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| AVP - Alien Vs. Predator (Widescreen Edition) | 
 enlarge | Director: Paul W.s. Anderson
Actors: Sanaa Lathan, Raoul Bova, Lance Henriksen, Ewen Bremner, Colin Salmon
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $14.97 (100%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  607 reviews
Sales Rank: 7203
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dts Surround Sound, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Italian (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 100
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 024543157090
UPC: 024543157090
EAN: 0024543157090
ASIN: B00005JMZK
Theatrical Release Date: August 13, 2004
Release Date: January 25, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
In delivering PG-13-rated excitement, Alien vs. Predator is an acceptably average science-fiction action thriller with some noteworthy highlights, even if it squanders its opportunity to intelligently combine two popular and R-rated franchises. Rabid fans can justifiably ask "Is that all there is?" after a decade of development hell and eager anticipation, but we're compensated by reasonably logical connections to the Alien legacy and the still-kicking Predator franchise (which hinted at AVP rivalry at the end of Predator 2); some cleverly claustrophobic sets, tense atmosphere and impressive digital effects; and a climactic AVP smackdown that's not half bad. This disposable junk should've been better, but nobody who's seen Mortal Kombat or Resident Evil should be surprised by writer-director Paul W.S. Anderson's lack of imagination. As a brisk, 90-minute exercise in generic thrills, however, Anderson's work is occasionally impressive... right up to his shameless opening for yet another sequel. --Jeff Shannon
Product Description
Two lethal creatures, the alien and the predator, use the Earth as a battleground.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 2-AUG-2006
Media Type: DVD
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| Customer Reviews: Read 602 more reviews...
 This film, like Alien 3, was BUTCHERED by 20th Century Fox August 20, 2004
354 out of 444 found this review helpful
I just read a report of an interview with director Paul W.S. Anderson (director of AVP). He said quote "that all the best scenes were cut from the film." He also said that the movie was always going to be R-rated until the studio enforced a PG-13 rating 3 WEEKS before releasing the film. In addition to the violence and gore cut from the film, a sub-plot that further explained the plot was cut as well. If it had been in the film, the cut footage would have cleared up many continuity issues. For example, the sped up alien life cycle in this film is not a careless error at all; the machine that holds the alien queen captive also injects horomones and drugs in to her, speeding up the facehugger/chestburster process. The footage that was cut would have explained that and also would have given the characters more screen time. Director Paul W.S. Anderson also mentioned that the explosion at the end took up HALF of the 65 million dollar budget (which is ridiculously low for a film like this).
So when you see this film and end up hating it, dont blame the director. He made a film that, if it had been released in the original cut, would have pleased long time fans of the franchises. But instead, the studio made it PG-13 (so more people could see it) and cut out a lot of footage to make the film way too short (to fit in more screenings per day).
BUT, the changes the studio made are helping. Currently the film is making A LOT of money, mostly because of the PG-13 rating. This means that the studio will be more likely to greenlight AVP 2 or, more importantly, ALIEN 5. But try to realize that if the film had been released in the original uncut version, it probably would've only made half the money the current cut has because not as many people would have been able to see it.
Luckily, an R-rated Director's cut WILL be released on DVD sometime in the future. This edition will up all the violence and gore to an R-rated level (all the off screen deaths will now be ON-screen as originally filmed) and add in an additional sub-plot that will clear up continuity issues, give the characters more screen time, and make the plot development clearer. As a long time fan of the original 6 R rated movies, I was ECSTATIC to hear this.
Unfortunately, movies aren't made to be good anymore. They're made to make money, and AVP is doing that right now. So when you see this film, know that you aren't seeing the final version of the film. But PLEASE see it because it needs all the money it can make. And also, PLEASE buy the director's cut DVD when it comes out because its gonna kick a**.
The website that containes the link to the original report can be found here:
http://www.darkhorizons.com/news04/040819d.php
Whoever won, the audience lost. August 16, 2004
304 out of 534 found this review helpful
Let's be honest. Paul W.S. "Worthless Sh-t" Anderson has proven time and time again that he is incapable of making a movie that could even remotely be considered good. Mortal Kombat was a bad joke. Event Horizon was a shameless gorefest with no redeeming features. Resident Evil makes "Dawn of the Dead" look like The English Patient. Why would AvP be an exception?
