AVP: Alien Vs Predator *** (2004, Sanaa Lathan, Lance Henriksen, Raoul Bova, Ewen Bremner) – Classic Movie Review 564

Paul W S Anderson’s screenplay and direction for the 2004 monster movie AVP: Alien Vs Predator are busy, inventive and attractive. He calls it ‘The ultimate face-off action movie.’

A private satellite encounters an unidentified source of heat in chilly Antarctica and it is found to be a pyramid buried deep underground. An investigating team of top archaeologists, engineers and scientists are assembled to take part in an expedition organised by Charles Bishop Weyland (Lance Henriksen), the billionaire head of Weyland Corporation and its subsidiary, Weyland Industries.

The exploration team is reluctantly headed by the canny Alexa Woods (Sanaa Lathan), an experienced guide who spent several seasons exploring Arctic and Antarctic environments, and knows this is a bad idea. Key members of the team are smooth Italian archaeologist Professor Sebastian De Rosa (Raoul Bova), who is able to translate the pyramid’s hieroglyphs, and irritating Scottish chemical engineer Dr Graeme Miller (Ewen Bremner), the main scientist.

The motley crew head for Bouvetøya Island in Antarctica, the world’s most remote island, a Norwegian dependency. There Predator warriors try to kill the offspring of a captive alien queen. Cue the long-awaited battle of the horror movie giants from the Alien and Predator movies.

Paul W S Anderson’s screenplay and direction for 2004’s AVP are busy, inventive and attractive but they lack finesse and dynamism. However, he does turn in lots of scary and thrilling moments in this schlocky monster movie that packs a mean flash, bang and wallop even if it misses out on the serious horror stuff that made the originals such classics.

In the story, it turns out that Bouvetøya Island is inhabited by an unknown species of aliens, who set about to hunt down the team members. Meanwhile, a trio of coming-of-age Predators have arrived to collect the skulls of the aliens as trophies, and the scientists are caught in the crossfire of a deadly battle between the two warring species.

Lacking heavy weight and real class, AVP might be considered a slight letdown, maybe. But it’s still a fun monster movie and it did the inestimable service of getting the two series reanimated. The idea of a battle of the monsters, which spawned comics and video games, was triggered by the moment Danny Glover enters the Predator spacecraft in Predator 2 and an alien skull can be seen among the creature’s trophies.

The release version is a 15 certificate and contains moderate horror but doesn’t lay on the gore. Three versions: 101 minutes, 104 minutes (extended) and 109 minutes (unrated).

The cast are Sanaa Lathan as Alexa ‘Lex’ Woods, Raoul Bova as Italian archaeologist Professor Sebastian De Rosa, Lance Henriksen as Charles Bishop Weyland, the billionaire head of Weyland Corporation, Ewen Bremner as Scottish chemical engineer Dr Graeme Miller, Colin Salmon as Maxwell Stafford, Tommy Flanagan as Mark Verheiden, Carsten Norgaard as Rusten Quinn, Joseph Rye as Joe Connors, Agathe de La Boulaye as Adele Rousseau, Sam Troughton as Thomas Parks, Petr Jákl as Stone, Liz May Brice as The Supervisor, Karima Adebibe as a Sacrificial Maiden, Tom Woodruff Jr. as The Alien / ‘Grid’, and Ian Whyte as The Predator / ‘Scar’.

Whyte also plays the three other Predators: Chopper, Celtic and Elder, the Predator leader at the film’s climax.

Most of the filming took place at Barrandov Studios in Prague, Czech Republic, starting in late 2003. Richard Bridgland is the key production designer in charge of sets, props and vehicles, based on early concept art Anderson had created. The production designs and sets are brilliant, the main stars of the movie. Around 30 full-scale sets were built at Barrandov Studios, including the impressive interiors of the pyramid.

The other main star of course is the outstanding visual special effects, in the hands of Amalgamated Dynamics Incorporated (ADI), hired after having worked on Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection. Arthur Windus and John Bruno are in charge of the project that delivered 400 effects shots.

The actual star Sanaa Lathan tries valiantly, and is even quite good, especially given some of the preposterous action she is given to do, but she cannot compete with Sigourney Weaver, who played the similar heroine Ellen Ripley in the Alien series.

Weaver herself said she was happy not to be in the film, as the ideas of a crossover movie was ‘the reason I wanted my character to die in the first place’ and she said she thought the concept ‘sounded awful’.

It was released on 12 August 2004 and survived negative reviews to gross $177.4 million worldwide against a budget of $60 million –$70 million. The sequel Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem was released in 2007.

It is the fifth film in the Alien franchise and third Predator film, bringing together the creatures of the two series, a concept that originated in a 1989 comic book written by Randy Stradley and Chris Warner. Anderson wrote the story, and he and Shane Salerno adapted it into a screenplay. The creators of the Alien franchise, Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett, have story credits because it incorporates elements of the Alien series.

Paul W S Anderson calls it ‘The ultimate face-off action movie. Gripping stuff.’

Aliens director James Cameron said: ‘It was actually pretty good. I think of the five Alien films, I’d rate it third.’

Alien director Ridley Scott said he had no interest in the Alien vs Predator films. Asked in May 2012 if he had watched them, he replied: ‘No. I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t quite take that step.’

Lance Henriksen of course played Bishop in Aliens (1986) and Bishop2 in Alien 3.

Predator (1987) spawned three sequels and one prequel: Predator 2 (1990), Predators (2010), The Predator (2018), and Prey (2022). A mash with the Alien franchise produced Alien vs Predator (2004) and Aliens vs Predator: Requiem (2007).

English filmmaker Paul Anderson (born 4 March 1965) made his feature film debut with Shopping (1994), and then had a Hollywood hit with Mortal Kombat (1995). He is best known for the first six Resident Evil films (2002–2016) starring Milla Jovovich, whom he married in 2009, He directed four of them. His other notable films are Event Horizon (1997), Alien vs Predator (2004) and Death Race (2008),

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 564

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