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The tears couldn’t flow any quicker, huh?
It’s that same sense of disappoint that filmgoers got
when they finally got to lay their peepers on the long awaited
– try ten years or more – film version of comic
book fave, “Alien vs. Predator”.
It's a highly anticipated monster mash that teamed the iconic
characters of Ridley Scott’s Alien with John McTiernan’s
Predator, and ended up being the cinematic equivalent
to the God’s pissing on your party. It blew out more
than the candles on the cake...
Paul W.S. Anderson has a thinner-than-a-Hilton-sister template
for his pic: during an archaeological outing in Antarctica,
a team of archaeologists and other scientists find themselves
caught up in a battle between both cinematic faves.
At the end of the day, one of the species is going to team
with the humans to put the other out of its misery, whilst
you’ll be hurling ruby-red tomatoes at the pixels in
front of you.
As great as it was to see Lance Henriksen returning to the
Alien franchise – he plays the guy who created
Bishop, the android, the character he played in two Aliens
films – and as terrific as some of the special effects
and creatures looked – this is as vanilla as summer blockbusters
get.
They seriously need to offer a pillow and blankie to anyone
that rents it.
Editors Note: I thought it was cool movie! Especially
the first few one-on-one fights between the juvenile predator
and alien.
DVD Extras
Predictably, the DVD extras are a lot more entertaining than
the movie – as it’s explained how the film came
together and why certain decisions were made, and the like.
There are dual commentaries - the first one is by creator/writer/director
Paul W.S. Anderson and stars Lance Henriksen and Sanaa Lathan,
and the second by visual effects supervisor John Bruno and
creature effects designers/creators Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff
Jr.
The first commentary featuring the director and actors is,
remarkably, the more entertaining. It could be Henriksen’s
gruff, intimidating voice, or it could be Anderson’s
egotistical blab about how grand his film is ––
whatever, it’s well worth a listen.
There’s also a few deleted scenes (at two minutes in
length – hardly worth it), a look at the covers for the
AvP comic books, and best of all, a 25-minute making-of, which
tracks the progress of the film through the years. It could’ve
been more comprehensive, but compared to the film itself,
it’s more enjoyable than a free-for-all Sizzler weekend.
Conclusion: Movie 60% Extras 75%
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