Alien vs. Predator

*** out of ****

The devil must be passing out snow cones, because here is a positive review for Paul W. S. Anderson’s Alien vs. Predator. That it’s coming from me is something of a semi-miracle, when you consider my history with the two franchises that it is bringing together, which I’ll explain below. Despite my initial hesitation, I found the film working for me because of its ability to create exciting action sequences that bring to mind the best of these franchises in a way that isn’t too rushed or obvious.

The film had a lot against it coming from me. Of course, I think the first Alien is a great film and Aliens, its sequel, is a very good one. I even kind of liked Alien 3 and Predator. But Alien: Resurrection and Predator 2 were certainly major disappointments that I didn’t care to see the first time around, let alone again. Paul W. S. Anderson is also not my favorite director—horror spectacles like Resident Evil and Event Horizon were interesting visually, but were basically mindless fluff. That these two franchises were finally coming together under the helm of an underwhelming director seemed like overkill to me. It wasn’t.

A brief word for the uninitiated: The Alien series concerned a woman’s ferocious and obsessive battle with a race of shiny, beetle-like extraterrestrials that had acid for blood and hideous pinchers on their tongues. Using the dark, obsessive themes of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Nostromo as inspiration, the films were less about the aliens and more about people’s obsessions to either use them for weapons or destroy them. The point was always the characters’ reactions to the creatures, and the films were all physiologically complex essays on human behavior (or at least they tried to be). Still, they generated plenty of scares—the aliens are pretty terrifying beasts, and Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley made for an effective, mad hero. By the end, the series had run out of steam, but Weaver’s presence and the alien’s menace made at least the first three films thoroughly watchable.

The Predator films had slightly less ambition, but the first film was an entertaining flick that worked on its own terms. Genre fans call it a masterpiece, and while I personally found it a bit overrated, it was is still a good showcase for the macho, shoot-em up blend of fantasy and thrillers that were popular in the 1980s. It certainly didn't have the wit or intelligence of other films in that era—say, Blade Runner, The Terminator, Highlander, or even Aliens, but it was cleverly done and engaging while it lasted. In my book, the first Predator film was A-OK.

However, unlike the multi-themed Alien films, the premise that Predator set up brought a problem to ensuing follow-up films. The idea of a high-tech, hunter-killer alien who collects skulls as trophies in a jungle, matching up with Earth's biggest biceps (Arnold Schwarzenegger himself) was an entertaining idea, and it worked. Its story, however, left no other possible outlets for expansion. No matter what else we could learn about the Predator's personality, no matter how his weapons changed, no matter where the location was relocated to, any sequel would just be a re-hash. It would just be Predator 2: Same Story With Bigger Guns in a New Location. Unlike the Alien saga, Predator had only one story to tell, and though it was told well, a sequel would be unnecessary.

Yet inevitably, a sequel came anyway, and yes, it was a rehash of the first one. It was competently made and had cooler weapons (the flying razor-disc was especially inventive), but it brought no new twists to the formula. What it did do, however, was spark an idea that fans of the genre have speculated on ever since. In Predator 2’s final scenes, the hero finds the hunter-killer’s space ship, containing many of his extraterrestrial trophies. Among them was—you guessed it—a Ripley alien. This was originally intended as a throwaway gag on the producers’ parts, but fans liked what they saw and caught on.

The rest is history. Fifteen years later, Alien vs. Predator is a geek phenomenon. There are countless comic books, novels, video games, action figures, trading cards, and possibly even breakfast cereals (I’ll have to check. Better yet, why don’t you?). The fans rank in the millions, and they dream about possible films that bring the two malevolent E.T.s together. Of course, these geeked-out fanboys expected the film to follow the comic books, video games, etc. to some degree, and their hype about this film is pretty astronomical.

That said, Anderson did the best thing with his take on Alien vs. Predator by completely ignoring the previous variations on the idea and creating his own, unique blend of the two universes. This gives him a clean slate to work with, and he uses it well. Folks like Harry Knowles (the Colonel Kurtz of geekdom—an association that I think he would take as a compliment) will of course hate Anderson’s approach, because it is spitting in the eyes of the fans who have waited for this film and wanted to see the aliens and Predators fight the same way that they fought in the fantasy scenarios that play in their heads. These geeks will probably walk away quite disappointed—there is nothing comic book-like or video game-esque to be found here. But for the rest of us normal folks, here is a very entertaining film that tells its story intelligently and develops some very gripping action sequences that remind us of the best moments in the previous films.

By my calculation, Alien vs. Predator is a sequel to the two Predator films (which took place last decade) and a prequel to the Alien saga (which took place in the far future). That means that it should begin where the Predator films ended and explain a few things that will successfully lead us into the Alien films, and the film succeeds in both of these tasks. The video games, comic books, etc. dealt with some sort of futuristic apocalypse in which aliens plague the earth and Predators hunt them as a test of their manhood. These stories were big in spectacle and in testosterone. Anderson sets his film in modern day and tries to make a film closer to Ridley Scott’s original Alien—we are given a claustrophobic, nightmarish setting in which humans try to survive against monsters that creep out of the shadows. And no testosterone. For a huge battle spectacle, this is a fairly intimate film, and it certainly plays against our expectations. Nobody ever successfully argued that a film that brought these creatures together had to be epic, no matter what the geeks think.

