AVP: Avoid!

Rating: Null/10 (24 October 2004)

I have to correct Dee Reid regarding the assertion that AVP "preserves the essence" of the alien/predator films by casting no-names...although Alien cast an unknown Sigourney Weaver, fellow nostromo passengers included Tom Skerrit, John Hurt and Ian Holm, all big names in their day who had notched up 20-30 films each before Alien came along. Predator, of course, had a post-Terminator Arnie.
The reason why AVP had a cast of no-namers (not strictly true either, there was a couple of well known British faces) is that the budget was obviously not quite good enough for your Signourneys or Arnies.
In addition, the film did not place ideas over casting or special effects, it was fairly plain to see that all three seem to be missing. The idea behind it was a mishmash of other films, with one interesting concept (that Predators bred Aliens on Antarctica as the ultimate hunt) that unfortunately was not borne out by the other films or indeed by common sense (Antarctica once habitable?!), and of course the lack of special effects seems once again to represent the relatively small budget this film apparently had.
This is certainly a film that has done more damage to the alien and predator lineages than Alien3 and Predator 2 combined.