Rating: 
Summary: Alien Vs Predator
Review: Now I know we havn't seen Alien vs Predator being that it's not released until August 13th!!! But after reading some on you're reviews and seeing that so many people put the movie down is ridiculous!!!!! First off, if you havn't seen the trailor you're opinion shouldn't count! The movie looks incredible!! Absolutely amazing! I'm a HUGE fan of the alien and predator movies and I cannot wait to see for the first time ever them on the same screen! I know some of you are not happy that Pual Anderson is directing but I wouldn't worry about that! He's a huge fan of both franchises as well and he wouldn't ruin it. So don't jump to conclusions just yet and put the movie down, until you've actually seen it! Boy August 13th can't get here any quicker can it!!!!! Whoever wins, We lose!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Whoever wins... We lose.
Review: That's the tagline for AVP: Alien Vs. Predator (2004)...seems for many reviewers, the second part of that statement holds true, although not in the context those who made the film meant it to be taken, and that's too bad, especially since many of us have waited some 14 years for this event to reach the silver screen, first taking notice of the possibility while watching Predator 2 (1990) starring Danny Glover (I would have liked to been in that casting meeting...'We can't get Arnold Schwarzenegger for the Predator sequel, so who's our next logical choice? Danny Glover?'...in his defense, he was a hot property, appearing in Lethal Weapon 2 a year earlier). The sequel was certainly mediocre, but the ending, with the appearance of the Alien skull in the trophy room (and the illusion that someone someday would make a film worthy of these two monumental characters), almost made the whole experience worthwhile (actually, those of us who read comics throughout the 90's were treated to a number of Predator/Alien match ups, which really only served to fuel the fire). Written and directed by Paul `You either love him or hate him' Anderson (Mortal Kombat, Event Horizon, Resident Evil), the film stars the very curvaceous Sanaa Lathan (Blade), the extremely Italian Raoul Bova (Under the Tuscan Sun), and the always crusty Lance Henriksen (Near Dark, Pumpkinhead, Alien³).
At the start of the film we see a satellite, own by the Weyland Corporation, orbiting the Earth, taking pictures, focusing on an area in the Antarctic. Thermal imaging indicates a large power source sitting underneath a ancient pyramid (all under 2,000 feet of ice), which peaks uber rich industrialist Charles Bishop Weyland's (Henriksen) interest enough to warrant a full scale expedition, and so begins the gathering of various specialists together, including ice climber and guide extraordinaire Alexa `Lex' Woods (Lathan) and archeologist Sebastian de Rosa (Bova), among others...but they're not the only ones making the trip, as we also see a Predator spacecraft arriving into Earth's orbit. The expedition does find the subterranean pyramid, but their presence activates the emergence of a shackled Queen Alien, who begins laying gooey eggs as part of some as of yet undefined process that will eventually include not only the humans, but the Predators as well. What's the purpose of the pyramid, and how are the Predators and Aliens involved? Well, I could tell you, but I don't think that would be fair to those who haven't seen the film (I purposely avoided reading anything about this film, as I wanted to go into it `fresh'.)
