Ultimately, "Alien Versus Predator" is well worth the wait.

Rating: 8/10 (8 February 2008)

Anybody who suffered through the lackluster "Predator 2" should remember the final reel when Danny Glover found himself inside the dread-locked Predator's spaceship and saw an Alien's skull displayed on the wall in the trophy room. Of course, that throwaway bit of set dressing meant nothing to the Glover character, but it struck a deep chord with "Predator" enthusiasts. Since "Predator 2" came out in 1990, horror fans have been rattling their cages in anticipation of the ultimate sci-fi showdown between the Alien and the Predator. Reportedly, the success of New Line Cinema's "Freddy vs. Jason" spurred Twentieth Century Fox executives to green-light this crossover creature feature.
Surprisingly, "Alien Versus Predator" (*** out of ****) not only surpasses "Predator 2," but also stands up to the original "Predator" for sheer audacity and imagination. Meanwhile, "AVP" tops "Alien 3" and "Alien Resurrection." Altogether, "AVP" furnishes the back story for both franchises and offers a bigger playing field in terms of spectacle. Writer & director Paul W.S. Anderson deserves credit for spinning this gripping, white-knuckled, suspense thriller out of a bit of set dressing. He spends the first hour drumming up suspense before the title characters tangle, with a clever twist ending. Without a doubt, "AVP" qualifies as everything any hardcore "Alien" and "Predator" aficionado would want from a such a monster-match-up. The Aliens drool their acid blood, telescope their slimy double-jaws and whirl those bayonet tails with fiendish abandon. Oh, yes, let's not forget those icky pods with those knuckle-boned face-hugger critters that jump out of them. Anderson neither cheats audiences nor short-changes either creature. The biggest complaint that industrial-strength horror fanatics will voice concerns the violence. The producers scaled back the creature brutality, so "AVP" could obtain a family-friendly PG-13 rating. For the record, all four "Alien" movies and both "Predator" movies received R-ratings. Essentially, the savvy producers trimmed those crucial blood & gore shots, making things appear more poetic and less pukey, while telling the same story. Presumably, the DVD will feature an unrated version for "Alien" and "Predator" followers. Nevertheless, "AVP" ranks as one of the best monster mash movies. Indeed, the preposterous plot and the obvious ending are hopelessly predictable. One monster cannot win. Think about it. Hollywood wouldn't make any more movies about the monster that lost, and Twentieth Century Fox would be out of a franchise. Suffice to say, "AVP" duplicates the philosophy of all those wonderfully cheesy Nipponese "Godzilla Versus" whoever epics and takes it to a higher level.
Basically, "Alien Versus Predator" is a prequel. The story unfolds in the fall of 2004 and a satellite in a low orbit owned by Charles Bishop Weyland (gnarly Lance Henriksen of "Aliens" fame) has identified a heat source deep in frozen Antarctic wastelands. More importantly, the satellite reveals a sprawling pyramid submerged 2,000 feet below an old whaling station mysteriously deserted one-hundred years earlier by its inhabitants. Weyland dispatches his right-hand man, Maxwell Stafford (Colin Salmon of "Tomorrow Never Dies"), to gather a team of experts to take him to the pyramid before anyone else. Weyland is so anxious to enter the pyramid that he disregards his own health and the safety of his people. Reluctant ice guide leader Alexa Woods (Sanaa Lathan of "Love and Basketball") joins chemical engineer Graeme Miller (Ewen Bremner of "Trainspotting"), archaeologists Sebastian De Rosa (Raoul Bova of "Under The Tuscan Sun") and Thomas Parks (Patrick Troughton's grandson Sam Troughton of "Sylvia") and driller Rusten Quinn (Carsten Norgaard of "Soldier") who is anxious to bore a shaft through the ice to the pyramid before a storm strikes. Plans change when they discover a thirty-degree tunnel has mysteriously appeared from the surface down to the pyramid. Once our heroes reach the bottom, they feast their eyes not only on the hidden pyramid, but also a part of a feast, caught as they are between extraterrestrial Predators on safari for hideously deadly alien species. Imagine "The Most Dangerous Game" with creatures preying on humans, and you've got a fair idea about what "AVP" has to offer.
"Resident Evil" lenser David Johnson frames every shot in "AVP" as if he were photographing an art film, while Richard Brigland's production designs contribute to the eerie atmosphere. No stranger to sci-fi sagas, writer & director Anderson helmed "Event Horizon" and "Resident Evil." He stages several interesting scenes, especially when the shrieking queen Alien thaws out and lays her eggs for the forthcoming battle royale. He takes us inside the Predator spaceship as the warriors arm themselves "Rambo" style with wicked spears and throwing discs that deploy knife-like blades in flight for maximum penetration. The first half of "AVP" resembles "Stargate" for its hiring sequences. Sanaa Lathan's introduction on an ice-crusted mountain is ingenious. The heroes' arrival in the other world recalls similar events in "Stargate," too. Shunning any form of nervous humor, Anderson hypes up the hokum by trapping our heroes--excuse me, monster bait--inside the dark, spooky confines of a pyramid that reconfigures itself every ten minutes like the structure in the "Cube" movies or "Thirteen Ghosts." You can expect a fair share of false alarms, close-calls, and cliffhanger scenes. Ultimately, "Alien Versus Predator" is well worth the wait.