Alien vs. Predator

Paul W.S. Anderson directs this boring sci-fi action film. It doesn’t have any feelings for character or for how insane the story is made. Dennis Schwartz said in his review, “I had trouble trying to stay alert and often looked at my watch hoping it would end soon.” Twentieth Century Fox made the tagline “No matter who wins, we lose.” How true of a statement that is. Schwartz admitted, “I had no dog in this race, and couldn't care less what happened.” “Alien vs. Predator,” released in 2004, mockingly wants to bring money by having these famous creatures from two very popular franchises fight each other on ruling Earth. If anyone cares, this unoriginal film was shot in Prague.

The film is set in present time. Billionaire robotics industrialist Charles Weyland, played by Lance Henriksen, is dying but before he does he wants to do something he’ll always be remembered for. He gets that opportunity when he hears from people of an ancient pyramid buried in a bleak part of Antarctica. Weyland doesn’t waste any money and goes everywhere to recruit a great team of mountain climbers, drillers, scientists and archaeologists to be the first to go into a kingdom from a lost civilization predating humans.

The team is lead in the frozen area by top mountain climber Alexa Woods, played by Sanna Lathan, who is just as an agitated elementary teacher giving the job to one of her restless students. Some other team members to walk down below the ice are the Italian archaeologist Sebastian (Raoul Bova), muscleman Max Stafford (Colin Salmon), drill team leader Quinn (Carsten Norgaard) and, a gentle family man who tries to be more obnoxious than the drooling creatures in his short time on camera, the Scottish chemical scientist Graeme Miller (Ewen Bremner). Schwartz said, “The team not only discover ancient sarcophagus-es and hieroglyphics, but the pyramid's real purpose as a hunting ground for the Predators to attack the slimy Aliens in some sort of ridiculous ritual only addled filmmakers can think up. The poor humans are trapped in the pyramid as the doors shut like Attica during a prison riot.” Left to look after themselves the torn human skeletons and fossilized leftovers of the Xenomorph aliens that have burst out of their chests, the humans find themselves in serious trouble. The film’s best part is a huge fight between the Aliens and Predators, with the humans trying their best to escape. Many die, but everyone is so not caring that the killings are not even missed.

Schwartz rightfully ended his review by saying, “For the moviegoer, there was no escape from this humorless and uninspired space invasion B-film.”

This movie is really underwhelming. After such a build-up, it failed to give us what we expected in this boring movie. No memorable characters, nothing worth talking about, and having an overall quality of cheapness. I don’t think I heard anyone give a good remark about this film, besides the great action highlights, because the film was a disappointment. Especially since these franchises were R rated, this one gets a PG-13. I can see why people may look at that as a letdown, but this movie can be skipped and you don’t have to even watch this, especially if you think you will hate it.

Well everyone, I have some sad news. Unlike “Freddy vs. Jason,” where it left off with a possibility of a sequel that fell into development, this one actually got a sequel that did get made and released. This movie did leave off on a cliffhanger that would have said that there would be a sequel, and they actually followed through on that. If you want to know how well that one was compared to this boring film, look out on Wednesday to find out as we continue this year's “Halloween Month.”