Alien Vs Predator (Special Edition) (DVD)

DVD title: Alien vs Predator
Certificate: 15
Genre: Horror/Sci-Fi
Sales and distribution: 20th Century Fox
Other information: two disk extreme edition, letter box version 16:9


The battle we have all been waiting for since predator 2. Two of the most fearsome alien races face off in a battle to the death, only this time they have brought it to our world, earth.
Well Alien vs Predator has been ...
...of the predator's trophy, an alien skull in the predator's ship at the end of predator 2. This sparked of a frenzy of excitement, the two races fighting each other for the title of champion species. The fans hunger for both the aliens and predators to confront each other set of the series of comic books and computer games, which would undoubtedly lead to the movie. Now 15 years later, there worlds collide, the long awaited movie is here.

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DVD title: Alien vs Predator
Certificate: 15
Genre: Horror/Sci-Fi
Sales and distribution: 20th Century Fox
Other information: two disk extreme edition, letter box version 16:9

The battle we have all been waiting for since predator 2. Two of the most fearsome alien races face off in a battle to the death, only this time they have brought it to our world, earth.
Well Alien vs Predator has been on the movie list for a long time. The idea for the two races to face off was the brief glimpse of the predator's trophy, an alien skull in the predator's ship at the end of predator 2. This sparked of a frenzy of excitement, the two races fighting each other for the title of champion species. The fans hunger for both the aliens and predators to confront each other set of the series of comic books and computer games, which would undoubtedly lead to the movie. Now 15 years later, there worlds collide, the long awaited movie is here.

Story line: so the story line is set before any of the Alien and Predator films. As Weyland is long since dead in the Alien films and has reincarnated his self in android form, he makes his first human appearance in this film. I will now explain the story behind the franchise as this is meant to be the first in the series.
In the early 21st century an ancient temple is discovered by a group of scientist, buried beneath an abandon whaling station in Antarctica. The strange thing about this temple is that it has a mixed theme of cultures throughout time in the initial design of the temple. They believe it to be an ancient pyramid that predates the Egyptian, Cambodian and Aztec pyramids. Features from all three cultures are inlayed within and around the temple; therefore it may be a missing link to all these ancient cultures. This discovery begs for more research. A team of scientists, adventurers and a professional drilling team are put together, which is funded and leaded by Weyland enterprises. The face behind this discovery is the owner of Weyland enterprises, Weyland (Alien fans will remember Weyland from the Alien films as the android based on its creator). The team set off for Antarctica hoping to find the most historical discovery since man, they arrive ready to drill the hole, deep down into the ice and to the temple. Being tired from the trip they settle down for the night, when they awake they find that the hole they were planning to drill has been completed, but they haven't started to drill yet. The most confusing thing about this hole is that it would have taken a few days to complete and this one has been done over night, it seems to have come from the sky due to the parallel hole in the top of a nearby building. The tea, decide to set off through the whole anyway and arrive at the bottom confronted by there wildest dream, the temple is here after all. On entering the temple they find that there is a sacrificial feel to the temple, due to its hieroglyphics and chambers. Further on they come across a strange device that has a date unlocking system to it, they set the appropriate date and discover a technology far passive of there own, they decided to take it with them. Then the predators arrive at the temple for there coming of age ritual which happens every 100 years, but there weapons are missing, the humans have stolen there weapons. Now the team have been caught up in a coming of age ritual and have two enemies, the predators and the Aliens. As the Predators battle there way to manhood and the Aliens fight to survive, earth is caught up amongst the mayhem, whoever wins, we lose!

The director/writer: the director/writer for Alien vs Predator is the not well known Paul W.S. Anderson. Though not well known Anderson has been a massive alien and predator fan since his early childhood years. Many scripts were written for this film but were scraped due to there one sided nature. Then the script arrived from Anderson, and it was perfect. Anderson has worked on a few films and some of them have been from computer games, the likes of Mortal Kombat and Resident evil being his more successful ones. To have the chance to tell this story, Anderson gave up the chances to make Mortal Kombat: Devastation and Resident Evil: Apocalypse just to make Alien vs Predator. His directing for this one is very good and a lot different from his previous films. His style of fast cuts and well framed shots suits the pace of the film. Even though there was a lot of bad press for his brave attempted at this one, including a Razzle nomination for worst remake or sequel, I think that Anderson has been very brave and in my opinion, has pulled it off.

Actors and characters: the actors for this film are of mixed popularity. There is only the one return to the Alien side of the franchise and there are other well known actors and actresses. The returnee to the franchise is none other than Lance Henriksen. Lance Henriksen plays Weyland, the owner of Weyland Enterprises and funder of the ancient temple project. Weyland first appeared in Aliens now long dead he appeared as an Android with the artificial appearance of its creator Weyland. He later appeared in the sequel alien 3 in an attempted to salvage the unhatched Alien inside the main character Ripley Scott. With Lance Henriksen staring in this one, it is great to see a bit of history towards the franchise. Another actress who is the only survivor and hero of Alien vs Predator is Sanaa Lathan. Sanaa Lathan plays the lead character Alexa Woods who is an experienced adventurer and is hired by Weyland to help with the leading of the team. Blade fans may remember Sanaa Lathan from the first Blade film, she played Blades mum in one of his flash backs, a short appearance but one all the same. Sanaa Lathan in my opinion was perfect for the lead role, her almost identical attitude and personality to Ripley Scott in the Alien films makes her the ideal candidate for the lead role. Other actors worth a mention, although they don't really have much of a purpose towards 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 mainly there to get killed and to go out in style.

