Has Alien vs. Predator (2004) aged all that well?

[Mr.Turok]

It's slightly better than before, a novelty I'd say.

While it didn't do a great job of it, least I can see attempts of building characters, trying to reel in the audience in engaging with the hostile environment of Antarctica and the temple, making Aliens not simple cannon fodder, and an honest attempt of telling a cohesive AVP story. Not the best, but not the worst when AVPR is right there and unlike AVP, I can barely see it.

Time had made me realize that I do love Charles Weyland's superior characterization here than in Prometheus. Peter Weyland is a chump that pees himself at the thought of passing away. Charles wanted to leave some kind of positive legacy behind, listens to Lex's story about her father dying, and reminds her that her drinking champagne with her father was more important than him dying, AND willing to fight a Predator in order to buy Lex and Sebastian time to get away. It even adds to the tragedy of the overall lore of Weyland Yutani that despite the founder being a brave and sympathetic man, The Company becomes anything but that, willing to steal, cheat, lie, and sacrifice anything for the bottom line.   

Aliens doesn't have the biomechanical look so it still the worst design.

People diss on the Predator designs and while I agree the face is garbage due to ADI, I don't hate on the armor or their muscular build. Just adds more to the overall Predator lore of various Predator designs. Predator Hunting Grounds even vindicates this when you see all the cool body types that the various Predator characters have in the game.

Not complete trash, if the sequel was actually an huge improvement and perhaps a following to an actual future story, least AVP would have been a decent start up for the my theoretical AVP film trilogy. Shame that this and AVPR will be the only AVP films we are going to get in our lifetime.

6/10

[razeak]

Oh there are positives. They just get overshadowed by P.W. Andersonisms, plus crappy pacing, too convenient everything, and Sanaa Lathan just being so bland.

Weyland was great. The bulky predators seem fine. Different builds. The fight scene with Grid and Celtic was 90% terrible. The dialog is pretty bad.

[TheBATMAN]

Hmm, can't say I agree on the Weyland thing. I love Lance as much as anyone and he does well with what little he is given to work with here, but Guy Pearce just oozes class in that TED talk. Ambition, absolute confidence, determination, ruthlessness - pretty much epitomising everything Weyland Yutani would later stand for in just a few minutes of material. It's such a shame we never got more of the younger Peter Weyland in his prime.

AVP remains my greatest cinematic disappointment of all time. Watch Aliens, then Predator, then watch this... Enough said.

I'm sorry to say im also in the ADI bashing club. They are masters of their craft in monster making of course and their work in other movies speaks for itself. But for Alien and Predator specifically, i think they have been a major let down with both creatures, and that is another element that spoils AVP for me.

[razeak]

Yes. I will continue to bash ADI. Its not "bashing" when you're calling out unnecessary changes and generic design choices. I haven't looked too deep, and it might just be me, but the heads on the aliens look off somehow to me. Did they shorten them and change the curvature?  I've noticed it in other media and didn't like it, but now it seems it odd in the film.

That being said, there are some great moments. My favorite is when the first alien is shrouded in the dark and you get the slow reveal as the "namenotimportant" fellow realizes something terrible is in the tunnel.

[SM]

The AvP heads are the same design as the Resurrection heads with the flattened less phallic underside at the back.

[Samhain13]

ADI screwed up, them taking over was one of the worse things that happended to the series.

As a kid I didn't pay much attention to how the creatures looked different from the og movies, now shit just bothers me.

The og creatures looked better, just compare JH face to Scar, didn't age well at all.

[razeak]

"improvements"

[BlueMarsalis79]

The Aliens especially suffered, Predators generally look fine to quite good until the mask comes away, then they look goofy; the Aliens in AVP and AVPR are completely f**ked aside from the Queen redesign.

They largely nail the ancillary stuff, the Predtech and ornamentation, the Facehugger and Eggs look pretty class, but the main creature feature always turns up a disaster. You can maybe make an argument for it making sense in Resurrection but not outside it.

[Acid_Reign161]

I think for me, the biggest crime is the face huggers in AvP that look like they bought a Kenner Alien Resurrection toy, strapped it (loosely) to someone's head, poured a whole jar of KY jelly over it, and were like "that'll do".

[SM]

Yeah they were terrible. Design was the same other than colouring but the 'performance' was appalling.

[SiL]

Worst facehugging put to screen.

[SM]

The 'breathing flap' things were just hanging off. 🫤

[razeak]

I never noticed the flaps.

Imagine someone trying to do a Monet or Picasso recreation and deciding to "improve" it.

Then again you can argue why does it have to be a direct copy? I can see that to a point, but if I'm making a movie and the tiger is the creature, do I suddenly start changing the skull structure and other anatomy in the sequel?  I can definitely get behind "some" change, but this his been pretty off the rails difference since Aliens. Those are at least great designs in their own right.

I don't recall the in-universe explanation for the warriors in Aliens. Was it maturity?

For fan theory, maybe there are other traits lingering from other infestations in the genetic history of the queen that laid the eggs. Or maybe there were multiple queens from different hosts and one type infected Kane and another type infected Russ.  Or there is just some small measure of natural variation.

[Samhain13]

I don't recall the in-universe explanation for the warriors in Aliens. Was it maturity?

I think it was told that Cameron said the ridged heads were result of that.

[Mr.Turok]

Weyland was great. The bulky predators seem fine. Different builds. The fight scene with Grid and Celtic was 90% terrible. The dialog is pretty bad.

The Feral vs Bear fight scene made me re-contextualize the fight scene of Celtic vs Grid. How Predators are just that strong in melee combat but at the same time how Aliens are actually that formidable vs a Predator in melee combat. I can't help but recall the first AVP novel how Dachande notes that xenomorphs are highly cunning and can turn the tables with a flick of a claw if a Predator doesn't think ahead and we see how that happens with Grid using it's acid blood to distract Celtic while it sets up an ambush from behind. Countered by a net gun sure, but it came up with all of that during in the fight shows they are very quick on their taloned feet about things.

The shooting of the scene is perhaps is what makes the Grid vs Celtic fight look bad but how it all went down doesn't look awful to me anymore. It's a shame that AVPR throws it out the window by just ignoring how deadly acid blood is, xenomorph cunning, and how the Predator has to constantly be on its toes in a fight.

Wow...yeah actually this detail just highlights another reason why it slightly aged better and how AVPR is just even more stinky poo poo.