Alien vs Predator Review

This is my fourth review of 2004’s Alien vs Predator and I watched the Theatrical cut again on its 20th Anniversary. With each review I write, I do tend to be more forgiving towards the film. It’s so easy to nit-pick all the negatives of the film but there is a lot that is done well.

The Story

Set in the early 21st century on Earth, Charles Weyland, an industrialist billionaire, leads an archaeological expedition in Antarctica. Using thermal imaging satellites, Weyland believes to have discovered the ruins of an ancient pyramid temple that pre-dates the Egyptian and Aztec pyramids buried under the ice.

Once inside, the team finds the remains of humans with holes in the rib cage and the remains of facehuggers, meaning that the possibility of the temple being uninhabited is very unlikely. To make matters worse, a group of teenage Predators are coming to the temple to perform a coming-of-age ritual that involves fighting to the death with the aliens. Soon, it becomes clear that only one species is getting out alive.

Review

Throughout the 90s, rumours were rumbling on for a potential crossover film. The most famous attempt was a script by Peter Briggs but Fox ultimately decided not to move forward with the project until the 2000s. In the early 2000s, Paul W.S. Anderson commissioned some concept art using his own money and made his pitch for an Alien vs Predator film set in Antarctica. 20th Century Fox greenlit the project.

Alien vs Predator was a relatively new concept to me. My first encounter was when I discovered the Aliens versus Predator 2 video game a couple of years prior to AvP’s release. It was fun to be part of the community back then and see the teaser trailers come out. I don’t think I’ve ever been excited for a film.

While the script was written by Paul W.S. Anderson, there were uncredited rewrites by Shane Salerno who went on to write AvP Requiem. It’s not entirely clear what Salerno changed but it’s suspected he rewrote it to bring the budget down. For example, there were 5 Predators in Anderson’s draft and not 3 as seen in the film.

There was a lot of initial negativity towards the Earth setting – after all, Ripley’s story in the Alien series was about not letting the Xenomorphs reach Earth. But now with AvP, the Xenomorphs have already been on Earth. Compared to AvP Requiem, I think the Earth setting is actually a good idea – Antarctica is such a remote location that it wouldn’t interfere with the canon.

Antarctica is also a unique setting – no Alien or Predator film has been set there and it does make sense that teenage Predators would be sent there as a part of a training ritual. The set design of the underground pyramid is wonderful. The film was shot in Prague, Czech Republic and Anderson did a hell of a lot with the budget he had.

We’re introduced to the main characters at the start of the film. We’ve got Lex who is an environmentalist played by Sanaa Lathan. Lance Henriksen returns as Charles Bishop Weyland who organises the expedition to the pyramid. Other characters include Sebastian (Raoul Bova), Miller (Ewen Bremner), Stafford (Colin Salmon), Verheiden (Tommy Flanagan), Connors (Joseph Rye), Rousseau (Agathe De La Boulaye), Quinn (Carsten Norgaard), and Thomas Parks (Sam Troughton).

I don’t particularly mind the actors. It’s good to see Lance Henriksen back to have that connection to the Alien series. I think a lot of my issue stems from the hammy dialogue that the actors say which shoehorns in homages to previous Alien and Predator films.

The film contains three Predators which have unique mask designs. Chopper has the gills in his mask, Celtic hearkens back to one of the Lost Predators in Predator 2 while Scar is reminiscent of Jungle Hunter. All their technology and spaceship have had a overhaul and have been completely changed to make it more sleeker which I understand. A lot of people today might not like a lot of the technology seen in Predator 2. The Predators’ armour is bulky and they are shorter but I don’t overly mind the way the Predators look when they have their masks on.

There is a bit of an anomaly with the acid resistance in their weapons and armour. Some of the weapons like the Dagger and Shuriken were acid-resistant while their wristblades weren’t. You would think that if they were going to be fighting Xenomorphs, they would have at least acid-resistant armour.

The main sequence with Grid impaling a cloaked Chopper and lifting him up is a standout sequence. The CGI of the flickering cloak is impressive. The subsequent fight with Celtic did get a lot of criticism back then but it was great to watch. I probably lean more towards the Predators so it was disappointing that two Predators were killed in such a short space of time by the same Xenomorph.

