Year:
2004
Studio:
20th Century Fox
Feature:
3/5
AVP: Alien vs Predator
is a movie about Man not giving in to the inevitability of Fate. The
struggle for survival in an uncaring world. The triumph of the human
spirit against nigh insurmountable odds. The stark poetry of a
millenia-long life and death struggle between Sentience and Monster.
It's a movie about Aliens. Lots of them. Fighting Predators. Three of
them. Though really it's Aliens vs One Badass Predator and his equally
Badass Human Ally. It's more of a horror action movie that mark both
Predator movies and Aliens 2. We know what Aliens can do. We know what
Predators can do. It's a cage match, maze style, winner lives.
The movie starts out today, 2004. A corporate satellite spotted a
mysterious energy bloom on an island off the coast of Antartica. The
middle of nowhere. Inhospitable. Unliveable. But for millionaire
Charles Bishop Weyland (Lance Henriksen) it's a challenge. Perhaps his
last challenge.
Weyland assembles a team of experts to investigate. Alexa Woods (Sanaa
Lathan) leads the expedition as the veteran Antartic guide. Sebastian
de Rosa (Raoul Bova) is the anthropological expert. And there are a
bunch of other people who will shortly become victims.
They arrive at an old abandoned mining camp. Mysteriously deserted in
1904. And apparently someone has dug a shaft. An impossibly straight
shaft 2000 feet through the ice and rock leading from the mining camp
to the underground complex where the heat source originated. A shaft
that wasn't there yesterday on the satellite map.
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Still, the
crew goes down the shaft and explores a temple. A temple with Mayan,
Egyptian, and Thai influences (the big reason all the experts are
there). A temple used by early Gods as a test of manhood. A test that
requires human sacrifices. Sacrifices like the explorers. Ancient
mechanisms trap the explorers and half of them are infected by Alien
Facehuggers.
Meanwhile, three Predators annihilate the base camp and make it into
the temple just before it closes. Soon the Predators are hunting the
humans, the Aliens are hunting everybody, and the humans are
unknowingly carrying the weapons that the Predators need to kill the
Aliens. Will anybody make it out alive?
I thought the movie was quite scary. But I scare easily. The temple has
a very cramped spaces/lots of hiding places/can't see anything sort of
horror to it. The story has a relatively simple plot but it flows
smoothly. The action sequences are fairly good, though perhaps too much
of the Matrix-style swoop around and slow down time effects.
Acting is ok. It was nice to have Lance Henriksen in the movie, playing
what I assume is the founder of the mega-corp depicted in the Alien
movies. Continuity with both franchises seemed ok. Not much of a
problem with Alien since all those movies are set in the far future.
The Predator parts may not quite match with the previous Predator
movies.
Lathan does a good job as the macho heroine without coming off as
macho. She comes off as an adaptable survivor who does what is needed
to live through this ordeal, which is very much how the character is
set up. Whoever played the main Predator hero also did a good job
considering he has to do it all with gestures and howls.
Overall a standard scifi action/horror film.
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