Call it lowering standards or blind fanboyism, but I place myself in the 'AVP is sort of good' camp. While the film definitely has its issues and doesn't live up to the potential of, say, the 1991 Peter Briggs script or certain fan fiction, it is not the train wreck people make it out to be.15 years in the making, after a 1989 comic book followed by an easter egg in 1990's Predator 2, AVP was finally there in summer 2004. Fans were concerned about the choice to let Paul W.S. Anderson write and direct. While he's definitely made some mistakes along the way, it actually seems like a pretty logical choice in retrospect. He made a pretty entertaining Alien knock-off with 1997's Event Horizon, and his 1995 Mortal Kombat adaptation is generally considered to be one of the better video game movies out there. The same can be said for the original Resident Evil, his last film before directing AVP, which, unlike some of the sequels, wasn't half bad. Granted, Anderson is no Ridley Scott or John McTiernan. While he is a superb cinematographer who really creates a sense of dread and impending doom in AVP's lengthy set-up (aided by glorious set design), when the action finally begins it is somewhat underwhelming. The camera is shaky, the editing is choppy and the amount of actual Alien/Predator fights is quite limited. We get one major showdown with the lead Alien, 'Grid', and one climactic battle with the Alien Queen. Between that, the action is limited to several short skirmishes including the welcome return of the Predator's plasma cannon. AVP's characters are not as engaging as Alien's or as iconic as Predator's. Still, Sanaa Lathan - who I was unfamiliar with beforehand - manages to fill the huge heroine-shaped void left by Sigourney Weaver in this first Ripley-less Alien film. Lathan's portrayal of Lex is stern and righteous, even if she has little to work with. Lance Henriksen serves to connect the film to the Alien mythos by playing an ancestor to Alien 3's Bishop II (it's obvious Anderson is more of an Alien fanboy). The human/Predator team-up is a bit cheesy, but makes sense strategically - Predators function in a higher manner like humans, and working together against the Aliens was the rational thing to do.Much has been said of AVP's maligned PG-13 rating. While I think horror in general is brought down by too much emphasis on gore as cheap shock value (I'm looking at you, Alien: Resurrection), the rating does result in a bizarrely bloodless chestburster scene, which is as great an offense as Live Free Or Die Hard's neutered 'yippee-ki-yay' line. Then again, the second AVP demonstrates that more gore does not a better movie make. But let's focus on the positive things here - even if they could be better, the Alien/Predator confrontations are a thrill to finally see on the big screen. It's great fun to see the two creatures interact and how their abilities play off against each other, given that they were never designed to co-exist. It's amazing happenstance, for instance, that Aliens established that the creatures don't show up on infrared, which just so happens to be the Predator's way of tracking its quarry. Also, the amazing set design and cinematography make the film look like a 100+ million tentpole flick, when in reality it cost about half as much. There is also a plethora of easter eggs and throwbacks to previous films, especially the Alien half, that will please many fans. To top it off, much of the film looks great SFX-wise. The CGI looks a bit dated now, but is used only when necessary. Much of the creature effects are physical, and look better than ever. The poop-brown color and excessive slime from Alien: Resurrection are wisely ditched, and the Predators retain their tribal look (admittedly, AVPR had better looking Predators).In the end, I think many detractors had been waiting for an AVP film so long they already had a perfect vision of it in their heads, and the film betrayed that vision by being something else. AVP could have been much more and things really hit a snag with the awful sequel. The perfect AVP film is still out there somewhere, waiting to be made.

It's so easy to jump on a bandwagon when your a sheep, and that's exactly what happened to this movie. AvP is a solid action sci-fi film, and there' just no getting away from that. To start with, it looks great! Director Paul W.S. Anderson (the man who gave us the ONLY good video game film ever in Mortal Kombat) has a remarkable eye for visuals, and here is no exception. It's a pretty film with decent CGI and some really stunning set design.The story is interesting as well, and to address the elephant in the room, yes the first third of this film is pretty much Identical to the start of Prometheus, only AvP got there first by nearly a decade. When things kick off the action is fantastic and it's just a well made and fun film all round, plus it's GREAT to see Lance Herikson back, and he does afar better job as a Weyland than Guy Pearce.Is it perfect? No. It's not as good as any of the first three Alien films not is it as good as the first two Predator films. There's a real lack of character development and most people there are just meat sacks waiting to be killed. Some questionable representation of the gestation cycle of the Aliens is on show here and having the lead teaming up with a predator was just a bad idea. Another fault is that, even though the action is fantastic there's just not enough of it.Still, these minor quibbles aside I found AvP to be a great and fun action sci-fi film, with plenty of thrills, spills and monster madness. Infinitely better than the atrocious sequel which followed.Don't listen to the sheep. Something being "not as good as..." doesn't automatically = "Bad".

This movie is a good movie not because it has a Great Story, or Incredible Characters, or even gory character deaths, but what it does well is pacing, once the first fight between an Alien and Predator happens, the movie Never slows down their is always something happening or about to happen until the end of the final fight.The action for the most part is Incredible! The first fight is Easily the Best, while their are some dumb moments in the fight (theirs a bit in the beginning of that fight where the alien's flipping like a fish on the beach trying to stand up on legs it doesn't have) Though their are some Great moments in the fight such as; how the environment is used to pretty good effect.However the final fight between Lex and the Scar Predator work together to fight the Alien Queen is underwhelming because the Predator almost never does anything to the queen, although the fight uses the environment Very Well and without it they would've all died.In conclusion Alien Vs. Predator is a movie for those who want to see Aliens and Predators Beating each other up, however if you want a movie with a focus on story you may be disappointed, for me I think this movie is a lot of fun too watch.

Alien versus Predator, what's not to like? Let's make it happen: Ali v. Frasier, Tyson v. Holyfield. All we need is a serviceable premise to pit these two against each other and we're talking about cinematic gold! Well, therein lied the problem. The story around having these two iconic creatures fight was awful. An underground pyramid has been accidentally discovered and a wealthy businessman wants to be the first to discover it. He hastily assembles a team of explorers, scientists and the oh-so necessary terrain expert, Alexa Woods (Sanaa Lathan). Of course instead of getting to brag about his landmark find, he finds he and his team are nothing more than canon fodder for the extra-terrestrials.Between the acting and the lazily developed story I was ready to scream. For thousands of years these inter-planetary predators would every so often visit Earth to harvest aliens in order to hunt them. What!? And as a parting gift to the humans that worshipped them they taught them how to build. Really!?Look, the only decent and watchable thing about this movie was the Predators and Aliens going at it like cats and dogs. After that there was nothing to pay attention to and nothing to hold my interest.