AVP: Alien vs. Predator

Plot synopsis:
In 2004, a satellite detects a mysterious heat bloom beneath Bouvetøya, an island about one thousand miles off the coast of Antarctica. Wealthy industrialist Charles Bishop Weyland (Lance Henriksen) discovers through thermal imaging that there is a pyramid buried 2000 feet beneath the ice. He attempts to claim it for his multinational communications company, Weyland Industries, a subsidiary of the Weyland Corporation, and assembles a team of experts to investigate. The team includes archaeologists, linguistic experts, drillers, mercenaries, and a guide named Alexa Woods (Sanaa Lathan).
As a Predator ship reaches Earth's orbit, it fires a beam that creates a passage through the ice towards the source of the heat bloom. When the team arrives at the abandoned whaling station above the heat source, they find the passage and descend beneath the ice. They locate the mysterious pyramid and begin to explore it, finding evidence of a prehistoric civilization and what appears to be a sacrificial chamber filled with human skeletons with ruptured rib cages.
Meanwhile, three Predators consisting of Scar, Celtic and Chopper arrive and kill all the humans on the surface. They make their way down to the pyramid and arrive just as the team unwittingly activates the structure. The Alien Queen awakes from cryogenic stasis and begins to produce eggs. When the eggs hatch, several facehuggers attach themselves to humans trapped in the sacrificial chamber. Chestbursters emerge from the humans and quickly grow into adult Aliens. Conflict erupts between the Predators, Aliens, and humans, resulting in several deaths. Celtic and Chopper are killed by an Alien, and Weyland is killed by Scar, while allowing Alexa and archaeologist Sebastian De Rosa (Raoul Bova) enough time to escape. The two witness Scar kill a facehugger and an Alien with a shuriken before unmasking and marking himself with the blood of the facehugger. After Alexa and Sebastian leave, another facehugger attaches itself to Scar due to him not wearing his mask.
Through translation of the pyramid's hieroglyphs, Alexa and Sebastian learn that the Predators have been visiting Earth for thousands of years. It was they who taught early human civilizations how to build pyramids, and were worshiped as gods. Every 100 years they would visit Earth to take part in a rite of passage in which several humans would sacrifice themselves as hosts for the Aliens, creating the "ultimate prey" for the Predators to hunt they must also survive in the pyramid without being killed; if overwhelmed, the Predators would activate a self-destruct device to eliminate the Aliens and themselves. The two deduce that this is why the current Predators are at the pyramid, and that the heat bloom was to attract humans for the sole purpose of making new Aliens to hunt.
Alexa and Sebastian decide that the Predators must be allowed to succeed in their hunt so that the Aliens "do not reach the surface". Then Sebastian is captured by an Alien, leaving only Alexa and Scar to fight against the Aliens. The two form an alliance and use a self-destruct device to destroy the pyramid and the remaining Aliens. Alexa and Scar reach the surface, where they battle the Alien Queen. They defeat the Queen by attaching its chain to a water tower and pushing her over a cliff, dragging the Queen to the ocean floor. Scar, however, is impaled through the torso by the Alien Queen's tail and succumbs to his wounds and dies.
A Predator ship uncloaks and several Predators appear. They retrieve their fallen comrade and an elite Predator presents Alexa with one of their spear weapons in recognition of her skill as a warrior as evidenced by the symbol Scar burned on her cheek with alien blood before he died. As the Predators retreat into space, a chestburster with a hybrid form of an Alien and a Predator erupts from Scar's chest.

Tags: tragedy, horror, action, flashback

Review:
I completely understand why this movie got such terrible reviews; after all, it marked the first "let's make a quick buck" entry in the two beloved Alien and Predator franchises and was done by a director who many felt didn't treat the material with the respect it deserved.
It has the feeling of an Alien film, a great premise, good cinematography, some amazing effects and a fine score.Paul W.S. Anderson is successful in bringing the franchises together, respecting ideas from both Alien and Predator movies.
Overall the acting is good, Lance Henrikson shows up as the 'real' Bishop but some of the characters lack development and the editing feels choppy in places.The Predators and Aliens look great apart from some badly executed CGI.
All that being said this movie is a visual master-peace, the effects are top notch with very good fight scenes and creature effects with the best looking Alien Queen to hit the screens, The story is pretty cool and it gives more insight of the Predators, It takes a while for the introduction of the creatures but once the ball is rolling its none stop action.