The plot concerns a rich businessman named Charles Bishop Weyland (Lance Henriksen) who discovers a pyramid in Antarctica, two thousand feet under the ice. This discovery could rewrite history, so he quickly assembles a team of experts to accompany him into the ice, including nature survivalist Alexa Woods (Sanaa Lathan) and archeologist Sebastian de Rosa (Raoul Bova). Anderson spends enough time as necessary to develop these characters into likable people and establishing their environment as a cold, barren one. Weyland and the others are certainly nothing new for action movies, but they are likable, and Antarctica is acceptably cold, dark, and empty—a perfect, unlikely battleground between aliens and Predators. Lathan in particular is an acceptable foil for Ripley, the heroine from the Alien films. Whereas Ripley was a meek woman who grew bold, Lathan creates a bold character who grows bolder. The result is a character that mirrors Ripley but does not replicate her.

I will not say how the creatures tie into this barren, ancient setting, but it is unexpected and corny enough that we buy it, if for no other reason that its sheer audacity. It doesn’t cheat either, which is more than I can say about some the other sequels. The underground pyramid itself is an inspired idea—its tall, labyrinth walls are excellent work from good set designers, who combine the ancient, jungle setting of Predator with the mechanical backdrop of Alien. A particularly interesting touch is how the Predators have designed the pyramid so that the walls shift and reconfigure every ten minutes. Why this is, I will not say; why they use human time, I can only guess. But don’t think about it too much—it’s an inventive idea that keeps both the characters and us on our toes. Just go along with it.

I’m not sure why Anderson came up with idea of placing a futuristic showdown between two deadly alien species in such an unlikely, intimate setting, but it certainly works. In fact, after watching Anderson’s film, I wouldn’t have it any other way. He effectively creates a scenario that presents fresh ideas for the Predators and generates the familiar scares of the aliens. Instead of having a vast jungle or city as their hunting ground, the Predators have to demonstrate careful, contained ingenuity in their closed in environment. The aliens are at home in dark, confined places, and they remain in top form. The humans, caught in the middle, must battle both species and the ever-shifting, icy pyramid. It’s an inspired location, and it allows plenty of suspense to seep in and settle under our skin.

The action starts quickly, and once it does, it never lets up. Geeks have complained that not enough suspense is built up around the two alien creatures—they simply show up and start doing their thing. This is true, but after six previous films to get us ready for this showdown, how much more buildup could anyone want? I personally got tired of the characters trying to figure out what was going on in the previous films because after a few rounds, I already knew what was going on, and these scenes were simply killing time. Anderson cuts to the chase, but he does so with good writing that doesn’t compromise the story, the human characters, or the familiar characteristics of our not-so-friendly visitors.

The battles between the humans, the aliens, and the Predators are certainly inventive. The aliens maintain their quickness, slime, and sheer killing power, and the Predators have all sorts of fun, sci-fi gizmos to help them fight. Anderson adds some interesting touches that distinguish his approach to these creatures from the previous films—aliens with scars and grudges, and Predators who form surprising truces—and combines them with familiar archetypes that we are used to (chest-bursting, human sacrifices, the Queen Alien, etc.). He also utilizes some very cool action shots—the Predator’s mid-air thrust of a harpoon into alien is alone worth the price of admission, and should even please the geeks.

Certainly there are a few obvious moments that we know must happen for the sake of homage. These scenes include the obligatory alien appearing dead only to jump back to life, and the routine finale when everyone runs for their lives as the bomb’s timer ticks down. But Anderson earns these little moments by giving us truly spectacular scenes in which these two familiar monsters fight to the death in a setting that no one could have expected it to work so well in. By the time these little conventions come, we expect them and, if we are familiar with the previous films, we sort of want them. After all, who’s John Wayne without his cowboy hat?

I think what I admire the most about Alien Vs. Predator is the boldness that Anderson demonstrates in not giving into the fantasies and influential pull of the geeks who make up so much of this audience. This is a project with which he has his own agenda, and it is one that he is clearly passionate about. The touches that he includes reveal his affection for both franchises, yet he has his own, unbiased story to tell that brings the beasts together in a compelling way. Frankly, I’m tired of big-budget, no-brained, futuristic action films (Chronicles of Riddick, anyone?). That’s what the geeks wanted, and Anderson instead delivers a small film of claustrophobia that actually contains a fair amount of intelligence.

As a result, he makes a film that reuses old conventions in a way that makes us realize why we enjoyed them in the first place, in an original setting that provides a lot of genuine scares. He translates his passion and objectives well, when he could have easily given in and made a film exclusively for the fans. But he has not—he had made a film that anyone will be able to enjoy, including the geeks, if they can crawl off of their pedestals and realize that this is Anderson’s Alien Vs. Predator, not their own. After growing tired of the Alien and Predator films, I knew that it was time for a change. Who knew that it would be a film that actually brought them together?

Got cherry-flavored, Satan?

Cast:
Lance Henrickson: Charles Bishop Weyland
Sanaa Lathan: Alexa Woods
Raoul Bova: Sebastian de Rosa
Colin Salmon: Maxwell Stafford
Ewen Bremner: Graeme Miller

A Twentieth Century Fox production. Written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. Rated PG-13, for intense action and suspense, gore/slime, and brief language. Running time: 111 minutes. Original United States theatrical release date: August 13, 2004.