As a person with a scientific background, I could never sort out how the Aliens could have evolved - they are just too perfect: specialised, yet flexible; animal yet intelligent; they don't use tools, yet they got into space. AvP sort of answers this for me - Aliens were bred, or even specifically created, by the Predator race for sport! Specific traits were engineered so that Aliens are the ideal opponent. I am now happy with the apparent perfection of the species, but it takes something away from the overall mystery of the Aliens - just like in Alien 2, where, instead of just catching glimpses of the creature, we were served up lots of closeups, something of the fear is taken away, and I don't really like that.
I've seen the film on DVD since that time at the cinema, wondering if it was the failure to reach my expectations that left me with a bad taste in my mouth. To a certain extent, yes - it was not as bad as I remembered - but to bring an Alien film to the levels of "The Mummy" franchise is not something anyone should be proud of...