All of the previous films were R, so less violence in this, which ain't good.2) There aren't a lot of scenes where aliens and predators are fighting.
These carbon cut out characters we've seen in hundreds of other films are all assembled together by Charles Bishop Weyland (Lance Henriksen) in 'AvP' to venture into the Antarctic, where they uncover an ancient pyramid recently discovered by Weyland's multi-million dollar satellites hovering about in space.The movie is based, of course, upon the iconic 'Alien' and 'Predator' films  the rights to which are both owned by Fox Studios.
(His character, Charles 'Bishop' Weyland, is the billionaire who  according to 'Alien' mythology -- creates the Bishop androids seen in 'Aliens' and 'Alien 3,' which are modeled after his own image.) Is it any coincidence that the only returning cast member from either series of films happens to be the same actor whose career has devolved into straight-to-video duds recently?However, kudos must be handed to "'AvP's' creature effects artists (mainly Tom Woodruff, Jr.).
Kevin Peter Hall (the original Predator) passed away shortly after the release of the film's sequel, but Anderson has comprised an acceptable team of replacements (most of the actors being some seven feet tall!).That, and the set design, and one or two OK action sequences, makes 'AvP' adequate for 'regular' cinema-goers expecting nothing more.
I can't say I blame them.I had personally been looking forward to seeing this movie for quite some time now, being a fan of both 'Alien' (1979) and 'Predator' (1987).
I suspect a great many geeks and lame individuals inhabiting message boards of every corner of the internet will complain that this film spends too much time with the humans when the name of the film is 'Alien versus Predator' and they couldn't care about the humans, and another sect will whine about how shallow the film is to jump right to the big fight as soon as it can possibly set it up.
I felt Anderson rushed the setup (or the studio rushed him); but part of me did grow bored of the characters rather quickly, and I did want to see the Alien and Predators get together sooner than they did.The lingering time between bouts did create more tension and anticipation for the coming fights, which I admired, and when the beasts finally sank claws and teeth into one another I found myself more or less satisfied.
Those 10 seconds of film spawned over a decade's worth of rumors that one day these titans were going to go at it head-to-head, and that whoever won, we'd lose.As a fan of both the "Alien" and "Predator" franchises, I've been looking forward to "Alien Vs. Predator" for a long time, since that historic scene.
I've admired the two monsters for years, collecting all kinds of memorabilia, including books and action figures; you name it, I've probably seen it.With "Alien Vs. Predator," director Paul W.S. Anderson has achieved something of a mixed bag.
Die-hards will balk at Anderson's direction and the fact that he was even allowed near the film.I had fun watching it, despite some inconsistencies regarding our two iconic monsters who like to either use humans as hosts for more of their hideous offspring, or trophies which can be displayed in their intergalactic showroom of skulls.The story is that a massive, ancient Aztec/Egyptian/Mayan temple has been discovered deep below the surface of the Antarctic, and Charles Bishop Weyland (Lance Henriksen of "Aliens") has assembled a team of the world's best archaeologists, which includes Alexa "Lex" Woods (Sanaa Lathan, who convincingly fills in the tough female role), Sebastian de Rosa (Raoul Bova) and Graeme Miller (Ewen Bremner) to accompany him in investigating it.
Of course, that "PG-13" rating doesn't stop us from getting quick edits (read: no gore) of chestbursting sequences, facehuggings, and people being mercilessly slaughtered by the Predators.I had faith that Paul W.S. Anderson wouldn't let me down long before I even saw the film; he doesn't, but I have a feeling that his film is destined for the same fate as David Fincher and his film "Alien 3" - that it will go down in infamy and only years after the director has disowned the film and controversy is still brewing, that the true vision of "Alien Vs. Predator" will surface and will finally earn the respect owed to it.7/10.
This movie is the perfect epitome of Hollywood taking something beloved, running it straight to hell (Predator 2, Alien 4) and then taking it even one step further by completely disjointing the stories and continuity, *ahem* alienating the fans and basically wasting everyone's time while marring the original (Caddyshack 2 anyone??) all in the name of the mighty dollar bill.
It tries to be like the original Alien movie in the sense that the horror has to come more from the characters and their fear than from the monsters themselves.
Paul Anderson tries to show as little Alien & Predator as possible without being ridiculous and let the actors & characters sell us the fear.
