Well now… I was, and still am a die-hard “Alien “fan as well as a “Predator” fan. I loved the idea behind the creatures, and enjoyed most of the subsequent films that have been made. (Well actually I only loved the first 2 “Alien” films… I thought the 3rd and 4th ones were a mess.) The idea of bringing these two creatures together has been rumored for years, fueled by a short scene in “Predator 2”, where we see an Alien skull hanging in a predator trophy room. Ever since, fans have salivated over the possibilities of a showdown and scripts have come and gone, some great, some good, some really, really bad. I was one of those fans. Every year, I would get excited about some new piece of news that would attach a good director to the project, but still the movie just never seemed to materialize. The best news that never happened was the supposed rumor that Robert Rodriguez had an interest in doing an “Alien vs. Predator” movie, but again it wasn’t to be.

I feared that if the film ever did get made, that it would end up being by some hack director who would lose sight of the epic possibilities a match up like this could yield, and instead turn out some action-centered hokum. I’d rather it just not get made at all.

A few years back, Dark Horse comics presented a series of books that posited a really cool theory that the Predator civilization had created the ‘Alien’ in order to hunt them for sport. They would ‘seed’ a planet and come back later to test their mettle against the seemingly unstoppable xenomorph. For the most part, this has been the basis for most of the scripts that have seen the light of day, and that brings me to the news that, as you know, an “Alien vs. Predator” movie was realized… along with my fears.

Last year, I made the trek to see an early screening of director Paul W.S. Anderson’s “Alien vs. Predator.” Being familiar with his work, I knew Anderson was indeed, a hack. His filmmaking repertoire includes “Resident Evil”, which again presented a lot of story possibilities, but instead became a game of ‘…and then there were none. I had hoped that perhaps he had learned his lesson, and would treat these heavily revered characters with the reverence they deserved and not just rely on snazzy, eye-popping special effects. I wanted story, and… I don’t know… interesting characters. “Alien vs. Predator” provided none of these.

What we had was a throwaway story about a group of explorers and scientists who are brought together by Billionaire Charles Bishop Weyland (Lance Henriksen) to explore an ancient temple that has been discovered buried deep, deep under Antarctica. While they are down there, as you might guess, the Predators show up and some Aliens are unleashed. What happens next is a mish mash of yelling, screaming, moving walls and the members of the team getting picked off, one after another. That’s it…end of story.

Now those who liked the film (more than I did), might argue that the same formula was used for the previous “Alien” and “Predator” films, and to some degree they would be correct. However, those films were much, much better written and directed, and the characters were…how should I say this… interesting. You either liked or hated them, and it always meant something when they were killed. In this new film, there isn’t a single interesting character. There’s no depth. When they die, they’re just dead…let’s move on.

Now to be fair, “Alien vs. Predator” was not a complete waste of time. Henriksen’s character of Weyland was a nice touch, giving fans a bit of a connection to the earlier “Alien” films. Plus the idea of the temple and the way was constructed and decorated showed a high level of creativity. The thought of having these creatures on Earth thousands of years ago and revered as Gods offered a perfect setup for what could have been a much better film.

There is also the matter of the snazzy, eye-catching special effects. That was the only other thing that almost worked. The creatures looked great, and I was thrilled to see that most of the time they were presented as a ‘man in suit’ as opposed to some awful looking CGI. (Though there were still some scenes that relied on this.) What I did expect was to see some awesome fight scenes when the creatures actually clashed. But unfortunately these scenes were few and far between, and when they took place, they were so poorly edited that you only got a glimpse of what was happening. There were some great long shots, but most of the time Anderson used extreme close-ups, edited very fast, and you were too busy trying to figure out if you were looking at an Alien elbow or a Predator knee to see anything.

There were a couple of scenes worth mentioning, if for their ‘laugh ability’ quotient alone. Not to give away any spoilers, but at one point one of the lead characters is running alongside a Predator as they try to outrun an explosion. They are shown in slow motion silhouette and my first thought was “Lethal Weapon 6.” I felt like I was looking at a cop-buddy flick. Then shortly thereafter the two come face to face with a full blown Alien queen and the look of “Oh Sh**” on the Predator’s face is priceless…just priceless.

This week, the new DVD is about to be unleashed for “Alien vs. Predator” and while the movie itself isn’t all that great, the special features are. There is a full length audio commentary from Anderson, who is joined by Henriksen and actress Sanaa Latham. Despite the fact that they have much nicer things to say about the movie than I do, there are a lot of great anecdotes thrown back and forth (and you get to hear Henriksen interrupted by a phone call from his wife…). There is also a second commentary by visual effects supervisor John Bruno and creature effects designers/creators Alec Gills and Tom Woodruff, Jr. which was of special interest to me because they covered all the special effects aspects of the film.

There are also three deleted scenes that were surprisingly worth a look, and a fairly lengthy making of featurette that covers a lot of ground in respect to the history involved and what it eventually took to put the movie together. Comic book fans will certainly enjoy some of the DVD-Rom content, which includes a look at the first AVP comic book and some background on that particular comic series.

When I originally saw “Alien vs. Predator” in theatres, I was amazed by the effects, but ultimately disappointed by the story, or lack thereof. Watching it again on DVD, even with an added beginning, I felt the same way. There was too much unrealized potential to what an “Alien vs. Predator” movie could have been to make me like what this one turned out to be.

Directed by: Paul W.S. Anderson
Starring: Sanaa Lathan, Raoul Bova, Lance Henriksen, Ewen Bremner
Extras: Audio Commentary by Director Paul W.S. Anderson and Actors Lance Henriksen and Sanaa Lathan, Audio Commentary by Visual Effects Supervisor John Bruno and Creature Effects Designers/Creators Alec Gills and Tom Woodruff, Jr., Deleted Scenes, “Making of…” Featurette, Dark Horse Comics AVP Cover Gallery.
DVD-Rom Content: First Edition AVP Comic Book, AVP Background Study and Exclusive Preview of the Upcoming AVP Graphic Novel
Specifications: Widescreen (2.35:1), Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, DTS 5.1 Digital Surround Sound
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: 1/25/2005
Region 1
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Violence, Language, Horror Images, Slime and Gore)
Website

We'll give the Alien vs Predator a D.