Alien Vs. Predator - Extreme Edition
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DVD Review
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Review
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When one of his satellites discovers an unusual heat source 2000 feet under the ice on a small island off Antarctica, billionaire industrialist Charles Bishop Weyland (Lance Henriksen) recruits a team of the finest scientific and drilling experts and well respected extreme terrain guide Alexa Woods (Sanaa Lathan) and heads south, convinced he'll make the discovery of his lifetime and one that will leave his mark in the annals of history.
What they believe they'll find there is an ancient pyramid that predates the Egyptian, Cambodian and Aztec pyramids but contains features from all three cultures so may be a missing link to these ancient cultures. They also hope that it will hold an array of fabulous secrets that have lain beneath the ice for millennia. What they don't realize is that they are being lured into an ancient battleground where they are intended to be the ritual sacrifices necessary to allow mankind's ancient Gods to prove themselves worthy of their kind by hunting and killing the most terrifying creature in the galaxy.
Review
This is the movie fans of both franchises had been waiting for ever since, by some caprice of Stan Winston, an Alien skull appeared in the spaceship trophy room in Predator 2. That sparked the fans hunger for a confrontation between the two most terrifying movie creatures to date and what resulted was a series of comic books and video games that just had to inevitably lead to a movie and 15 years later, here we have it.
Most of you will already know that this movie suffered from a fairly negative and later unsubstantiated internet press around the time of its release but, having seen it in the cinema, I didn't think it was as bad as was being put around at the time, even though it's obvious that it was shot to get it in on a PG-13 certificate (and a wider teen audience). Director and co-writer Paul W.S. Anderson must take some of the stick but, avid Alien fan that he is, he stepped down from directing both Mortal Kombat: Devastation and Resident Evil: Apocalypse to write and direct this film and even though it's already been nominated for a Razzie for worst remake or sequel, I think he made a reasonable, if flawed attempt.
First thing, the movie is too short at just 96 minutes and over 11 of those are spent on the end credits. That leads to a serious lack of build-up and character development resulting in a lack of fear factor and, other than for a few of the characters, I never really cared either way what happened to them and most were just monster fodder. The lack of time also meant things were rushed through to get to the action. For example, when John Hurt got impregnated in Alien it took several hours for the creature to gestate and rip its way out and then it took a while for it to grow but here, all of that seemed to take a few minutes to get from the face hugging of a few initial victims to a pyramid full of full grown Alien nasties. Then there's the lack of the gore present in earler movies in the franchise, another price paid for its younger certificate.
There are a few other bits of sheer bollocks in the script such as saying things like "ancient maps show Antarctica was free of ice". Sorry but any such maps would need to be modern ones as there wasn't anyone around then to make the maps. References to time were also a bit outrageous. I mean, why would the Predators measure anything by our solar system time reference and if they came back every 100 years, there must have been some lean hunts before mankind returned to the Antarctic or we had satellites to "notice" their presence. Then there's the laughable device that can be used to dial 10/10/2004, not even remotely close to the Aztec's way of measuring such things, and the 10-minute cycle used to reconfigure the pyramid based on the same premise.
Anyway, the negative stuff aside, while Anderson hasn't exactly had a stream of hits so far (Mortal Kombat, Soldier, Resident Evil), his directing here is on target and his style of fast cuts and well framed shots suits the pace of the film. The cast also perform well enough - Sanaa Lathan, who played Wesley Snipes' mom in Blade, is the real heroine of the piece as Alexa Woods, the team guide and Lance Henriksen, a serious veteran of science fiction movies including Aliens and Alien³, gives an excellent performance as Weyland and it was nice to see him back in the franchise. Others worth a mention, although they don't really add much to the story, are Raoul Bova and Ewen Bremner as two of the scientists and Colin Salmon as Weyland's right hand man. Everyone else is pretty forgettable and just fodder for the hunt.
The picture is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and is an absolutely excellent transfer even given that most of the scenes are pretty dark being shot at night or underground in the pyramid. Colours and blacks are solid and shadows well defined and everything is sharp and free of grain, artefact, etc. Altogether an excellent quality picture. The sets and visual effects are also excellent with the Aliens and Predators well realised and especially the periodically reshaping pyramid - a brilliant concept that adds a little more edge to the plot.
There are two choices for sound, a Dolby Digital 5.1 and a DTS 5.1 track. The DTS is as ever the best of the two but you really won't be disappointed with the Dolby track if you don't have the hardware to appreciate the DTS one. Both are very well engineered surround sound experiences and once the action gets going down in the continually reshaping pyramid, the soundstage becomes seriously dynamic and effects laden. The DTS track is simply excellent and adds so much more value to the movie.
