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Rating: Summary: LET ME BORE YOU TO DEATH Review: Ok, I wasn't expecting that much from this book, after all it was a novelization based on a screenplay based on a story based on the Alien characters based on the Predator characters or some other Biblical lineage list which is now a major motion picture. I thought instead of waiting for the movie, I could just get the book. If the movie is anything like the book, it is going to be a boring bomb!!! It takes about 150 pages before the main characters even encounter the Aliens or the Predators!! Almost half the book!!After establishing that the Predators and Aliens have been fighting each other for about 4000 years, by showing a battle in 2000BC Cambodia and that they also hunted them at the South Pole in 1904, we flash forward to the present day. The billionaire owner of Weyland Industries has discovered what looks like a pyramid complex underneath the ice at the South Pole. Like the billionaire in Jurassic Park, Weyland begins to assemble a team of archaeologists, scientists, and adventurers to go to the site to find out what the truth is. Now, supposedly, these people are experts. Take, for example, Sebastian De Rosa, an archaeologist, whose claim to fame is that the Great Pyramids in Egypt were not built by the Egyptians. He theorizes that they were built by an even older civilization, even though in real life, we can carbon date such things and know that his theory is hogwash. Also, lets take Alexa Woods, a supposed mountain climber, who, as we are introduced to her climbing up the side of the most perilous face of Mount Everest, stops to answer her cell phone and have a conversation as she's hanging on for her life. It gets worse. There's 24 people on the team that goes to investigate the pyramid. Most of them aren't even given names, just referred to as "scientist" or "engineer" so we know most of them are going to die. I mean, that's really what all this is leading up to. I mean, why invest in the movie's characters or plot if you know all it's leading up to is that these people are going to be trapped in the pyramid and killed off in an extraterrestrial version of Scream? So anyway, the Predators, who are in cryogenic hibernation on their ship on the dark side of the moon are awoken by their ship as the research team nears the pyramid complex. I mean, what do they do, just sleep for a hundred years until somebody comes near their pyramid? That's kinda an inefficent way of doing things. Oh well, when you finally do get to page 200 or so (if you make it that far), and finally see the battle between an Alien and a Predator, it reminds one of WWE wrestling more than anything else. The Alien shows emotion and it goes something like "Alien jumps Predator, punches him with tail, bites, and stuff, throws him, etc." (paraphrased). The predators come off as real dummies. For all their hardware, they seemed to be picked off just as easily as the humans. This book was awful. To me, the thing that made the first Alien movie good was the very fact that the Alien was ALIEN! Its actions were primal and it didn't really have any goals other than killing. It was a true horror movie. The subsequent movies and this book has demystified the Alien concept and made him/it into a commercial commodity for cheap scares much like Freddy Krueger or Jason who have lost any capacity to cause true horror. Even the Predator had some credibility as an enigmatic mostrosity until he hooked up with Danny Glover. In fact sadly, this book devolves into a Lethal Weapon premise at the end. I know this movie is being hyped a lot but I predict based on the book that it might have a big opening weekend and then it will bomb.
Rating: Summary: THE BOOK WAS GOOD! LOOKING FORWARD TO THE MOVIE! Review: Okay I won't bore you with reviews as long as the ones on this page already! I'll just say that the book gives you an AVP battle as early as the PROLOGUE and the FIRST chapter gives you a violent encounter with the preadators that is very cool. So you don't exactly have to wait to see the action! I like the characters and the fast-paced changes of settings to introduce them. And well over MORE than half of the book is a cat and mouse game under the Antarctic ice among humans, predators, and aliens. It's very much along the lines of other situations we've already seen in both the Alien and Predator movies--set up characters, introduce creatures, cat-and-mouse--who wins? And, duh, it's called AVP for that reason. I can understand that some fans will find it truly hard to be thrilled in a suspense/creature genre when you've already been introdcued to the creature. That's why FIRST films seem so brilliant--because you've never seen it before and it's all so new. Most of reason people hate sequels is because the creature IS demystified. So fans are going to crap all over this movie, I'm sure. But the thing is, I like the roller coaster of continuing on with different characters and situations--seeing how different people tell different stories around the cool creature(s). And I'm really getting tired of reading callow reviews of people who "hate franchises, man." If you dont' like it, then don't pay to see it. But I will, thank you very much! I hope the movie's a huge hit and they make 10 more! (Also, the character of Sebastian De Rosa, an archaeologist, theorizes the Great Pyramids in Egypt were built by an even older civilization. Uhm. Yeah, that's for real. The theory isn't hogwash. Carbon dating DOES show that the pyramids are far older than the time of Cheops. There's a National Geographic special that explores the entire issue--so it's, like, not far out at all to play with the idea!) Anyway, I'm an Aliens fan, a Predator fan, and I found the book interesting and can recommend it!
Rating: Summary: Rumble in the Jungle, Baby! Scar rules! Review: This book is the coolest. Fantastic. You've got Aliens. You've got Predators. You've got battles back in time and on the ice and under it. Had me turning the pages. Can't wait for the flick. And "Scar" rules! Bring him back for a sequel!!
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