Does Not Live Up To the Title...

Rating: 2/10 (12 September 2008)

Sadly, I went into this film expecting some mind-blowing action scenes... then I learned that the director was Paul W.S. Anderson, the monstrous idiot who directed Resident Evil... and I was disappointed with the end result of AVP.
The writing, while a good concept, is executed poorly. The character development is cliché, and could've been ripped-off of the most wretched of Sci-Fi's original movies. The first 45-minutes is an introduction to the cast, and each of them are clichéd messes: from the geek, to the foreigner, it's the simple necessities of the average horror flick. Not one bit of dialogue flows well, and whenever there's foreshadowing -- like Sebastian and his reference to the moon being called "hunter's moon"... predictable, and terribly performed.
The directing is awful, and Anderson proclaimed his love for the original Alien, yet that inspiration is not seen. For a film titled Alien vs. Predator, the film seems to focus primarily on the former of the latter. In fact, the Predators are so clumsy and terribly portrayed, I nearly walked out of the theater right then and there. Anderson has no idea about pace, as the film drags on and on, trying to setup each species and the events that are about to unfold, all ending in a big explosion of disappointment.
The special effects are very good. Probably the only good thing in this garbage. The Celtic Predator and Queen Alien are remarkably cool looking, even if their screen-time is limited to about 5-10 minutes apiece.
The music is passable. I wouldn't mind tossing it out of a window to see it clatter and shatter for it's non-complexity and its lack of continuity in using any of the prior material from the Predator or Alien franchise.
All in all, this film is just too bad. The ending is horrible, allowing no use of character development. There's no one to root for but the antagonists, who become the protagonists... ugh, just bad bad bad. I highly recommend you not to see this, as it does not belong in the same room as the Alien and Predator franchises.