If I made a list of all the stupidities, contradictions, and illogics contained within this movie, I would be up all night and half of tomorrow. If I made a list of all this movie's good points, I'd have a blank piece of paper. Let's start with what I can think of off the top of my head:
1) Lance Henriksen, who played Bishop in Aliens, plays a human in this movie. What Paul Anderson forgot was that Lance also played Bishop's creator (a Human character) in Alien 3, at least 300 years into the future. Whoopsie! Oh sure, there are those who say Lance's character in Alien 3 was an android, but androids don't bleed red. Next.
2) During the mission briefing, there is talk of the pyramid containing elements from 3 different cultures. The premise is that the Egyptians, Cambodians, etc. learned things like written language from the predators. However, if this is the case, then why does the predator pyramid use 3 different Human languages instead of Humans using the predator language?
3) If a hunt gone awry is what wiped out the Aztecs, then presumably the Antarctic pyramid wouldn't have been the only one used for hunts, yet the Egyptian and Cambodian pyramids don't have any depictions of aliens or predators like the Antarctic one does.
4) Though the pyramid is buried under 2,000 feet of ice, it was apparently built on dirt, back when Antarctica was much warmer. But continents don't move thousands of miles in just a few thousand years. The last time that pyramid saw sky would have been millions of years before humans inhabited the planet.
5) The predators only come to Earth every 100 years? Well then, what the heck were Danny Glover and the Governator fighting against?
6) The predators come to Earth to hunt Aliens, and we're just chow for the critters? That also contradicts the past two Predator movies, in which the preds come to Earth to hunt Humans, not Aliens.
7) The Predators store their shoulder cannons inside the pyramid, but they bring all their other weapons with them from the ship. Not only does this not make sense, but it again contradicts the Predator films in which the Preds bring all of their weapons - shoulder cannons included - with them from their ships.
8) Sebastian says the Aztec calendar was metric, based on powers of ten. This is a big steaming cow patty. The Aztec calendar was actually based on 13 and 20. Of course, the bigger question is why you'd have to input the date at all to retrieve your weapons, when it would be much easier to just push a button.
9) The Queen lays egg after egg after egg. Where's all this bio-mass coming from? The Nostromo had food stores, Hadley's Hope and Fury 161 were certainly abundant feeding grounds, and the bugs on the Auriga were deliberately fed, but what are the pyramid aliens eating? Is there a giant tank of alien kibble inside the pyramid somewhere? If so, why do the Aliens bother venturing anywhere else?
10) There are more Aliens in this movie than there are hosts... heh heh...
11) The predators are supposed to bring hosts to the Sacrificial Chamber before the hunt can begin. Instead, they just enter the pyramid without bringing hosts. Paul Anderson tries to explain this contradiction away by saying that the heatplume was bait for the human expedition, but that contradicts the whole Sacrificial Chamber concept, and doesn't make sense because we wouldn't be able to detect said bait until today.
12) The Pyramid shifts every ten minutes. Except for the part where it shifts twice in the span of 3 minutes and doesn't shift at all for the second half of the movie.
13) The Queen, in order to get free from her restraints, has the warrior aliens bite lots of holes in her so her acid blood dissolves her restraints. But why doesn't she have the aliens impale themselves? And why does she wait so long to do this instead of doing it ASAP? And as soon as the Queen is set free, she decides to run out of and away from the pyramid, without any real reason. I dunno about you, but it seemed to me that she had a pretty cozy spot right where she was. The pyramid made a perfect hive and there was no shortage of food, so why would she leave?
14) The Preds' masks can see aliens inside the hosts. So why didn't they see the alien inside the surviving Pred that they brought aboard their ship? Seriously, if you were a pred and you wanted to bring a fellow pred on board your ship after he'd just spent a day in an alien hive, wouldn't you check him for implanted aliens first?
15) Speaking of the masks... if they can't stop an alien's inner jaw from ramming through your skull, why bother with masks at all? I can understand goggles for the vision modes, but you don't wear a full-blown helmet except for protection.
16) The time required for an Alien to grow into the next stage of its lifecycle is determined by whatever is most convenient from a storytelling perspective, rather than by any sort of precedent set by the other 4 Alien movies. For example, in Alien 1-4, there was at least a day in between implantation and "birth". In AvP, that time is anywhere from a day to 3 minutes. Another example: the fact that the eggs were all laid at least a few second apart from each other doesn't stop them from hatching all at the same time (Resurrection also had this problem, but at least in that movie it wasn't scripted).
