Review of Reverse Recommendation - Alien vs. Predator

I actually decided to do a sequel to one of my review couplets. It was the “punch ‘em up” category from two weeks ago in which I reviewed Pacific Rim (an awesome piece of monster fighting) and Alien vs Predator: Requiem (which is like watching a primary school play which charges you for actually caring about your children). Now, let’s review the complementary films to those films!

So Alien vs. Predator, when it came out, received a ton of flack because it wasn’t going to be rated R (that’s 15+ for those who use metric units) like the previous Alien and Predator films. I was <1 in 2004, so I obviously wasn’t caring. Later in life, when I started watching Alien and Predator, I thought it would be a good idea to watch the Alien vs Predator films. While in retrospect that was a bad decision because of Requiem, I did enjoy the first film quite a bit.

The movie is set in an underground pyramid in Antarctica, where an Alien Queen is kept producing Xenomorphs for Predators to hunt every 100 years. A group of scientists, led by Sanaa Lathan, the villain from COD: Modern Warfare 2 and Sick Boy from Trainspotting, are unwittingly drawn to this pyramid and preyed upon by the warring titular creatures. Mayhem ensues.

I’ll be honest, this movie, compared to other films I put in the “recommend” pile, isn’t that great. But I recommend it anyway because it’s disposable, dumb fun. It knows exactly what it is and has a fun time smashing these horror icons together like a child smashes dinosaur toys. Nothing about it is Oscar-worthy, but it’s really trying to be a fun time with childhood terrors, and it succeeds.

In terms of action, it’s actually surprisingly decent, with some great sets and a strong emphasis on animatronics and practical effects. There’s a real flow to the fights and the two eponymous monsters are worthy foes, with the puny humans scurrying around in the background. Think Pacific Rim, swap out the neon-colour palette for blue-hued alien ruins and the anime tonal influence for that of the original Aliens, and you have Alien vs. Predator.

And the practical effects in this movie are beautiful. The guys who did the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Alien movies and the 1st Predator are back, and their work is magnificent. By comparison, the computer work is a bit janky, but the practical effects focus is really admirable.

It’s the writing where Alien vs. Predator falls down. I know it’s not trying to be amazing, but I feel the characters could be written much better, because here they mostly come across as temporary Xenomorph incubators than real humans. If you look back at the first two Alien films, the first Predator and to a debatable extent the absolute guilty pleasure that is Predator 2, they are populated with characters that are really interesting and unique, even if they are over-the-top and crazy. What this movie lacks is diverse and interesting characters, with the exception of like, two.

No-one in this film has the interesting characters of Bill Paxton from the previous Alien and Predator movies.

Regardless, if you saw the original Alien or Predator films, I do recommend checking this out. It’s about as great as a clash of the two can be, and it’s a perfectly disposable Saturday night action film with some great practical effects. And it’s much more tolerable when you consider the execrable sequel that the studio made, or any of the movies director Paul Thomas Anderson made after this.

Anyway, what do you think of this movie? There’s been a bit of re-appreciation for this movie over time, and I want to know if you agree with that.