Entertaining but meaningless and silly

Rating: 5/10 (10 October 2006)

AVP is one of Paul W. S. Anderson's better efforts. Inexplicably - I saw it during its theatrical run at the request of my spouse. I agreed to see the film mainly because I enjoyed Event Horizon (probably Anderson's best effort to date). Neither of us had ever played the computer game and despite my 30+ year interest in comic books, I had never bothered with the comic book. From what I understand from the reviews gamers and comic fans have given this film - my lack of familiarity with the game and the comic probably worked in the movie's favor. Check through the reviews here on IMDb and you will see that there are a lot of fans who are violently angry about this film - so much so that they have provided negative feedback to nearly every review that speaks positively about AVP and voted for all of the negative ones. In other words, having an opinion about this film, if it is not "the right one" can get you into trouble.
Despite his mediocre to bad reputation, Anderson's films have always entertained me. Entertainment is, I believe, all Anderson attempts. His movies are generally pretty shallow, very visual, and fast-paced. Do not go to an Anderson film in order to have an emotionally charged, deeply satisfying film experience or to be exhilarated by a sweeping, revisionist interpretation of classic fictional themes. Instead, bring popcorn and minimal expectations.
AVP is a silly story which could have been pulled out of the X-Files. There is a nest of Aliens buried deep below the tundra in the arctic region of Siberia and it has just reactivated for a ritual hunt by - you guessed it - a young 'predator'. The interpretation of the Alien here is that of Aliens, not the original Alien. Since I consider Aliens to have been the worst film in that series, and since I disliked the radical reinterpretation of the creature provided by that film, I could have been seriously annoyed by this, but the entire Alien series is in a different class of film from AVP, so I am not going to make an issue of this.
As the nest reactivates, an American millionaire's scientific team discovers the heat signature and prepares an expedition. As they arrive, they discover that somebody has beaten them to it. An entire mining camp has been set up to explore the heat signature, but what did the miners find? And where have they gone? What follows is about an hour and ten minutes (this is a short film and no time is wasted) of wild action and effects-laden scenes. There are relatively few surprises, and very little dialog (after all what would you say to a pair of grunting, hissing and roaring killing machines fighting it out under the ground in a set which could have been borrowed from the most outlandish Indiana Jones movie?).
Taken in its proper context, AVP is an OK film. It has little to do with the comic book and the video game, but it's a fun little romp nonetheless. The acting is passable. The script is minimal, and only permits character development for Henriksen and Lathan, and the direction is typically slick. The special effects are quite good, and the film is strongly visualized. Although some of the aliens scenes are almost comedically outrageous, the aliens are visualized more interestingly than in many of the recent films from the Alien series.
Keep your expectations appropriately low, grab a good supply of popcorn, and enjoy. If you are looking for something powerful and artistic, don't bother with this.