And that's not counting all the other types of flaws, such as the overuse of CGI and the stark absence of character development. The second through fourth Alien movies all had deep psychological stuff that the characters (well, Ripley anyway) had to deal with. This movie has no depth, no substance, just senseless violence in between long stretches of boredom.
Basically, I expected Paul Anderson to produce yet another worthless waste of film, and that's exactly what he gave us. This is the last nail in the Alien saga's coffin. It's a shame that the franchise will end without any of its dignity left. As for the Predator movies... well, I do consider this to be the best of the Predator movies, so I suppose that is worthy of something.
An excellent DVD for an OK movie September 17, 2006
27 out of 29 found this review helpful
The first time I saw this movie, I absolutely hated it. The second time, I saw this "Unrated" cut, and suddenly I didn't mind it so much. I fact I kind of liked it. Maybe that had something to do with the fact that James Cameron himself said that he liked it, and I was under the influence of reading that.
Alien Vs. Predator is a sequel to the first two Predator movies, and a prequel to the Alien series. As such, it sets up how the Company from the Alien films first became aware of the Xenomorphs. The Company is represented by Lance Henriksen, playing the founder of the Weyland-Yutani Company, who later builds the Bishop android in Aliens, also played by Lance Henriksen. We can assume that the dude in Alien3, also played by Henriksen, is a generations-later relative of this character.
A lot of B-level actors have been selected for this film, most of whom I'd never seen before. Most notably is Ewen Bremner, the "other" Ewen from Trainspotting. While nobody in this cast (apart from Henriksen) is on a level with some of the supportors from the Alien or Predator series (such as Bill Duke, Jesse Ventura, Tom Skerrit, Bill Paxton, or Michael Beihn), none of them are that bad either. In fact they all have a sort of charisma, which is important since you're supposed to feel bad when they start getting slaughtered.
The script is the weakest point of this film. Many fans have pointed out many inconsistencies with the Alien series. While a little thinking can patch up most of these plot holes, some just gape wide open no matter how much duct tape you try to put over them.
The big two, which I can't fathom an explanation for, are as follows. First, the life cycle of the Xenomorphs has been hurried so that they now burst out of your chest after what seems like minutes. Yet this is even contradicted later in the film, when a Predator gets infected with one! It takes him hours to burst out. Second, there appear to be more Xenomorphs in this film than there were human hosts. I don't get that. No explanations are attempted within the film.
Having said that, I think this movie is easier to swallow than Predator 2 with its cheesy gang members, or Alien Resurrection with its unbelievable cloning of Ellen Ripley and Queen.
Disc two is the real treasure here. I watched the pre-production and post-production segments absolutely mesmerized. Paul Anderson is a charismatic director with a clear passion for Alien movies (the good ones) and he clearly worships the ground that Jim Cameron walks on. As he and his crew walk us through the making of the movie, you really become infected with his enthusiasm. The fact that most of the movie was done with scale models with a minimun of CG just makes is so much cooler. It's much more fun watching guys blow up models than it is to watch some guy do it on his Mac.
Initially I bought this movie simply to have a complete Alien and Predator collection. After watching this cut, and the bonus material, I was hooked in. It's not as bad as I made it out to be the first time. It's a popcorn movie. While the original two Alien films and the first Predator film were more cerebral, I believe Alien Vs. Predator to be better than the later films of those franchises. I enjoyed it, and maybe you will too.
Weak Story, Acting Ruin This Movie August 27, 2004
26 out of 40 found this review helpful
Ok honestly, how many people that have seen any of the "Alien" or "Predator" movies would not be curious to see what would happen if The Alien and Predator met eachother in a face-off? That kind of curiosity is what drove me to watch "Alien vs. Predator." And now, I'm sorry that it did.
The movie is about a man named Weyland whose satelite finds a temple 2000 feet underground in Antartica. Why he has a satelite over Antartica is a mystery to me. Anyways, he gets a group of archeologists and explorers to go into this mysterious temple that just recently appeared on radar two days ago and, oh yeah, already has a freakin' tunnel leading to the entrance. The temple is actually the home of the Predators, who created the creature we've come to know as "The Alien" so that they could fight them every 100 hundred years thousands of years ago. And guess what? Its a hundred when the explorers go down there. Another interesting point, the information that I just gave was figured out by the explorers who A) Do not know anything about any of the creatures and B) Figured out the background history of the Predators by seeing that the humans of the time worshiped them, from pictures in the temple. Well, the Predators go into the temple and fight the Aliens that are in there and, well, they fight eachother. Thats about it.
