Review: AVP: Alien vs Predator
A team of experts is assembled to explore and document a pyramid detected deep beneath the Antarctic ice. They soon discover that they are not alone in the maze...
(Continues... Warning: Spoilers inside)
Not having read the AVP comics or novels and not having played the first-person shooter game, I knew little of the backstory before seeing AVP. I was excited nevertheless. For the last few weeks I'd been saying "Even if it's bad it'll be good", but it wasn't even good in a laughably-bad way, I was just disappointed.
Plot, Screenplay, Storyline
If you're producing a hybrid of two successful action and horror/thriller franchises, you need a story that puts the two antagonists in the same environment plausibly. Paul W.S. Anderson does this to an extent in his script. While the idea of the predators hunting xenomorphs works, he ignores the Predator canon in (amongst other inconsistencies) setting the film in Antartica, disregarding that both Predator films note that the predators were only active in extremely hot weather.
You'd also want to combine the elements of the parents' films that made them successful; suspense, pacing and quotable dialogue. Anderson's script falls down here too. It's about 30 minutes too long. There's a whole hour of set-up before the audience sees any action. Worse, there was only one moment that made me jump and the ending is predictable. Should this come as a surprise? Looking at Anderson's track record as writer, no. Try Peter Briggs' original script to see what might have been.
While the IMDB trivia entry for AVP mentions a couple of missing scenes that might give fans some hope of a better Directors Cut version being released on DVD, this is subject of debate and looks unlikely.
It would have been a brave studio that would have made AVP without any human protagonists. Imagine if AVP had been a dialogue-free prehaps-subtitled action flick with predator as protagonist. I digress.
The human characters push the story along through exposition, but are pretty simple characters that could've been animated or animatronic for all of the dramatic tension we get out of them. There's the ancient cultures expert who tells everyone but the audience what's going on (the audience being several steps ahead), and there's the environmentalist/adventurer/guide who takes a leap at being something remotely like Ripley, but falls flat. Whether they live or die isn't really a concern for the audience.
Then there's Charles Bishop Weyland (Lance Henriksen) who's around to provide a reason for the expedition and add to the Alien canon. Henriksen played Bishop in Aliens (as an android) and Alien3 (as both android and human). In AVP Anderson tips his hat to these rolls by having Henriksen practice his knife trick at one point and through a magazine cover that mentions robotics.
As Margaret Pomeranz pointed out this week, AVP misses the charm and quirks of its predecessors. No "If it bleeds we can kill it", no "Get away from her you bitch", in fact nothing worth quoting at all.
Direction, Production, Editing
While everything coming out of the characters mouths is instantly forgettable, AVP is nice to look at. I thought the opening silhouette of a satellite, reminiscent of an alien queen, was well done. So too one internal POV shot that had an external light source (a red flare) project a single vertical beam of light through a crack in a doorway, like the probe/scanner going into the escape pod in the beginning of Aliens.
I thought that the camerawork and editing and scene transitions were all easy to watch, especially in contrast with the nausea-inducing handicam and rapid-cut-fest that was The Bourne Supremacy.
Costumes, Set design, Special Effects
The winners out of AVP will likely only be the special effects crew. The predators-point-of-view effects were good and the aliens movements looked a lot more natural than in previous offerings (with perhaps the exception of the xenomorph swimming in Alien: Resurrection). The predator's wireframe maps are also impressive. The sets are also full of little touches for the fans; the carving on the floor of the sacrificial chamber one of more recognisable.
Music, Sound effects
As expected there was plenty of growling and hissing, but this time around it lacked the suspense and creepiness as it had in the original franchises. The scoring was good, with hints of Alan Silvestri's Predator particularly noticable during the end credits.
AVP: Alien vs Predator
Rated: M
Running Time: 101 mins
Showing in cinemas nationally.
Seen: Cinema 4, Hoyts, Woden ACT, 2 Oct 04, 7.10pm session.
