Alien vs. Predator

To embrace Anderson's latest film is, figuratively speaking, not to put your hand in the popcorn, but to go straight into it with your whole body. Even then, AvP is hard to accept. That said, technically there is not much to complain about, the effects are fine, the animatronic models of the aliens are really good, and the film has a brisk pace. But a rather fundamental problem is the absence of two important ingredients in a movie, there’s hardly any atmosphere and suspense. And the script? Everything follows tried and tested templates, without any surprises, and a plot that is transparent and predictable. Anderson's basic idea of the story makes sense, but it's rather dumbed down. Besides, what must McTiernan have thought when he saw that his formerly uncompromising hunter had become a damsel in distress? Please don't do that. The 2 stars are too much, taking into account the fact that I don't like crossovers, and their cold financial cynicism. Now I'm just waiting for someone to come up with a Red Riding Hood vs. Batman movie. That would be awesome! (08/01/2005)

Ugly and uglier, as one of my friends aptly proclaimed. And in the midst of the ugly, a group of more or less handsome humanoids are desperately trying to survive... Paul W. S. Anderson filmed a very grateful theme, but instead of an atmospheric mix of claustrophobic tension and dynamic action, as offered by the computer game of the same name, an initially thrilling, then extraordinarily predictable murder story with an emancipated heroine and a ridiculous story emerged from it all. Unfortunately, the heroine isn’t anywhere near as good as Ripley, and her survival journey is full of pretty nice action sequences, but she lacks suspense and the ability to grab the viewer’s attention. It’s too bad, because the introduction to the film is quite promising, but then, unfortunately, the tension disappears in the regiments of quite-visible monsters. Anderson just shot a B-movie with average A-movie effects. A pleasantly-killed hour and a half, but the film’s credit does not increase in any way with the ugly (Predators) and the uglier (Aliens), quite the opposite. AvP is just a parasite... 50% (03/10/2004)

The Alien is degraded to a drooling hopscotch, leaving the remnants of its sophistication in the original tetralogy - and mainly because of that, Anderson loses again with me this time. While the unsympathetic main characters acquaint themselves with the chilling environment and themselves, it's more boredom than a major annoyance. But when the alien newborn hatches a few minutes after meeting the facehugger, the queen agilely runs around and the predator senselessly respects the insignificant human, I wearily bury my head in my hands and leave. Shameful. (28/12/2004)

The 1970s and 1980s saw two famous monsters – the Alien and the Predator – and it was only a matter of time before they would meet together on the big screen. Alien and Aliens and the first Predator are classics of their genre, but the same cannot be said for their first crossover. While Alien vs. Predator offers superior visual effects (considering the time it was made), it falls noticeably short on the story level and in building the oppressive atmosphere that was so impressive in the first two Alien installments in particular. It terms of screenwriting, this is a weaker film, which is why it prefers to rely on action scenes and the presence of scares, which it mostly succeeds in doing. Personally, I didn't mind the fact that the Aliens were portrayed as the villains, because while they are no worse than the Predators, they are still more sneaky, and therefore more suited to that position. If you turn off your brain for an hour and a half, Alien vs. Predator isn't all that bad a movie. P.S. A small ("insignificant") plus for the open ending! (03/08/2020)

Alien vs. Predator is surprisingly well-filmed with nice special effects, dynamic editing and brisk action. And though the first fight between the Predator and the Alien was unwatchable, it still filled me with the rapture of my teenage years. What drags the film down to the level of average, however, is the UNBELIEVABLY stupid screenplay. The fact that Paul W.S. Anderson only steals wouldn’t matter so much, but the way that he sticks the stolen bits together with even more careless glue is a sight to see. With a better screenplay and longer runtime, this could have been excellent entertainment. P.S.: I was a bit bothered by the overall “humiliation” of the Alien race. Personally, I have more respect for it than I do for the plodding Predators. (08/11/2004)