Whoever Wins, Jason vs. Freddy Loses

[yendi]

photognome and I saw Aliens Vs. Predator last night. As a pretty big Paul W.S. Anderson fan (that's the Paul Anderson who makes movies with zombies, not frogs), I had high hopes, and I still had a blast. Unlike the horror movie mentioned in the header (which I enjoyed, just not as much), this one managed to stay very true to both franchises, and like any Anderson movie, did a nice job of making anyone expendable (as should be the case, given the creatures involved). There were lots of nice in-jokes, including making Lance Henriksen's character's middle name "Bishop," and having a character named "Mark Verheiden." It also featured Colin Salmon, who played the superintendent on last summer's most screwed-over series, Keen Eddie (which is finally available for pre-ordering on DVD, hooray!). He had a nice bad-ass role, a nice shift from his previous one. And Sanaa Lathan, in the lead role, is wonderful -- I first noticed her on the Tonys, and knew that she was beautiful, but she does a nice job of acting in a tough role, frankly.

(EDIT: Of course his middle name was Bishop -- all the androids were based on his company's design).

No, this won't win an Oscar. But it's fun.

Of course, judging from the lack of press screenings (Rotten Tomatoes has eight reviews tracked so far, including sweinberg's splat) and the chatter on boards like CHUD, I'm pretty much in the minority here. *shrug* Won't be the first time.

Comments

[moop2000.livejournal.com]

I have to say, I wasn't interested in it at first, but I watched the trailer again this morning and I have to say that I am more interested now that I realized who the director is :) I didn't notice the first time. I liked Resident Evil, not a good movie, but lots of fun.

[yendi]

not a good movie, but lots of fun.

That's pretty much Anderson's motto.

[allroads.livejournal.com]

I thought Alien 4 was pretty witty.
Then I found out it was written by Joss Whedon (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0923736/). That explained it.

[yendi]

Yup. Although I'm still not overwhelmed by it compared to the first two. More like a good fun silly sci-fi flick that happens to be a part of the Alien franchise.

[sweinberg.livejournal.com]

Hey, thanks for the linkage. I'm a huge fan of Alien, Aliens and Predator - but I also consider myself a "supporter" of Paul W.S. Anderson. I think the guy's become the fan-world whipping boy. I liked both Resident Evil and Event Horizon, so I know Anderson can do better work than what I saw in AvsP. Basically everything "except" the brawl scenes was horrible - and those brawl scenes were so abbreviated and poorly-constructed that it was tough to get behind the onscreen action.

Still, I did give it 2 stars just because it's still better than Alien: Resurrection. ;)

And I will give it another shot if and when there's an "unrated director's cut" on DVD.