(Continues... Warning: Spoilers inside)
Not having read the AVP comics or novels and not having played the first-person shooter game, I knew little of the backstory before seeing AVP. I was excited nevertheless. For the last few weeks I'd been saying "Even if it's bad it'll be good", but it wasn't even good in a laughably-bad way, I was just disappointed.
"Whoever wins... We lose."There are winners & losers when it comes to AVP: Alien vs Predator; both fans of the parent films and the regular cinema-going public lose, but it has a few redeeming elements.
Poster tagline
Plot, Screenplay, Storyline
If you're producing a hybrid of two successful action and horror/thriller franchises, you need a story that puts the two antagonists in the same environment plausibly. Paul W.S. Anderson does this to an extent in his script. While the idea of the predators hunting xenomorphs works, he ignores the Predator canon in (amongst other inconsistencies) setting the film in Antartica, disregarding that both Predator films note that the predators were only active in extremely hot weather.
You'd also want to combine the elements of the parents' films that made them successful; suspense, pacing and quotable dialogue. Anderson's script falls down here too. It's about 30 minutes too long. There's a whole hour of set-up before the audience sees any action. Worse, there was only one moment that made me jump and the ending is predictable. Should this come as a surprise? Looking at Anderson's track record as writer, no. Try Peter Briggs' original script to see what might have been.
While the IMDB trivia entry for AVP mentions a couple of missing scenes that might give fans some hope of a better Directors Cut version being released on DVD, this is subject of debate and looks unlikely.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid."Acting, Characterisation, Dialogue
Bishop, Aliens
It would have been a brave studio that would have made AVP without any human protagonists. Imagine if AVP had been a dialogue-free prehaps-subtitled action flick with predator as protagonist. I digress.
The human characters push the story along through exposition, but are pretty simple characters that could've been animated or animatronic for all of the dramatic tension we get out of them. There's the ancient cultures expert who tells everyone but the audience what's going on (the audience being several steps ahead), and there's the environmentalist/adventurer/guide who takes a leap at being something remotely like Ripley, but falls flat. Whether they live or die isn't really a concern for the audience.
Then there's Charles Bishop Weyland (Lance Henriksen) who's around to provide a reason for the expedition and add to the Alien canon. Henriksen played Bishop in Aliens (as an android) and Alien3 (as both android and human). In AVP Anderson tips his hat to these rolls by having Henriksen practice his knife trick at one point and through a magazine cover that mentions robotics.
As Margaret Pomeranz pointed out this week, AVP misses the charm and quirks of its predecessors. No "If it bleeds we can kill it", no "Get away from her you bitch", in fact nothing worth quoting at all.
Direction, Production, Editing
While everything coming out of the characters mouths is instantly forgettable, AVP is nice to look at. I thought the opening silhouette of a satellite, reminiscent of an alien queen, was well done. So too one internal POV shot that had an external light source (a red flare) project a single vertical beam of light through a crack in a doorway, like the probe/scanner going into the escape pod in the beginning of Aliens.
I thought that the camerawork and editing and scene transitions were all easy to watch, especially in contrast with the nausea-inducing handicam and rapid-cut-fest that was The Bourne Supremacy.
Costumes, Set design, Special Effects
The winners out of AVP will likely only be the special effects crew. The predators-point-of-view effects were good and the aliens movements looked a lot more natural than in previous offerings (with perhaps the exception of the xenomorph swimming in Alien: Resurrection). The predator's wireframe maps are also impressive. The sets are also full of little touches for the fans; the carving on the floor of the sacrificial chamber one of more recognisable.
Music, Sound effects
As expected there was plenty of growling and hissing, but this time around it lacked the suspense and creepiness as it had in the original franchises. The scoring was good, with hints of Alan Silvestri's Predator particularly noticable during the end credits.
AVP: Alien vs Predator
Rated: M
Running Time: 101 mins
Showing in cinemas nationally.
Seen: Cinema 4, Hoyts, Woden ACT, 2 Oct 04, 7.10pm session.
posted by Dean at 3:39 PM
1 Comments:
well put, and good choice in books
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