Anyway, leaving the fairly thin plot to one side, what this movie is all about is the battle between the Predators and Aliens and the scenes where we get to see them get it on. Can the technologically advanced and super strong Predator species prevail over the ultimate predatory species, the Alien? Their history in this movie suggests that they can or they wouldn't breed them for this sport but the result is never a sure thing and the danger factor is still there and the fight scenes between the two in the film worked quite well for me. As for the corny ending, it reminded me of the ending in Species and it's obviously a lead into a possible sequel with some new possibilities so here's hoping they do it a lot better than this one.
Extras
There are two discs here and a pretty full package of extras…
Disc 1
This contains both the theatrical and extended versions of the movie, the latter of which was being hyped as containing a new, never seen in the cinemas, opening sequence. However, that is all you get, a new opening that lasts about 90 seconds, almost a teaser trailer in itself, and no other deleted or extended scenes.
Commentary by Paul W.S. Anderson, Lance Henriksen and Sanaa Lathan - This is a pretty good collaboration where they all seem to be enjoying the experience and that gives us some good information all round and really shows us just how Alien crazy Anderson is. It covers all the usual stuff such as casting, characters, sets, locations and the monsters and we also get a rundown on all the little tributes to the earlier movies in both franchises, and there are a lot of them.
Commentary by Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr. and John Bruno - This is the technical commentary and these guys are the creature designers and visual effects supervisor. They've all worked on some of the earlier Alien or Predator movies and they give an interesting commentary on the visual effects used here and give some comparisons on those used on the earlier movies as more and more use is made of CGI these days. It's not as chatty as the other commentary and is a bit drier but tech-heads will probably love it.
NB: The above commentaries are only available in the theatrical version of the movie.
Inside Look - Promotional previews and behind the scenes peeks at some upcoming Fox projects. Includes Hide and Seek, Elektra and Robots and lasts about six and a half minutes in all.
Trailers - Insert the disc and, after the annoying anti-piracy messages, you get trailers for Millennium/Harsh Realm, Man on Fire, The X-Files, The Clearing and Enduring Love.
DVD-ROM - Stick the disc into a PC DVD drive and it'll get you into a setup to install something, which eventually gets you to the menu, the first three items of which are decent Flash presentations where mousing over the text bubbles blows them up to a readable size…
- Read The Complete 1st AVP Comic Book - Tear through all 27 pages of AVPs first comic book.
- Making Of AVP Comics - Have a look at the stages involved in making a 10-page comic book. Includes an article written by Randy Stradley, author of Dark Horse's first Aliens Vs. Predator miniseries (1989) and originally appeared in the Aliens Vs. Predator trade paperback collection, first published in 1991.
- Sneak peek Of The Latest AVP Graphic Novel - View the first 16 pages of "Thrill of the Hunt"
- Dark Horse Comics Official Website - Just a link to the site.
- AVP Official Website - As above.
- Play Movie - Guess what this does?
However, I've got a Mac and this isn't a Mac friendly DVD but open the disc on the desktop and you'll see a DVDROM folder. I did a bit of digging around in there and entering file:///Volumes/AVP_SE_D1_FG_UK/DVDROM/Screens/base.html into a Flash enabled web browser will get you into the above menu. Not that it works as expected but you can access the first three items directly as follows and they're well worth it if you're an AvP fan…
- Open the DVDROM folder.
- Open the Screens folder.
- Open the Comics folder.
- Open the appropriate file as follows…
- first_comic.html - Read The Complete 1st AVP Comic Book
- making_comic.html - Making Of AVP Comics
- novel_comic.html - Sneak peek Of The Latest AVP Graphic Novel
Disc 2
Pre-Production- Conception - A pretty good 26-minute piece with director Paul W.S. Anderson, producer John Davis, production designer Richard Bridgeland and creature effects designer Tom Woodruff Jr. talking about the origins of the movie. They also discuss the design concepts for things like the pyramid, whaling station, Predator weaponry, costumes and the animatronics creatures.
- ADI Workshop - Some behind-the-scenes footage showing the ADI (Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc.) visual effects guys at work on some Predator/Alien footage, animatronics Alien facehugger, the Predator shoulder weapon and various other bits and pieces. Lasts about seven minutes.
- Storyboard Gallery - Browse through the 200 storyboards created by Brent Boates, Phil Norwood and Richard Bennett and containing some excellent early artworks.
