Review of AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004) by Steven L — 07 Mar 2012

A research team investigating an ancient pyramid discovered beneath the Antarctic are caught in the middle of a battle between two hostile alien races. Paul W. S. Anderson is a damn hack, which makes it deeply annoying that I actually quite enjoyed this film.

The action sequences are pretty damn good; the scene where a predator fights toe to toe with an alien is worth 3 stars on it's own. Unfortunately, the rest of the film doesn't quite measure up to its heritage.

In a way it reminded me of Jurassic Park because it's a creature feature where the creatures are much more interesting than the people involved; characterisation is sketchy at best, a mistake too many writers make because it makes it impossible to care what happens to everyone.

Even Sanaa Lathan is sexy and sassy, but at the same time completely uninteresting. On the other hand the set pieces are very well done and the effects are excellent; the predator technology in particular looks fantastic.

As a whole it makes a far better Predator film than an Alien film because of the way it ignores the logical "rules" of that franchise (the absurdly accelerated gestation period being the prime example), preferring the big dumb fun of Arnie to the intelligence and gore of Alien, but if you keep your expectations low it's actually a rather enjoyable monster mash up.