Sound: not much to be said on the sound I'm afraid but there was one thing that sprang to mind, that is that there are two choices for sound, a Dolby Digital 5.1 and a DTS 5.1 track. The DTS is as ever the better of the two, you won't be disappointed with the Dolby track if you don't have the facilities to appreciate the DTS 5.1 track. Both have a very well engineered surround sound experiences, once the fight scenes get going down between the Predators and the Aliens, the soundstage becomes seriously dynamic and effects laden. The DTS track is simply excellent and adds so much more value to the movie and I do believe has the advantage of the impact to the movies soundtrack over the Dolby Digital 5.1.

C.G. and effects: I felt the C.G and effects deserved there own section as the movie has a lot of it. The flash back scenes of when the Predators first came to earth are absolutely breath taking. The scene I am going to explain for you just shows how advanced the Effects have come on since the first films; I think this scene shows all aspects of the advanced C.G that is now used in films to date. The first that sticks out in my mind would be the flash back of a coming of age ritual. The scene is near enough completely done with green screen accept for the three Predators. For those who don't know about green screen, it is basically actors acting against a bright green background, the rest is added in later using computer graphics or C.G. this is mainly used for huge background scenes that are either too expensive to shoot or just isn't possible. Anyway now that's out of the way, the scene involves just three teenage Predators, and they have to prove them selves as worthy of moving up into adulthood. The Predators are stood on the very top of a tall pyramid, and are waiting for the Aliens to attack; they must survive the onslaught to become adult. The camera shot starts off close up, only a small group of Aliens can be seen; the Predators seem to be winning. But then come's a first to the Alien franchise, the camera pans out and there can be seen thousands upon thousands of Aliens running up the temple to the Predators. There are the occasional Aliens flying up into the air as well after being shot by the Predators, blink and you will miss them, then comes the finally, the Predators are losing and are on the brink of certain death, when a Predator is threatened by death it will initiate its self destruction system and blow the crap out of anything in its way. The bright blue, bubbled blast sweeps through the scene and finishes up close to the camera and this cleverly ends the flash back. On a lighter note this was the apparent disappearance of cultures overnight, like the Egyptians Cambodians and Aztecs. They were apparently destroyed by the Predators self destruction system when they failed to survive the coming of age ritual. Other abilities that the C.G has enabled the Aliens to do, is to move like graceful Aliens. The man in a suit thing is not really great for an alien, I mean let's face it, a man is limited to what we humans can do. We can't climb walls, run on all fours or jump high and far, so this was were the C.G came in handy. In this film the Aliens can now do all of the above by using C.G and green screen.

Extras:
There are two discs here and a pretty full package of extras. There is more than enough to keep you watching for more than one night. I will break it down into manageable chunks to make it easier for you.

Disc 1:

This contains both the theatrical and extended versions of the movie, the other having a never before seen opening sequence.

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.
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 hovering over the text bubbles blows them up to a readable size.
Read the Complete 1st AVP Comic Book - Tear through all 27 pages of AVP's 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?
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 face hugger, 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, creature's 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 face hugger 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 Pumpkin head.
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.
• Face huggers 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 face huggers.
• 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 Alien vs. Predator. We get a look at animating the face huggers, 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

Overall: overall I would say this DVD has to be one of the greatest I've had the privileged to experience, for the shear quantity of the extras and the excellent movie that accompanies it. I have only one and least to say tedious fault with this movie, that is the fact that it was a bit tame in gore and violence compared to the previous films in the franchise, though due to its teenage following with its first incarnation, the comics and the computer games, I can see why Anderson went for the younger fans. But this is a fun movie for all and I thoroughly guarantee that you will enjoy this movie and its excellent extras.
Story line and build up: 4/5
Acting: 5/5
Sound: 4/5
Action: 5/5
Horror/scariness: 3/5
DVD content: 5/5 if possible I would give more but 5/5 is the maximum.
Overall: 26/30
Other information:

Run time: approx 96 minutes
Language: English
Main feature subtitles: English for the hearing impaired

where to find: You can pick this film up now from most places. As for price you can pick it up for as little as £7.99 brand new from play.com and believe me it is defiantly worth it. You may be able to pick it up cheaper from any DVD stores.

If I have missed anything please check out these links for more info.

www.play.com
www.fox.co.uk
www.alienvspredator.com > this is the official site; you can get just about all of your information from this one.
Thanks for the read and i'm sure you will enjoy this movie.
G-virus
Aka James

 

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