A Rather Well-Done Movie

Rating: 10/10 (13 August 2004)

Alien vs. Predator exceeded my expectations. My expectations, as probably most people's, were for a slightly above-average action movie. It certainly wasn't as good as most of the Alien movies (with the exception of Alien 3) and I have not seen Predator 2, but the Predator aspect worked well in comparison with Predator 1. And (SPOILER)I liked the aspect of Bishop being actually modeled after Bishop Weyland, and this taking place before the Weyland corporation merged with Yutani. It was able to actually develop the story of Alien farther in this movie instead of just finding some plot to pull the two species together. (END SPOILER)
The main problems I had with this film were:
-Because it's a fairly short movie, there really wasn't as much time for character development as there should have been. I still liked the characters, but they're just not as rich as the characters from Alien. Maybe Predator.
-I'm not one of those people who goes "OMG THIS IS PG-13 THIS SUXXORZ" but because of its PG-13 rating, you weren't shown many of the things that made Alien and Predator so intense. It just seemed too contrived, cutting away from the shot every time something violent happens to a human. I guess the PG-13 rating was to draw in a younger audience, but let me tell you: BAD IDEA. The theater in which I saw this movie was practically empty (though apparently other theaters were crowded) except for mainly a group of teenagers who talked through the whole thing.
Overall, it's not a *bad* movie, but it's hard to live up to such high standards that the movies on which this is based set up, and for that reason people are prone to be more upset at it being less perfect. I give it a 7/10.