A Bitter Disappointment for Franchise Fans

Rating: 6/10 (16 December 2007)

I am a huge fan of both the 'Alien' and 'Predator' franchises. In fact, the original 'Alien' is probably one of my favorite movies of all time. While I have never read the comic books and I may have only glanced over the video games, I still recognized the potential if both of these epic science fiction baddies were put on screen together. Sadly, when that day finally arrived that these sci-fi/horror icons were pitted against each other, it was a mediocre disappointment. Why must Paul W. S. Anderson does this to us? A quick synopsis for those who haven't seen it: billionaire Charles Bishop Weyland (sound familiar?) hires a crew to assist him in investigating an ancient pyramid that one of his satellites detected in Antarctica. Upon arriving at the pyramid, 2000 feet beneath the ice, they are faced with the realization that they have wandered into a Predator proving grounds and now must escape as the two species duke it out.
Honestly, the movie wasn't COMPLETE trash. Just the fact that we get to see Aliens fighting Predators for the first time ever on screen gives the movie some brownie points. I've been waiting for this match-up for a long time and I was super-pysched to see it come to fruition. The special effects in this movie deserve some credit as well. The Aliens looked fantastic, and the blend of practical effects and CGI is near seamless. The Predators have a beefed up new look that makes them seem more threatening than ever, and we are treated to the usual arsenal of high-tech/primitive weaponry (with a few improvements).
Unfortunately, in this movie, the bad outweighs the good. My first (and largest) complaint is the same as you've probably read in a bunch of other comments and message boards: why PG-13?!?!? This movie is a combination of the two greatest RATED R sci-fi horror movie franchises. So they throw the two together, they sugar-coat it to a teen-friendly PG-13?! NO! This is supposed to be a violent showdown and because of this rating, we miss out on some aspects that made the original movies what they were. All of the major violence (against humans anyway) occurs off screen in this movie, whereas we were treated to every gory detail in 'Predator'. In 'AVP', you might see some blood spatter on a wall but nothing more. While on the topic of violence, my other major complaint with this movie is the editing style. During the Alien/Predator fight scenes, most of the shots are too close and the edits to quick to really see what's going on. In a film like this, I want WIDE angles so I can see the battle raging! This isn't MTV, this is WAR! Finally, we have the story and the cast. The story is pretty basic and weak, but it was enough to move things along. I felt it took a little too long to really get to the meat of things, but when it does, it takes off. The cast were really nothing special. Sanaa Lathan plays the heroine, Alexa Woods, and doesn't come close to matching the strength of Sigourney Weaver and her role as Ripley. Lance Henriksen plays the role of Charles Weyland and is the only real acting strength in the entire movie. The rest of the cast (all 10 of them) are forgettable and die off relatively fast so it doesn't matter. Overall, this movie is worth watching at least once if you are already a fan of the franchises or the genre.
Now, let's just be glad Anderson will not be directing the sequel.