Into the Blu

Alien vs. Predator

Posted on 18. May, 2008 by Ryan Keefer in 1080p, 2.35:1, D-BOX Encoded, DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 (English), Digital Copy, Dolby Digital 5.1 (French), Dolby Digital 5.1 (Spanish), Fox, Horror, MPEG-2, Reviews, Sci-Fi / Fantasy

I give credit to Paul Anderson for being passionate about his material. It doesn’t hurt that, in his short-storied career, he’s directed some of the more memorable films over the last several years, including Daniel Day Lewis in the engrossing and excellent There Will Be Blood. Wait, this isn’t the dramatic director, it’s another guy? Well, OK.

So there, obvious joke aside, I do actually remember Paul W.S. Anderson’s interviews leading up to Alien Vs. Predator, and yes, he was passionate about the material and certainly paid a lot of attention and care when it came to the vaunted monster smackdown. Admittedly, the whole concept of these two memorable creatures is a little bit silly, but there’s apparently been a market for it though the years, with four Alien ftwo Predator films, and a comic book to boot, so Anderson got some contributions from Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett, who wrote the Alien characters, and in this film, a businessman (Lance Henriksen, who played Bishop in the Alien films) gets a variety of explorers together in an Antarctic region where a secret frozen ground is uncovered. A mysterious futuristic hunter and a large alien with acid for blood gradually pick off the explorers one by one until there’s nothing left.

Well, not nothing, I mean, the last surviving human is Alexa Woods (Sanaa Lathan, Out of Time), who is a mountain climber who eventually understands the reason why the two different creatures are grappling, and that’s when things get silly. Well, not as silly as a predator and alien fighting one another, but you get the idea. Alexa is trying to escape that underground frozen tomb with a weapon prized by the Predator, and the Predator will stop at nothing to reclaim it. What follows is a wholly unbelievable and convoluted final half of the film, which tacks on a scene at the end to generate a sequel because, well, when you can get a PG-13 rating as this film does, you ensure a lot of teenage boys will see it, which means a sequel can’t be far behind, right? So that’s why Aliens Vs. Predator Requiem came out in 2007, and thankfully landed with a popular thud.

To be fair, Anderson certainly knows who his audience is when it comes to these films, as his filmography includes the Resident Evil and Mortal Kombat films, and will soon be making Spy Hunter to complete an odd trilogy of adapting video games to cinema. When it comes to Alien Vs. Predator though, with an established storyline and characters interpreted various other ways, this film seemed to be made more for the fanboys, and it didn’t seem to even accomplish that.

Video

Fox puts AVP together in 2.35:1 widescreen and uses the MPEG-2 codec, which if for nothing else was a departure from its usual MPEG-4 presentations. The blacks are good and provide a solid contrast, but the level of detail on the closer shots seems a little on the lacking side. And when you get down to business, when the Alien and the Predator start to boogie in the second and third acts, things get all CG fancy and greenscreened, and you can see the seams in the practical vs. created footage. Like the soundtrack, the presentation is solid, but both are apparently lagging behind their predecessor.

Audio

Fox serves up a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack for AVP, and it doth bring the goods. Dialogue is rooted in the center channel, subwoofer activity is ample and well worth the investment, and the surround activity and speaker panning also evident quite a bit. The problem is that none of this really picks up until the second and third acts, and the dynamic range is a little weak and inconsistent during the last hour. It’s not as demo-worthy as I was hoping, but it’s still adequate.

Special Features

The rated and unrated cuts of the film are included, and when you select the unrated version, you have the option of a marker that notes which footage was included into the version, which is a nice touch. There are two commentaries, both of which are found on the theatrical cuts of the film.

The first is with Anderson, Henriksen and Lathan. Recorded together, the trio don’t really contribute too much to the film’s enjoyment, or more to the point, the actors don’t contribute too much, and Henriksen even takes a phone call from his daughter during the commentary, but Anderson clearly has the most recollection here. He covers the production and discusses the comic book and the Alien set of films, and talks about the pros and cons of each. The track does flatten out after awhile and resorts to watching, but if you’re going to listen to it, listen to Anderson’s material.

The second track features Visual Effects Supervisor John Bruno and Creature Effects Designers Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr. This one is a little more on the loosey-goosey side of things, where everyone is joking around, but this is still a technically-based track, so which shots are real and which are CG is discussed along with the individual components are identified. So the material might be drier, but it is as enjoyable as the first, perhaps even more so.

A trivia track is available as an optional running subtitle option, and trailers for Alien vs. Predator, Phone Booth, the Planet of the Apes remake, Transformers and Behind Enemy Lines follow. Finally, the D-Box option is available, assuming you have the hardware.

Final Thoughts

I can’t say I was blown away by Alien vs. Predator. I mean, the intent of it is kind of nice, but the technical qualities aren’t all that decent, the extras are a little on the underwhelming side, and the film is approximately 108 minutes of “meh.” A strong recommendation to avoid, but if you don’t, keep things on the rental side.