Alien vs. Predator (Sanaa Lathan, Lance Henriksen)
There have been a lot of missed opportunities in both the Alien and Predator franchises. In trying to keep the creatures themselves relatively mysterious, the installments have relinquished much of their screentime to the human characters, who are always trying to make heads or tails of what's going on. With the sequels, in particular, humans are among the most cardboard of cut-out cast lists conceivable. And in these instances, the role call of potential victims becomes vast but ultimately insignificant and the good ideas turn into sloppy shortcuts. Although the delay in releasing the inevitable Alien vs. Predator means yet one more instance of missed opportunity, at least this time around the creature mythos remains relatively intact, and the action helps make up for its other paper-thin qualities.
The setting is Earth, present day. The discovery of a buried pyramid in the Antarctic catches the attention of the wealthy Charles Bishop Weyland (Lance Henriksen). He assembles an archeological expedition, comprised of climate expert Alexa Woods (Sanaa Lathan), Graeme Miller (Ewen Bremner), and Sebastian de Rova (Raoul Bova), among others who, of course, are destined never to exit the pyramid again. Upon arrival, they discover that a tunnel has been drilled to the discovery site by an unknown entity. They drop straight down and stumble onto an elaborate, ancient ritual between two alien worlds.
One of the problems with Alien vs. Predator is the absence of shock among the humans at what they've gotten themselves into. While I tire of scenes where a character snaps into a breakdown of embarrassing proportions upon the sight of a beast, at least this kind of reaction is more believable than what goes on here, with all of the expedition members uniformly accepting the situation at face value and not once taking that moment to realize they are encountering creatures from other worlds. The humans also seem able to put together pieces of an inter-galactic puzzle that has eluded the most formidable of previous heroes such as Ellen Ripley. It is difficult to accept their immediate assessment of events without a bit of dubiousness.
Nevertheless, this is a cross-over film that mercifully does not weigh itself down with heavy backstory, and thrives on its dark, atmospheric look. The aliens have never looked sharper, which is of great relief when compared to the last two chapters of the quadrilogy. The predators look great too, but seem a little too friendly at the hand of director Paul W.S. Anderson's script. It would also be nice to see the folks in special effects eventually master a way to make the predators run without making them seem overly silly (as long as they don't resort to obvious CGI, I'll be happy). Although I was forced to sit in the front row for my viewing, some of the action scenes seemed to use sped-up film or didn't pan out for detail.
I own several issues of the Dark Horse comics which I am assuming inspired the movie. It's not an easy thing to piece together three different species into a 90-minute movie, but I think Paul W.S. Anderson does a fair job. The biggest leap of faith is an explanation that takes place deep into the feature, when the humans slog through, and attempt to lay out, the ludicrous premise for the benefit of the audience. I found myself accepting it and as such, it didn't take me out of the movie. Other viewers, however, might not be so generous towards this development (understandably). I suspect it will depend on how invested you are in the film up to that point. I'd been waiting for a new entry in either franchise for seven years now, so I was just happy to be seeing it at all.
To say Alien vs. Predator has been lambasted by critics would be an understatement. Rarely has a movie that has come from an established and decorated tradition of films received such negative criticism. My personal expectations were neither ambitious nor phenomenally low. As a monster movie, I was pleasantly entertained, and I cannot decry a movie if it gives me a good time and does so at the intended moments. I didn't find myself laughing at it, only along with it at the appropriate moments, and it even gave me a few of the prerequisite jolts. As expected, none of the performers are very good, but I didn't go to see them anyway. This is primarily a movie for hardcore Alien and Predator fans, and if only on this level, it is a moderate success.
