In order to appreciate the ALIEN VS PREDATOR movies for the spirited fan boy monster movies they are, you have to put aside the undeniable greatness and intelligence of the earlier ALIEN films (that’s excluding ALIEN RESURRECTION and remembering that the PREDATOR films were always big loud comic books with little or no subtext). The ‘original’ A V P was likable and good looking though constrained in horror terms for the sake of a PG-13 rating. The new one is R-rated, allowing for bloody on-screen chartbusters (including one from a little kid at the outset!), two exploding stoner heads for the price of one and an engagingly tasteless maternity ward set piece that’s closer in spirit to HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP than Ridley Scott’s ALIEN.
The first directorial effort from FX experts The Brothers Strause is predictably light on plot and coherence, and also evidently shot on the cheap in Canada with US TV actors and bland unknowns. It’s also, however, a refreshingly fast-paced, old-school monsters-terrorise-small-town-USA horror movie. For the first time the aliens (the clear bad guys in the A V P scenario) get to menace Earth, something once mooted as an appetite-whetting set-up for a proposed ALIEN 5. The resulting flick is more like THE BLOB than any of its franchise precursors, with prominent teen characters (including THE O.C.’s Johnny Lewis and the expected skimpily dressed blonde he lusts after), a homely Sheriff, a feisty mom (24’s Reiko Aylesworth, well cast as a Ripley substitute but severely under-used) and other disposable folk who fail to notice that huge spaceships have crash-landed in their unassuming town.
The story, such as it is, picks up right where A V P left off : the hybrid PredAlien (basically an alien with dreadlocks) birthed at the end of that film winds up crashing to Earth, spawning fresh aliens and initiating a rampage. The Predators are hot on their trail, cleaning up the gory messes like Mr Wolf in PULP FICTION and taking out aliens at every available opportunity. Chaos ensures, there’s the inevitable “Is it terrorists?” reference and one character gets to say “The government doesn’t lie to people!”.
Admittedly, some of the character beats are on the level of cheesy soap-opera shtick, while the various alien vs. predator battles throughout are mostly hard to follow because they’re set at night in the rain (or in the sewers) and because Daniel Pearl’s camera has the annoying 21st century movie habit of being so restless you can’t see what’s going on. The fear factor of both these once formidable monsters has, of course, been long diminished (especially now the predators are firmly entrenched as heroes) but there are cute visual quotes of past franchise highlights, notably an alien “kiss” like the one in the still-underrated ALIEN 3. Brian Tyler’s score, incidentally, constantly and hyperactively apes James Horner’s classic ALIENS action cues.
The best compliment you can make about AVP -R (and it hasn’t received many slung its way since its Christmas release) is that dull moments are thin on the ground. It’s energetic and satisfyingly unpredictable at times in terms of who gets to live and who dies horribly in a burst of slime, blood and screams. The Strause brothers are not destined to be great filmmakers but they do use gore effectively and mostly succeed in the integration of CG with practical FX. AVP – R also, to its credit, delivers a terrific climax with a downbeat plot lick borrowed from RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (and featuring Robert Joy as an evil government guy) that enables this present day-set film to co-exist with the earlier, future-set ALIEN movies.
The DVD includes scenes deleted from the theatrical film added back into the movie, five behind-the-scenes featurettes, still galleries, directors commentary, special FX/creature creator commentary and a hell of a lot more…
– Steven West
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
