However, it does follow the same template, and so you get all the same fun ‘bad horror movie’ tropes.
I want to reiterate that the original Alien and Predator movies are absolute classics – this movie doesn’t hold a candle to either of them. However, once inside, the team finds themselves trapped in a maze, caught between a centuries old battle between the Predators and Xenomorphs. Wanting to claim this archaeological find for himself, Weyland tasks the team with exploring the ruins. One of Weyland’s satellites has picked up thermal imagery of what looks like an ancient pyramid buried 2000 feet beneath the ice in Antarctica. Predator follows a team of the ‘worlds best’ in their respective scientific fields, who have been assembled by billionaire Charles Weyland (Henriksen).
So it all comes full circle really.Īlien vs.
Anderson, who wrote and directed the Resident Evil franchise - a ‘survival horror’ movie series based on the computer game that was inspired by.
And who did they bring on to write and direct it? None other than Paul W.S.
Now, because 20th Century Fox owns the intellectual property of both franchises, and because production companies love making money, they decided to merge the two characters into a joint film (based on a 1989 comic book concept). Once again this was a fan favourite, and led to a franchise with four standalone ‘Predator’ movies. This time it was Arnold Schwarzenegger facing off again his own alien nemesis – the ‘Predator’. It also spawned other science fiction movies of the same ilk, including…you guessed it… Predator in 1987. This led to a franchise that now has six standalone movies, the last of which came out in 2017. This blueprint was a sensation with audiences, with the films receiving great critical acclaim and box-office success. Like other horror classics there was a big baddie (the ‘xenomorph’), a hero (Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley), and an ensemble cast that would get picked off one-by-one as the hero fought for survival. Alien was championed for it’s (at the time) creative futuristic vision, but it also gave the audience something different – this was a classic horror movie, set in space. These two films, along with Cameron’s The Terminator in 1984, transformed the science fiction genre into something slightly different – science fiction horror. Alien (directed by Ridley Scott in 1979) and its sequel Aliens (directed by James Cameron in 1986) were revolutionary at the time. Got it? Ok.Ī bit of background is needed here before I go into the overview. In summary, it’s a crap movie, but it’s a good crap movie. Also, it had a reasonably big budget of $80 million USD, so at least the set pieces and special effects are passable. However, if you want to switch your brain off and watch a couple of iconic movie sci-fi villains try and kill each other for a few hours, it’s perfect.
That is, it’s clearly a bad movie – the production quality is crap, the script is terrible, and there’s no real benefit to watching this. Starring: Sanaa Lathan, Raoul Bova, Lance Henriksen, Ewen Bremner, Tommy Flanagan