The Xenomorphs are a mixture of animatonics, suits and CGI. The suits are based on Alien Resurrection but are painted black. The CGI still holds up pretty well today and has definitely come a long way since the CGI Aliens of Alien Resurrection. I don’t particularly mind the Alien designs. I think they look alright. Yes, the Alien life cycle has been sped up considerably for the film. What should have been hours, a Chestburster bursts out of Rousseau in a matter of minutes.

It amazes me that Anderson managed to get the Queen in there and we’ve not seen a Queen in an Alien film since AvP. It was a mixture of animatronics and CGI and it was doing things that we’ve never seen it do in Aliens or Alien Resurrection. It was stunning to watch to see the Xenomorphs free the Queen and see it rampaging through the pyramid. The team-up aside, I thought the final battle against the Queen was a brilliant climax.

One of my biggest complaints with the film was taking two R-Rated franchises and making it PG-13. It was pretty devastating at the time when the news first came out about it. Rumours circulated that Fox had demanded that the film be cut but Anderson later clarified that AvP was always going to be PG-13. A lot of my disappointment towards the rating was the ambiguity whenever Anderson or Fox were asked what rating AvP would be. They knew all along it was PG-13 and deliberately didn’t say anything, knowing the backlash they would receive.

There is some blood in the film but there’s a lot of blood missing like in the Chestburster scenes. Now, a graphic R-Rated film doesn’t guarantee the film is going to be good. AvP Requiem is a good example of this. If you look at Prometheus, that film was R-Rated but it was very tame. The PG-13 does hurt AvP but it’s not as bad now as it was then. Here in the UK, AvP was rated a 15 which is what the original Predator films are now rated too.

Now, for me, the biggest negative for me in the film is the team-up between Scar Predator and Lex. Anderson took a lot of elements from the first AvP comic with Machiko – the blooding ritual and the subsequent team-up. I wish he’d have left all that out completely although I know a lot of fans actually like those elements. The teamup is up there, for me, as one of the worst moments out of the entire series.

When you see Lex and Scar jump on that sledge together and then run in slow motion, it just looks atrocious. With different editing or even finding a different route for the Predator to get back to the surface on his own, it wouldn’t have looked so bad. In 2010’s Predators, we saw the Predator team up with Royce and that made a lot of sense as the Predator was near death.

On the surface, Scar removes his mask and his face design just looks awful. There’s no other way to say it. His eyes, teeth, lack of slime. I could criticize the Berserker in Predators and Feral in Prey for being too different but I can get on board with the fact they are mutations or a different clan. Scar Predator is supposed to be based on Jungle Hunter. This is Amalgamated Dynamics’ first Predator. ADI are capable of making a good Predator design – Wolf in AvP Requiem was proof of that. In AvP, a lot of their design is based on Anderson wanting to humanise the Predators. They’re Predators! They’re not supposed to be human!

My opinion on Alien vs Predator has definitely improved over the years. I’ve gone from absolutely hating it, to calling it average. A lot of that has to do with Alien Resurrection, AvP Requiem, and Prometheus. I watched Alien Resurrection last year and actually found that to be far worse than AvP. There are some positive moments in Requiem but the premise and setting are just dreadful. There are many elements in Prometheus that are like-for-like taken from AvP. But Prometheus isn’t supposed to be an Alien film so in a lot of ways, Alien fans would probably enjoy AvP more.

Like other fans, I enjoyed the lead-up to AvP’s release. The marketing was fantastic. The community was excited for the film and it’s a shame it didn’t live up to people’s expectations. There are some great moments in AvP – the remote setting, the Alien-Predator battle, the CGI, the Queen but there are things that bring it down like the PG-13 rating and the team-up.

I said after AvP Requem that 20th Century just shouldn’t make anymore because it seems with each AvP film, it causes more and more harm to the standalone franchises. A lot of that has to do with the lack of respect that 20th Century and John Davis have for the AvP franchise. I do think there is potential out there for an Alien vs Predator film set in the future in space but I don’t see it happening any time soon.