So, was our long wait for a Predator/Alien pairing justified with this film? According to many the answer would be no...and, for the most part, I would tend to agree. The main problem is, in my opinion, that expectations were very high, so high in fact many had doubts prior to the film even before it was released (see many comments posted on Amazon dated prior to the films release...how someone can review something they haven't even seen is beyond me). I, on the other hand, came into this movie with limited expectations, and still was a trifle disappointed. Don't get me wrong, I really liked the fight scenes between the Aliens and Predators, what little of it there was (it takes almost a full hour before we first see the two tussle)...and the creatures effects were handled very well...there were just so many inconsistencies in the movie. One problem, among many, was the gestation and subsequent maturation of the aliens themselves...prior Alien films indicated this wasn't a process that took only a couple of hours (as in this film), but at least a day or two...maybe these were aliens of the `quick gro' variety. Also, what was the point of the interior of the pyramid changing its' configuration every ten minutes? The only reason I could think of was because it was in the script...and the film indicates Aliens and Predators have been on the Earth for hundreds, if not thousands of years...how come no one had found evidence of this prior to the events in this film? Okay, I can see how the Predators, with their advanced technology, could keep their arrival on Earth a secret given our current state of technology (via the use of cloaking devices, I suppose), but what about when they fired that intense laser beam from space, melting a giant hole 2,000 feet through the ice to access the pyramid? Seems to be if we can detect a comparatively minimal heat source beneath the pyramid, we should also be able to detect the sustained laser blast, if not the source...the story is full of stuff like this, things that just don't make sense. The acting wasn't bad, but the human characters are lifeless and serve no purpose other than to facilitate the story...I know, I know, the human element isn't what we came to see in this film, so their role is in accordance to the story, but I would ask why have them in the movie at all? Just give me the Aliens and Predators...imagine that, and entire film with these two alien species, no dialogue at all...that would have been interesting. Anderson's direction is passable, but borders on shoddy more than I would have liked. Oh, and let's not forget the PG-13 rating...strange that the individual films featuring the Aliens and Predators were all R rated, and yet a meeting between the two would be reduced to kid friendly material. All in all I'd call this a film of missed opportunities worth renting for a few scenes, but not much else.
The picture looks good (some scenes were a bit murky, though), and the special features are listed on Amazon, so I won't bother rehashing them...one thing I found annoying about the extras was the amount of plugging by Fox...just gimme the film, for crying out loud, and quite trying to bury me in all your promotional junk.
Cookieman108
Rating: 
Summary: Big fan. Big let down.
Review: The PG-13 rating says it all. You have two movie monsters who's main purpose is to kill but the only thing that gets killed is their true purpose. What we get with a rating like that is fast cut aways and the shaky cam.<br />The monsters looked cool but I cared very little about the characters. There was absolutely no suspense. There were a few cool action moments but it was less like what these monsters usually do and more like a wrestling match. The worst part of the whole movie was the corny human/predator team up (it was painful to watch)<br />The movie was by the numbers for a sci-fi movie targeted for the 12 year old (No offence 13 year olds but my requirements for movies at 13 weren't that high).<br />Rent this one if you must see it.<br />
Rating:
Summary: Not really disappointing but still lacking something behind
Review: This is a film that could be much better if both, writer and director, had studied more accurate specific information about the ancient civilizations they tried to link by creating a common origin. The film itself is rather entertaining enough to spend a good time, but such details make us wonder "what if they knew many other details about the aztec and maya civilizations?"
Also, it would be great if DVD editions could come with some background of their research, recommended books and things alike. That would contribute to everybody's vision of the antiquities of mankind. Now we know that men and apes have the same time of evolution from a common origin, but what made the human being to develop what we call "culture" and the apes to continue to be in the same stage. I do not believe that alien visitors came to bring "intelligence" to mankind but rather it is part of our nature.
Even so, it is your privilege and decision to include this movie in your collection.
Rating: 
Summary: hot
Review: this was one hot movie too watch. what has sanna lathan from brown sugar. and the action is superb.
Rating:
Summary: All Brawn and No Brains
Review: Understand that even with a two star rating that I enjoyed watching this movie; it is just that I had to turn my brain off. There are more holes in this plot than in a round of Swiss cheese. The plot holes are unfortunate because the premise of Aliens fighting predators with humans caught sort of in the middle was interesting.
A satellite owned by Weyland Corporation, headed by Charles Bishop Weyland (Lance Henriksen!), spots a heat source under an ancient pyramid, under a couple thousand feet of ice. The heat source must have been really big current day sensors to spot it. Someone should tell the Navy about this to aid in underwater detection of submarines. When the Aliens melted the snow and ice to get to the pyramid you would have thought that a heat source thousands of times greater than the energy put out by the pyramid would have been detected by somebody. Also, you would think after encountering the Aliens in previous movies and consistently fairing poorly that Lance Henriksen would have learned his lesson. I like Lance Henriksen, but how many times can one person be killed or maimed by Aliens?
