Edit: During my research for this piece I found out Rotten Tomatoes recently did a similar article. They're fairly different, but it looks like they still beat me to the punch on this one.
I recently re-watched "AVP: Alien Vs. Predator" after impulse buying the blu-ray from Amazon, and with all the buzz surrounding the new Predator film, I figured this would be a fun opinion piece to do while I work through my massive Star Wars: The Last Jedi post. So...
Let me take you back to 2004.
The Alien and Predator franchises are both kinda floundering; Alien is less than 10 years out from the pretty terrible "Alien: Resurrection", and Predator has been on ice since the admittedly mediocre Predator 2 in 1990 (I mean I like it but I have a soft spot for cheesy movies).
So what do you do with a couple of franchises that are both in limbo?
Well, Freddy Vs. Jason made decent box office with a relatively small budget, why not take advantage of that super popular comic series about Predators hunting Aliens and do a versus-style blockbuster? Box office gold right?
As it turns out, not so much. It made decent money, but the critics absolutely hated the thing, and audience scores didn't fare much better (to this day the tomato meter is at 20% critic and 39% audience). But my question is, why?
I mean, I know why. The movie is a completely disposable popcorn flick that doesn't really emulate the things that made the original incarnations of these characters so memorable: Aliens are just parasitic cannon fodder and the Predators don't seem all that good at hunting. But does that make it a BAD movie?
I say no. In fact, I think this movie is pretty good time, all things considered.
What makes it so much fun?
The Story
Oh hush, the story is cool. The idea that the Predators hunt the Aliens because they're so dangerous, and have been using human sacrifices to breed them for centuries, is really interesting. Equally cool is the idea that the Predators who come to Earth are going through some kind of trial to become hunters. It plays with a lot of what we know about the established franchises, and leaves room for bigger and better things to happen in the future (hypothetically, of course, considering AVP's future was to have one terrible sequel).
The Predators
While the Aliens kinda get the short end of the stick here, being more of a swarm than a nightmare stalker, the Predator is probably the most interesting it's ever been. I wasn't even a big fan of Predator before I saw this movie, but damn if AVP didn't make Yautja seem cooler than all hell. I mean, look at this thing:
They're completely over-the-top, in the best kind of way. The way that they dispose of whatever is in their way like it's nothing (most of the time) makes them seem a little more like the Terminator then actual hunters, but I'll take it.
Practical Effects
Damn I miss practical movie monsters, don't you? The fact that not only the Predators, but some of the aliens, are done practically in this film awards it some huge brownie points. The fact that the practical effects are done so well in what amounts to a B-Sci-fi-horror-action film (jeez that's a mouthful), wins it even more. The Yautja look cooler than ever and the Aliens look just as slimy and terrifying as the original (when they aren't cgi).
Solid Fight Scenes
These aren't the fast moving, CGI laden, explosion filled fights we're used to when it comes to modern Hollywood blockbusters, but AVP delivered where it counted. The standout, of course, being the first battle between the title characters, complete with acid blood, wrist blades, and the Predator throwing itself at its opponent like a linebacker. What more could you ask for from a monster movie?
That Scene
You know the one.
Overall, this feels like one of those films that you can ignore the critics rating on. This movie wasn't aiming to be anything more than a B movie about aliens fighting each other. While it has a bit of a slow start, and the human characters aren't all that interesting, the trek through the underground temple, with its shifting architecture and unfriendly residents, ends up being a pretty good, if disposable romp. A solid 3 out of 5 kind of movie.
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