A Rockn' Good Time!

Rating: 7/10 (22 August 2004)

Weeks before Alien Vs. Predator was released into theaters, I was already laughing. If it wasn't bad enough to squeeze every last dollar out of little kids by toning down a should be R rated film to a wimpy PG-13, it was further blessed by Fox giving the project to writer/director Paul Anderson, who's ugly resume includes Event Horizon and one of the worst movies of 2002, Resident Evil.
Happily, AVP prevents strike 3 for Anderson. It's a rockn' good time and one of the best monster movies since the all time great, Aliens.
To keep up with the special effects and moderate budget, AVP has no familiar names such as Tom Cruise or Julia Roberts. Our main character is played by Sanaa Lathan (Alexa Woods), an expert mountain climber who has been called to the line of duty by billionaire Charles Bishop (Lance Henriksen). Bishop. Now why does that name sound familiar? (watch Aliens for the answer).
It turns out one of Bishop's satellites have discovered a pyramid 2,000 feet below the earth core in Antarctica. Since Bishop knows others will soon discover it as well, he's willing to pay top price to anyone who will help him explore it. Alexa senses danger from every corner, but curiosity gets the best of her so she agrees to lead the expedition.
Now we've got problems. The Predator's aboard their own ship have been watching from space and it turns out they are responsible for the re-appearance of the pyramid and when opened up, it's show time.
Once inside, the crew finds out the the pyramid is a maze that adjusts itself every 10 minutes and when the first surprise unexpectedly hits, everybody gets separated and a few end up being hosts for the aliens who began to spread faster than a social disease.
The best thing about AVP is the attention given to the aliens and predators. One disappointment about the original Alien was we never got a good look at it. Here we have an all out experience in virtual 3-D with in your face close ups of the monsters and the battle sequences with with alien and the predator are done to the cue. And we also find out that a dead alien can make one hell of a fighting weapon.
A nice way to end summer at the movies.
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I rate the entire Alien/Predator series as follows:
Alien ***1/2
Aliens ****
Alien 3 1/2*
Alien Resurrection ***
Predator ***
Predator 2 **1/2