First of all, the story is ridiculous. I hated how the humans seemed to know everything about these creatures. The humans found out how to be the Predator's friend and actually fight along side of them in battles. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend," is used throughout the movie. They figure out that the Predator doesn't want to hurt them, but only take back one of their weapons that one of the humans had in the temple. Oh really? That explains why the Predators slayed all of the humans that were outside of the temple, since they had the weapon and all. Also, the ending is supposed to explain how the Aliens get into space, which is makes no sense at all.
Overall this movie was quite terrible, which is really a big disappointment for two movie fanchises that are as popular as "Alien" and "Predator." I would definately recommend that you do not see this movie and tell anyone else that you know not to see it and save their money.
[3.5] NOT the box-office flop some would have you think! January 17, 2008
23 out of 30 found this review helpful
I know most have criticized this film for a wide variety of reasons that I completely understand, but for some odd reasons I still enjoyed this film although I know I should not have.
The plot of this film has been reviewed to death, so I will go the route I've been going lately and simply discuss what elements I liked and disliked about this somewhat controversial film for which most were disappointed.
The Misses:
(1) Shoddy, dark cinematography used to disguise a low-budget film for a film that really should have had a massive budget considering the great success of both franchises and the concept of the film.
(2) Slow pacing for a film that should have been a non-stop action flick on par with Cameron's Aliens (Special Edition) -as if that were really possible.
(3) Some run-of-the-mill stereotypes of forgettable characters (yeah, I know, the aliens are supposed to be the stars).
(4) Lazy approach to great concept.
(5) Lack of research (respect) to the original franchises.
(6) The PG-13 rating is both a hit and miss with me. ALL of the prior Alien films, Alien Quadrilogy (Alien/ Aliens /Alien 3 /Alien Resurrection), and the only two Predator films, Predator / Predator 2 - 2-Movie Gift Set, where ALL R rated films for violence and language. To some purist for these films and genre, that should have required an R rating for this film and anything less implies a departure from these films' roots and I agree (to a point . . . see #6 below).
The Hits:
(1) Great concept for a film (but rather lackadaisical implementation).
(2) Some spot on casting with Lance Henrikson returning as the human Bishop, the familiar face of Raoul Bova, and the stunningly beautiful and solid acting talents of Sanaa Lathan to whom this film owes an awful lot as the one character who is developed well-enough that we are rooting for her to survive in a situation where we expect all to die.
(3) Decent special effects and set designs when not shrouded in darkness.
(4) Occasionally humorous moments to ease up the tension.
(5) A terrific ending that clearly opens the door for what can be a sequel that may be better than the original AVP.
(6) The PG-13 rating has caused much fuss by fans of these franchises and I generally agree with them that these aliens thrive on violence and to downplay that here in a match up between the two is most annoying; however, I never cared for violence and gore for violence and gore's sake alone. I think this film succeeds well enough under its more family friendly PG-13 rating and I, personally, prefer to watch movies with my whole family than with just my wife (which R would require). This is just a matter of opinion here and personal preference, so keep your light sabers holstered if you disagree (just funning here).
I generally enjoyed this film even though it is a considerable letdown from what it could have been. I think sometimes we have to put that notion aside and just look at what we have and not all the "could have been's." In addition, just because we disliked a film doesn't mean we should exaggerate the lack of success a film had (or vice versa). This medium budget film, since $45 million isn't really "low budget" the film comes across as, went on to gross over $172 million world-wide, I think one is hard-pressed to call this film a flop and before one can say most of that was earned outside of the U.S. the U.S. take was slightly over $80 million.
A hit in Hollywood is generally looked upon as film that rakes in about double what it cost to make, and that is especially true if the cast has no A-list stars like this film. There are bigger expectation when a film has one or more A-listed stars like Will Smith, Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts or Jodie Foster. AVP had no A-list stars and ended up grossing nearly 4x what it cost to make after world-wide distribution. For all the criticisms of this film, I think its box-office receipts means somebody liked it and that I'm not alone even though I will admit that this film has many flaws.
With the recent entry of AVP2 you might want to take a second look at this film. It is better than most think it is (in my view). And with that I will exit my 200th review. Peace.
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