Andy’s Rating: Really Liked It (10/13)*
Here’s the deal with Alien Vs. Predator: They take the premise, and they run with it. Honestly, it just works. It works in the same way that Aliens worked, and in the same way that Alien: Resurrection didn’t work. Allow me to explain…
At its core, Aliens worked because you had a writer and director (James Cameron) who believed in the characters and the world they lived in, was able to pay tribute to the first without copying it, and was able to come up with new ideas without stomping on the established mythology. Resurrection was obviously written as a fanboy’s dream (in that case, Buffy creator and scribe Joss Whedon), but although it had some good ideas, it was a little too clever for its own good, and managed to ruin some of the great ideas from the original. (To be fair, the stillborn (pun intended) third act was due more to the art direction and director than to Whedon’s script.)
From the opening credits of Alien vs. Predator, you can tell that the creators are intimately familiar with the legacy that they are building upon. The story manages to pay homage to the Alien saga and the Predator…uh, duology…simultaneously, without diminishing any of the source material. Notably clever: This movie is a prequel to the Alien quadrilogy, but a sequel to the Predator movies. Information about the Company and their motivation is given. The backstory of the Predators is fleshed out. And yes, even the Aliens are explained somewhat (although there is still no explanation for the Space Jockey). As the story progresses, the intensity builds in large part due to the viewer’s knowledge of the other films; it is very similar to Aliens in that respect. There is mystery, discovery, and once the primary conflict is revealed, it progresses in a very satisfying way.
Yes, it is a fanboy movie, and yes, it is a movie for people who want to see two mythic creatures locked in battle. But the director (videogame-adaptation hack Paul W.S. Anderson) and writers (Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett, returning for the first time since the original Alien) managed to come up with an original, interesting story, and they commit to it fully in this film. If you don’t come away feeling satisfied, then you must take your moviegoing a little too seriously. I honestly don’t see how anyone could come away from this movie without a smile on his face.
* a more thorough explanation of my movie rating system will be provided at a later date