And after a short while the characters become boring and un-interesting and then u begin to long for either an Alien or a Predator to show up and start killing people.But as I said, Paul Anderson tries to hide the monsters and show as little as possible much like the formula Ridley Scott & James Cameron used for their films.
Sanaa Lathan is actually good in the role of the guide and it is possible a better script and strong direction would have brought echoes of Ripley from the Alien films of old.
Director Paul W.S. Anderson (Event Horizon) does a serviceable job here and the PG 13 rating is designed for all those fans of the video games and comics featuring the Alien and Predator battles.
Predator, writer/director Paul W.S. Anderson has managed to create a fascinating extension to the mythos of both creatures' worlds (not to mention human history), while building a bridge between the two story lines, all in a wrapper combining the suspenseful action sequences that both series are known for and the traditionalist horror trappings that are often found in the Alien series.
I did like the story line and how the sequence of events that led up to a bad situation for the humans and the predators, giving a starting advantage to the aliens.
What I liked best is that unlike movies involving Human fight scenes where its show off time, the aliens / predators don't mess around and simply go for the kill.
If they made it like Predator or Aliens, namely with a lot of heavily armed guys blasting creatures down right and left, we would get people complaining and comparing it to those movies.AvP is a movie that can never be as good as the films that came before it, for many reasons.
It would be quite difficult to make a new Alien/Predator movie that could hold its own against the films that have come before, let alone one-up them in any meaningful way.It also has an overbearing fan base that was way, WAAAAAY too demanding, a studio that is more concerned with raking in dollars than making sure they have a good and faithful movie, and a director that prefers to blame everyone but himself for his own mistakes.Beyond all that, however, one must recognize the general malaise that weighs heavily on the Alien franchise.
Beyond all the fake history and the screaming human victims, there were enough entertaining moments between the Preds and Aliens to prove that there is potential here for a great movie franchise.All they need is for Fox to leave the film-making to the filmmakers, an extra 30 minutes, and an R rating...............and Bill Paxton.;-).
If the plot was'nt bad enough, the Aliens and Predators act like total loser, pathetic lowlife stray dogs which could'nt defend themselves for nuts.I suggest that one read all the negative reviews on this site about AvP, have a good laugh and never ever see this abomination of a movie made by the world's crappiet and most untalented director.
You will too if you are one who follows either the Alien or Predator franchises or both.I can't believe that some people are actually rating this movie 10/10.
The acting I give a solid A (Sanaa Lathan did what she could with the part, but I thought the casting was great for what the movie was--the peripheral characters played their parts well--save for Colin Salmon, I just can't stand that guy (love it when he gets shredded by the grid laser in Res. Evil.) I really like Tommy Flanagan, this wasn't his best character but I think he must have owed someone a favor to take the part.
Anderson got paid well I'm sure but he didn't have the love for the Alien or the Predator necessary to treat the characters as they were established in their earlier films.
Bored out of my mind last night flicking through the channels on my satellite i started watching the cut up movie that AMC had to offer on their Kevin Smith hosted Fear Fest (for those that do not know about what this is ...AMC usually air nothing but horror films on the weeks surrounding Halloween) Anyhoo...saw that a Predator marathon of sorts was showing along with Predator 1-2 AVP was on next so i'm it's not like i was doing anything anyhow...sigh...might as well have a look.
Well i was surprised none the less on how quickly i got gripped by this movie (it helped a lot that Lance Henriksen co-starred) Although straying from both of the stories that these monsters who were yet to do battle originally came from in their individual franchises, what we get is a pretty impressive new storyline that has the Predators using an anciently buried pyramid in Antartica underneath the ice shelves.
It seems many many years ago the Predators, who all the fans like myself know are hunters used to flock to this ancient site to do battle with the aliens that were grown there and those that did were considered amongst themselves to be the ultimate in warriors.Now after the pyramid was once again re-discovered as a heat blip on a map by a team of researchers who decide to start an expedition and set up camp to start drilling only once arriving to the mapped out site find that someone/thing has already made a massive tunnel down to the pyramid itself, a hole that ceased to exist not 24 hrs ago according to their maps and calculations.
The directing is strictly PG-13 and MTV-quick cuts and cut aways as soon as a character's about to die, destroying what people liked about the Alien and Predator movies.