- Concept Art Gallery - 29 more pieces of Richard Bennett's excellent artwork on stuff like sets, creatures weapons, etc.
- Conception Enhanced Viewing Mode - This is just the Concept featurette above but supposedly in enhanced viewing mode. I couldn't tell what was new here though.
- Easter Egg - Highlight the ADI Workshop item and press the Right arrow to reveal a facehugger just to the right. Press Enter to get a nine-minute comical piece with Tom Woodruff Jr. talking to some poor Czech technicians about his roles as the creature in this movie, Alien³ and Alien Resurrection and some of his earlier work on Jumanji, Evolution, X-Files, Mortal Kombat and Pumpkinhead.
Production- The Making of AVP - An entertaining, hour long feature on the making of AVP with input from Director Paul W.S. Anderson, producers John Davis and Chris Symes, cinematographer David Johnson, creature designers Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr, production designer Richard Bridgeland, miniature supervisor Richard Van Den Bergh and Sanaa Lathan, Lance Henrikson, Colin Salmon, Raoul Boya, Carsten Norgaard and Agathe De La Boulaye. This is the best extra in the package and it gets right into the nuts and bolts of making a big visual effects movie. We get to see the huge sets created in Prague, how they made the Antarctic seem real, the enormous pyramid set, the Alien Queen and her minions and more.
- Miniature Whaling Station - A seven-minute short where Director Paul W.S. Anderson, visual effects supervisor John Bruno and miniature supervisor Richard Van Den Bergh show us how they achieved the collapse of the Whaling Station using amazingly detailed miniatures.
- Trouble at the Mouth of the Tunnel - Cinematographer David Johnson gives us a behind-the-scenes look at filming the tunnel explosion and explains how a camera got destroyed by the sledge and we also get to see how things can go disastrously wrong when you're working with fire. Lasts just under four minutes.
- Facehuggers and Eggs - 15 minutes worth of showing the filming of the sacrificial chamber scene where Ewan Bremner and Carsten Norgaard are facing a nasty end at the mercy of a horde of facehuggers.
- The Making of AVP Enhanced Viewing Mode - Like the Concept feature above, this is supposedly in enhanced viewing mode but again, I couldn't tell what the difference was.
Post-Production- Visual Effects Breakdown - An excellent 30-minute featurette with Director Paul W.S. Anderson, visual effects supervisor John Bruno, visual effects producer Adam Valdez, CG supervisor Ivor Middleton and visual effects supervisor Ben Shepard show us how they created some of the visual effects for ÔAlien vs. PredatorÕ. We get a look at animating the facehuggers, the Predator technology and sequences from roughs to finished composites for the big Alien vs. Predator fight, the Piper Maru, the Flashback, the Queen and the climax scenes.
- Deleted Scenes - There are 11 deleted scenes here and they can be played with an optional director's commentary with Paul W.S. Anderson and Lance Hendrikson telling us why they were cut. The whole lot lasts just under nine minutes.
Licensing The Franchise- Alien vs. Predator: The Comic Book - A short, 11-minute look at the Alien vs. Predator comic book with Dark Horse Comics publisher Mike Richardson, editor Randy Stradley and artist Chris Warner and how the movie compares to those stories.
- Monsters in Miniature by Todd McFarlane - This is the guy that created the action figures for Alien vs. Predator and he talks for about 13 and half minutes on how they were designed, produced and marketed for a more adult audience.
Marketing- HBO Special - A 13-minute featurette giving us a behind the scenes look at making the movie. Includes interview material with director Paul W.S. Anderson, producers John Davis and Chris Symes, production designer Richard Bridgeland, creature designer Tom Woodruff Jr., various visual effects team members and Lance Hendrikson, Sanaa Lathan and Raoul Boya. It's not bad as a short promotional piece and they talk about the origins of the story, the sets, the creatures, the CGI and visual effects and the characters.
- Theatrical Teaser - A 50-second teaser trailer, just enough to whet the appetite.
- Theatrical Trailer - A two-minute trailer for the movie, promises more than the final result delivers.
Overall
The critical slamming this received aside, AvP is a reasonable piece of sci-fi popcorn entertainment. Okay, it's a bit short on thrills and running time but the excellent video, sound and the top-notch set of extras on this DVD set goes a long way to try and make up for that here. With two commentaries and a load of extras, there's way more material here than anyone could reasonably watch in one evening and fans will love the comic book stuff on Disc 1 and there's even a hidden Easter Egg if you need more.
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