A pretty good blending of two similar franchises

Rating: 7/10 (14 August 2004)

It was an old idea, marrying two franchises that aren't producing and trying to stir up some life in them. Granted, it had been done before; Predators have been fighting Aliens for more than ten years in the comics. But this pairing made a lot of sense; both franchises started as semi-horror films (Predator, despite a grotesque amount of machismo, is essentially a horror film at its core) and graduated on to a sequel that was far more action than horror. So both franchises were a blend of the two elements, and since both dealt with creepy xenomorphs that treat us as prey, it only made sense to shove them together.
AVP spends a fair amount of its abbreviated run time  87 minutes, including the credits  trying to prove its geek cred. There are numerous references dropped to Aliens, in particular (still a fan fetish fave) and they go through a fair amount of effort to show respect and knowledge of the movies that made this one possible. And then, wisely, they shuck all that out the window and just give us, essentially, a good old-fashioned shoot 'em up.
Stuck in more for continuity's sake than anything else is Lance Henriksen, playing Charles Bishop Weyland (are you really trying to insinuate they would build an android three hundred years later that looked like the founder of the company? Come on), who serves as the plot motivator for this whole little shindig. The film follows a fairly standard formula; establish suitable creepiness in an unusual place, give us just enough character to make us care about at least a few of the people, and then drop them in a pit full of creepy crawlies and see who makes it out.
What differentiates this film from the zillion others like it (The Thing, Ghosts of Mars, etc.) is that we sci-fi geeks have an avid interest in the two warring sides because we've sat through the twelve or so hours of prequels (more if you've seen them all on DVD) that set up this film. In a way, for sci-fi geeks, this is like that old comic book where the Hulk finally fights Superman and you get to see who's stronger. And therein lies the whole thrill.
The writers do give us a smidgen of people to care about; chief among them are Sebastian (Raoul Bova) and Alexa (smartly played by Sanaa Lathan), whom we follow through most of the film; there are other characters, some even played by people you would recognize (one of the lesser hoods from Snatch; and one of my favorite not-yet discovered actors, Colin Salmon), but you've seen enough of these movies to know who's going to make it to the final reel and who's not by the time you're fifteen minutes into the story.
Where AVP succeeds is in the way it spools itself out. There's a lot of time devoted to building tension, but it pays off nicely, even if it ignores all previously established continuity (and I say, go ahead. It's not like you're adapting the works of, say, J.R.R. Tolkien and you need to be precise or anything); all of the time exploring the creepy alien pyramid is well done (it's in the trailer, I'm spoiling nothing), and when the A's finally do get it on with the P's, the action is delivered in short, sharp bursts, the way it should be; no lengthy CGI battles, no utterly unbelievable sixty-foot jumps, just a couple of ugly butts slamming each other around.
They do follow some of the conventions of both movies, but not slavishly, and I found that a nice homage. One thing I have always liked about the Alien films is their strong female heroine (even if it is always Ripley, or a derivation), and I was pleased to see that continue here; Alexa is cool, confident, capable, but very human.
The movie speeds along at a decent pace, and is overall enjoyable as a summer flick and a sci-fi action yarn until the hideously predictable ending. You sort of know where it's going the second you see the Queen alien (may God damn James Cameron for that retarded 'innovation' to the Alien race), and you can see the ending choreographed a mile away. Which is a shame, because other than that, AVP is a pretty good film that achieves both its goals; one, to be digestible summer action fare, and two, to blend two similar film franchises into one, yet be respectful and dedicated to the conventions of both of them. Anyone who has read  or written  crossover fanfic knows this is not always easy to do, and the AVP folk succeeded marvelously on that score.
Is it worth going to see? Depends on how much you like horror/action bug hunts. Of this type of film, this is a pretty good one. There are better ways to spend your $7 at the cineplex as summer is winding down, but there are far worse ones as well.