Enjoyable fight sequences but everything else is quite boring.

Rating: 6/10 (3 June 2006)

An expedition of archaeologists on Earth discover an Aztec temple hidden under the Antarctic circle, housing a host of Alien creatures. A group of coming-of-age Predators have also come to the temple, as it has long been a training ground for their race. From there on, it's Aliens vs. Predators, with the humans caught in the middle.
This is a fairly hard movie to rate as I can easily say that I was disappointed with the movie as a whole but I thought the action/fight sequences between the Aliens and Predators were stunning. Clever use of slow-motion with bone crushing thuds everywhere as Aliens and Predators recklessly trash the set.
Now that I've proclaimed my love of the action sequences, it's time to say a few things that I don't like. I don't like the fact that it took so long to get into the actual action. I'd say that it takes like 45 minutes at least just to get to the first action sequence. Yeah, from then on in it gets interesting but everything before it was pretty much a snooze-fest. I hated pretty much every single human character shown on screen. I actually prayed for their deaths... quicker would have been better and the lack of violence towards the actual humans also lets this one slide down the scale a bit. Don't get my words mixed up, there is quite a bit of violence in the movie, it's just not gory or bloody.
There's also one thing about this movie that seemed to work well on me and that was the playing field. It seems that the Predators alone have an advantage over the Aliens in one-on-one situations so every time I saw a Predator get slaughtered, something inside of me stopped. I felt weird, I don't know how to explain it but it was a powerful feeling. Kind of like the feeling of a highly obsessive fans' favorite sporting team reaching the final game and getting their asses whooped! I hear a lot of people don't like the plot but it's not that bad and what a lot of people don't understand is that Anderson tries to tie the movie in with the comics, he may not have ended up with a masterpiece but anyone who's been a fan of AvP before the movie should know and respect this. Also, the fact that this movie wasn't even finished by its deadline is another reason why it got so sloppy. I'm not saying it would have made the film any better by giving it some more time though it may have given Anderson and his crew a lil' bit more credit where credit is due.
Many loyal fans will be disappointed but hey... unfortunately that happens.