The first "AvP" (2004) begins with Weyland Industries discovering an ancient pyramid believed to be from the first civilization. You may recognize Weyland Industries from the "Alien" movies - they play a major role there. Weyland funds an expedition to explore these ruins. The ruins turn out to be a training ground for Predators where they hunt Xenomorphs in a team, to prove they are ready to become adults. If the team is wiped out, the last remaining Predator activates the explosive charge on their wrist to prevent the Xenomorphs from taking over Earth. The expedition team slowly learns this as their numbers dwindle.
First things first: Sanaa Lathan is a total badass! Her character Alexa is the leader of the expedition team who has being doing extreme outdoor activities for a while now, and is widely regarded as the world's best at dealing with cold weather climates. She is strong, decisive, and really helps to carry this otherwise-lacking movie.
It's tough to say why this movie wasn't very good. Was it the setting, the script, or the focus on the humans rather than the two alien species? Probably a mix of all of these. The acting wasn't particularly bad, and as I said before was carried by a very strong female protagonist. Altogether the movie just fell flat. It tried to use the formula of the first two "Alien" movies, but still felt more like a Predator movie. But as I said, there was way too much focus on the humans.
One of the things I like is it set the stage for the "Alien" movies to occur by showing the Weyland interest in the Xenomorphs. After some reasearch I just discovered that the "AvP" movies are not considered cannon. But the timeline is as follows: "Including the AVP series not considered canon, AVP and AVPR take place in 2004, Prometheus in 2093, Alien in 2122, and Aliens in 2179 (57 years after Alien). Alien 3 follows Aliens, but no timeframe is given other than that it takes place not long afterwards." (This information found on Google, but linked to the "Prometheus" IMDB page)
This may be the worst movie I review on this blog. It does have to contend with the entire "Twilight" series, "50 Shades of Grey", and "Battlefield Earth". OK, so maybe not the worst movie in my collection, but still really fucking bad. Get ready to hear a lot of stuff but not see much of anything, because this movie is ridiculously dark.
"AvPR" (2007) picks up where "AVP" left off. Kind of. Alexa is completely absent from the movie. It picks up from the Predator ship where Alexa's killing buddy is dead, but is the host of a Xenomorph. The Xenomorph emerges, and the ship crashes. One of the Predators were able to set off an S.O.S. for others to help. The ships lands down in a small Mid-Western town that seems to be completely inhabited by teenagers, ex-cons, and homeless people in the sewers (of a small town, not a city, mind you). You know what makes a great addition to the Alien and Predator mythos? Making all the main characters teenagers. It's so great to have teenage hormones and insecurities along for the ride. /sarcasm
The script is so bad, and the acting is nearly as bad. Just skip this movie. I would recommend checking out the first one because it was still a watchable and enjoyable movie. The second one is not. This movie spit in the face of both franchises, knocked them unconscious while they were stunned, and then defecated on their chests before running away.
If you read my most recent post then you know how I feel about "Avatar". I would rather watch "Avatar" 3 times than sit through this movie even once.
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