What should be movie gold – Alien vs Predator.

Average beast

Alien vs Predator
Stars Raoul Bova, Sanaa Lathan.
Rated M

Reviewer: Pte Shannon Joyce

Rating: 2 ½

You honestly can’t look at the title of a film like this and expect much except expensively licensed camel fodder.

But go under the surface of a seemingly blatant grab for box-office money with two 80s-originating movie franchises, that descended into their own sequel-trash heavens, and you’ll find a remotely plausible storyline that isn’t a complete no-brainer.
Set in modern-earth, the film begins when scientists discover an ancient pyramid buried under ice glaciers in the Antarctic region.

In a rush to be the first to excavate the archaeological site, a team of geologists and drillers travel unprepared to the remote location, just to be trapped inside a giant hunting complex where the Predator-race has enslaved Aliens for “the hunt”.

As a Predator mother-ship arrives in the region for “the hunt”, and wakes-up the sleeping Alien Queen with the team of humans caught up inside, a battle ensues that has the humans sidelined as bait.

But what upsets me about this film (being a Predator barracker myself), is the ease with which the Aliens have-it over their hunters.

Admittedly, the Predators are armed lightly without their shoulder-mounted weapons, and being seriously out-numbered in a much closer-quarters fighting style that benefits the Aliens, Predator has the odds stacked against him.

But it was annoying to note that compared to the more deadly and stealth-like Predators of previous films, these ones were more like jubes stumbling their way to picket in the dark, without batteries in their Ninox, or magazines on their rifles.

They did manage to get everything into one sock though, with a very unlikely relationship developing that will make the film work for you if you can swallow it.

Where I felt that the movie was let down was with its overreaching philosophical links to early human civilisation, as is the popular line for sci-fi alien films to preach, “Yeah, we were responsible for building the ancient pyramids ya know.”

The film could and should have followed it’s title AVP more, dropping insignificant character development scenes with humans who you know will die, and do so in an average Aliens fashion.

All elements together though, it’s an average movie that will disappoint if you go in with high expectations, but delight if you expect fodder. A flick that is worth seeing on the big screen just to see what is going on in the claw-to-tooth tussles.

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