Anyway, Weyland puts together an expedition to the pyramid, just coincidentally at the same time Predators arrive, which in retrospect has to be on a routine Alien hunting trip. You can imagine that the Predators are upset that the humans are in their hunting lodge. Anyway, humans cause an Alien queen to be awakened and start laying eggs, which also triggers the closure of the pyramid. Just before the pyramid closes the Predators arrive and slip under the door as it closes. We soon learn that the pyramid reconfigures itself about every 10 minutes, because the creators of the pyramids, Aztecs, I think, worked on a metric system. The only problem is that the Aztecs used a base 20 numbering system, which is definitely not metric, which is base 10. Okay, every movie can be forgiven some implausibility, so move on. Wait a moment, there are places where it seemed like the pyramid was reconfiguring itself in just two or three minutes, and then for a lengthy period in the last part of the movie the action went on for a long time while the pyramid did not move at all. Perhaps I can forgive yet another implausibility.
The Alien eggs soon begin to hatch and humans and Predators fall prey to the spidery little Alien hatchlings. Soon fully grown Aliens start preying on the humans. Wait a moment. I thought Aliens took longer than an hour or two to get to full size. I guess for the sake of action and pace logic is continuing to be suspended. I also wonder whether I was the only one to notice that there were far more fully grown Aliens than there were dead human hosts. Since the Predators did not bring extra victims with them where did all the hosts come from? Also, the hatchlings seem to emerge from the humans in a matter of minutes versus the much longer period of time we saw in the first Alien movies. I realize at this point that I am thinking too much about plot consistency. Actually, thinking about this movie at all hurts at this point.
The Aliens, humans and Predators all mill around in the pyramid trying to kill each other to the end of the movie. The relatively soft humans are really little sport for either the Aliens or the Predators. What surprised me was that the Predators were not that much of a match for the Aliens. I would have thought that their armor and helmet would have been durable enough to withstand the Alien blood and the little fanged mouth part that comes jetting out, but apparently the helmets were about as strong as plastic and had nearly no resistance to Alien mouth parts. Curiouser and curiouser. I leave the ending to the patient viewer to discover.
This movie really has no relationship to previous Alien movies at all. It can not have any relationship because if it did it would make even less sense. For example, the movie implied Aliens come to Earth every 100 years. I guess someone should tell Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Glover that they are dealing with rogue Predators who do not follow the rules of the worst movie in this series. Also, the movie said that human sacrifices were expected, yet the Predators brought none with them. What is up with that? First, in earlier movies Predators were hunting humans and we were seen as one big hunting ground. Now the Predators have no interest in us and never have? Second, we know that Predators find it easy to capture us, so getting sacrifices would have been easy. I do not buy that heat from the pyramid was supposed to attract victims to the pyramid. How could the Aliens know enough would show up?
Lastly, given the violence and R-rating of the previous movies, I recognized that the studio toned the movie down so that the movie could be watched by younger audiences, as though this was a good thing. Relaxing the standards of the previous movies in addition to the constant logical lapses detracted significantly from the movie for me.
I enjoyed the first two Alien movies immensely. The third and fourth movies were fair, but made an attempt to be logical and consistent. This movie decided that they could make anything up they needed to create some sort of plot without considering that viewers might actually think about the movie. Of course, given that the Predators act like a bunch of rednecks anyway, maybe that is what was expected. Watch this movie for the action, but do not ascribe any sort of coherency or thought to the plot.
Rating:
Summary: MAN I THOUGHT THIS WAS GOING TO BE AWESOME
Review: Why did this disappoint me. Well first of all it was not violent enough. It would be awesome if it was rated R. Rent it don't buy it. If you have to buy the originals.
Rating:
Summary: Finally, we get Alien vs Predator !
Review: Wow, this movie has been in the works for too long! It's about time!From what I've read, Lance Henriksen is in AvP as the original Charles Weyland, the 'father of modern robotics', thats why the android looked like him in Aliens, and his great grandson is the character in Alien 3. That would make Alien vs Predator a 'prequel' to the other 4 Alien films, and so there is no continuity error in the stories. In any case, I'll wait to see it before I pass any final judgements. Im sure the action & effects will be great, lets just hope there isnt too much cheap CGI. :P
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