Not only does this movie suck but it manages to rape and pillage all my happy memories of the awesome first Predator movies and the first two Alien movies, its as if the director said "hmmmm, an excellent story of two great baddies, let me think of 10 possible ways that I could take a huge dump on this franchise" the 10 ways we shall get to later on.So anyway back to me watching the film, I decided to queue up patiently waiting for my ticket, eventually after getting the ticket I found that not only was I cramped in the theatre but I was wedged between two enormously obese geeks that hadn't showered in more the 2 years and could not help taking about how awesome it would be to blow the predator...
I have been a fan of the ALIEN PREDATOR franchise since day one, always accepting that these kinds of movies will provoke some kind of criticism about the plot, characters, storyline etc.
I have been waiting for this film all summer, and have to say it was worth it.I just wish a bit more gore and violence could have been added like the original Alien and Predator movies.
I admit that it wasn't fantastically written, but, it was still really good.One huge thing I noticed was that they didn't use CGI for the aliens and the predators, which I thought was cool because when you see movies like that these days it's usually all CGI, none of that good old real stuff.
They know the Alien species is a far more superior species.Yet the hunter in Predator used it all the time against Arnold and his rescue team.I know I waited a long time for this movie but I could have waited a little bit longer for it to be thought out a little more.The good news is that it wasn't so horrible that someone else can't pick it up and make it a huge blockbuster sequel with a big time director and a big time actor.As far as the timeline is concerned it is accurate as can be.
If you have not seen any Alien or Predator films, please watch them first before going to see AVP.
But let me tell you that I have been waiting 8 years for it to come out, so I might be a little blinded by the fact that I finally saw and Alien and a Predator fight on screen in live action.
While skimpy in plot, Paul Anderson's movie looks every penny of its multi-million budget, there are many nods to the two franchises and the cast look great.Sanaa Lathan is a beautiful and convincing action heroine and the various action set-pieces are impressive to watch.The special effects are top notch and both Alien and Predator fans should be happy with the way the characters are portrayed on the screen.With an impressive soundtrack to boot, this remains a guilty pleasure.
The cast were all good and mostly short lived,except strangely enough, the female lead,personally I did not find her that believable.(Sanaa Lathan) The puppetry and CGI were first rate.The pacing and suspense build up pretty good.But I had a problem with the lack of gore compared to both of the original series this was more like a Disney movie, and I had a hard time getting around that.Ultimately this PG movie is too scary for kids and in my mind not scary enough for adults, but still worth watching with a big bowl of popcorn and a few cold ones..
Being a huge fan of both the Predator and Alien series of movies, I expected this to be little more than a fanboy crossover movie directed at kids (which in theory, it was) but I have to admit upon leaving my brain at the door, I got sucked into the action and ended up seeing one of the most enjoyable sci fi movies so far this year.
I'm a huge fan of the Alien and Predator movies, and when I heard that the film was coming out I was ecstatic.
The story, acting, design, special effects, and action scenes are all pretty good and don't fail to satisfy, the movie's fault, and it's a rather big one, is the look and feel of the whole thing.
The original Alien and Predator movies had all that in bucketfulls, AVP has a few lame action sequences, too many of them ending quickly and cutting away before the real violence can be seen.
What's there to say about AVP?Well,the action scenes and special FX are pretty good.Second,this movie takes two classic horror icons and puts them in a totally underrated science-fiction film that shouldn't disappoint people.So let me ask this question.Why in the world do so many people(including some of my friends)hate this movie?What more do you people want?Cut this movie some slack,will ya?Paul Anderson is a great director and I think that I know which direction he's trying to go.He has made many good movies,such as 'Death Race' and 'Resident Evil'.So I guess that I'm the only person to give him credit for his work.Thank you,Paul..
It is no where near the original Alien or Predator film, but it is great entertainment.
If you expect a film to match the original Alien or Predator movie, you may be disappointed.
I'm a Die Hard alien and Predator fan and I enjoyed watching this film.
Alien and Predator were both more effective back in the days of Cameron and that's probably a feeling that isn't gonna go away no matter how much you like the film.All I can say is that Anderson did a great job in bringing the two franchises together and created a film that is fun to watch..
I'm a big fan of the "Predator" series and I also like "Alien" series, so I was sure that this will be a great movie.
This film will really entertain every real fan of "Alien" and "Predator" series.
I enjoyed the movie greatly as a fan of the earlier Predator and Alien films.
Predator film is my favorite Alien movie.