Most people going into this film want to see one thing: Aliens and Predators rip into each other. I suspect a great many geeks and lame individuals inhabiting message boards of every corner of the internet will complain that this film spends too much time with the humans when the name of the film is 'Alien versus Predator' and they couldn't care about the humans, and another sect will whine about how shallow the film is to jump right to the big fight as soon as it can possibly set it up.
The nice thing about the Freddy vs Jason premise is the fact that most of the Elm Street films and none of the Friday the 13th films had any substance to them, so throwing the two juggernauts into a battle rumble with each other with a side of useless characters and uninspired plot shouldn't have phased anyone but the most deluded of fans. I really liked FvsJ more so than all but the Craven-driven Elm Streets and the all the F13s.
Alien vs Predator is quite a bit different since I love Ridley Scott's Alien and James Cameron's Aliens, and though I don't hold Predator 1 & 2 on the same level, I'm still pretty fond of the original Predator film (been too long since I've seen Predator 2). The Alien series (and to a much lesser extent, the Predator series too) has always been about depth . . . so to just throw the two monsters at each other and let them rip into each other really does not do them any justice and strips away what makes their films so good to begin with.
So . . . AVP takes a middle path. It attempts to build up the characters to an extent, it attempts to give a valid reason for both the Aliens and Predators to be in the same location, and it attempts to do it as quickly as it can. How well does it succeed? I found myself wishing it would either slow down more or pick up the pace.
I'm very pleased to see the stylish Paul Anderson lead this tangled and difficult project. His nods to the original films, in jokes, and slower paced setup were much appreciated from me. Ninety minutes of guys in rubber suits cut with CG monsters fighting constantly just will not cut it. I felt Anderson rushed the setup (or the studio rushed him); but part of me did grow bored of the characters rather quickly, and I did want to see the Alien and Predators get together sooner than they did.
The lingering time between bouts did create more tension and anticipation for the coming fights, which I admired, and when the beasts finally sank claws and teeth into one another I found myself more or less satisfied. At first I felt somewhat let down by how seemingly easily a few Predators went down; however, then I remembered these things were fighting Aliens with bare fists and blades when Space Marines were getting slaughtered with state of the art artillery.
A classless director would have started with a bang, ended with a bang, and had a boring parade of bangs. When I want meaningless, yet entertaining, bangs I buy firecrackers and save myself both time and money. Paul Anderson strived for something more, and pretty much came through. While I did like the film and the idea of Aliens and Predators fighting it out, I couldn't help but compare it to the superior films that inspired it. As fun as AVP is, and as much as I like Paul Anderson . . . he is not Ridley Scott and this is not Alien.
