A (potentially) decent movie ruined in the editing room.

Rating: 6/10 (12 September 2004)

(Minor Spoilers)
First of all, I'm a fan of the Alien and Predator franchises. Like most other fans, I liked the firs ALIEN and I loved ALIENS, but I was seriously disappointed by ALIEN 3 and only a little less by ALIEN: RESURRECTION. On the other hand, I almost enjoyed PREDATOR 2 more than the original PREDATOR. I agree that the original is a better movie, though (make of that what you want). Since I liked the first RESIDENT EVIL (haven't seen APOCALYPSE yet), I wasn't as appalled as many when I learned Paul W.S. Anderson was directing. Now that I've seen the movie, I still think he did and okay job, but the end result is kind of a mess because of studio interference (or at least that seems to be the reason according to Anderson).
The first act is probably the worst: I agree that in a movie called ALIEN vs. PREDATOR human characters are not that important, but if we are going to expend about half of the running time with them before our beloved monsters show up and steal the show, they should have tried to flesh out the characters a bit. After all, we see most of the movie from their point of view, right? Sanaa Lathan is not a bad actress, but I'm afraid she suffers from a lack of charisma and tries a little too hard to be a Ripley wannabe. In the first two ALIEN movies, Ripley was not a tough girl who loved extreme sports. She was just a regular woman who had to fight for her life and for other people's lives. In fact, there are moments in both movies when she just can't stand the pressure and briefly breaks down. Alexa Woods (Lathan's character) looks more like the poor man's Lara Croft. Lance Henriksen, on the other hand, is a treat for any Alien fan, and I think they did a good job using his character to tie this movie with the rest of the Alien franchise. Too bad he was just a special guest star, but at least he had more screen time than in ALIEN 3. Of the rest of the cast, the only ones I really liked were Colin Salmon and Ewen Bremmer. Salmon plays more or less his character form RESIDENT EVIL, and once again he dies too soon (not as soon as in RE, though). As for Bremmer, I loved to see Spud from TRAINSPOTTING in this kind of movie. His character may be annoying at times, but overall I had some fun with him. Of the two archaeologists, one was a cardboard cut-out made up to deliver some of the expository dialogue. In other words: Cannon fodder. The other was only slightly more developed: She was Italian and it was hinted that he was attracted to Alexa. Of course, that means he was doomed. The blonde girl with the gun (her only two distinctive features) didn't seem to serve a purpose other than to have more than one woman in the movie. I welcomed her quick demise. There were other anonymous co-stars who bough the farm without anybody caring about them. I wonder why Anderson didn't do what he did in RESIDENT EVIL (killing the supporting cast as soon as possible), but most of them were redundant. Nice to see the medic from RE in the opening scene, though.
The story really kicks off when the fight begins, midway though the movie. It was a shame that two of the three predators died so soon, but at least one of them had a great fight scene that was better than anything seen on ALIEN 3 or RESURRECTION. The remaining alien and his weaponry were still great to watch. I know many didn't like his teaming up with Alexa, but I think it was a nice reference to the comic-book (as well as the distinctive scar made with the acid). Besides: Alexa helped him (the first human in a Predator movie to do so). The plot was more or less respectful with the Alien and Predator lore, except for one obvious problem that many have pointed out: Predators only come to earth on specially hot summers, and AvP is set in freaking Antartica. That said, the pyramid and the idea of the Predators having been considered as gods in the past is fine with me.
What really makes this movie sort of a let down in spite of several good bits are the bi-dimensional characters, the rushed narrative and the PG-13 rating. I hope someday we'll see an R-rated Special Edition on DVD with some deleted scenes restored. Till that day, this is an okay movie, but not the great event we all wish it was.