Alien Vs Predator (2004)

Elevator Pitch: A billionaire, Charles Weyland, collects a team of experts to investigate a heat source under the Antarctic ice, and at the bottom of a deep hole they find what appears to be an Aztec pyramid. But little do they know that the structure is an ancient battleground where what we know as “Predators” engage in the initiation rite of fighting “Aliens”. The Predators have set the scene to attract humans who are to incubate the aliens used in the combat. Caught in the trap the team are gradually dispatched, as are the Predators until only one human, Alexa, and one Predator are left. If they are to survive they must fight together.

Content: No sex or nudity, or drinking, smoking or drug taking, but once the movie gets into its groove a lot of battles between the two alien races. The humans are bewildered until one who can read archane script interprets the Predators records, indicating that they built most of the pyramids in South America for use in initiation rites. There are Alien eggs and face huggers and thereafter lots of scenes of them impregnating the humans, and sometimes killing them. The Predators are at a slight disadvantage because they don’t have their laser guns, and so have to rely on edged weapons.

A View: This outing was not really liked by anyone, although it made money. I thought it would require some ingenuity to make the plot work, but I was unaware that there had already been comics and novelisations. If I was getting picky I would say there were too many sliding doors and opening floors making the process impossible to follow, and it was all a bit dark. But overall good fun and probably worth a wach if you are a fan of either franchise. There was a sequel.

Additional info: Looking through the photos I loved the fact that rather than film a ship in the ice, they built a model and filmed it in a tank.