Just got back from the theater viewing of Alien vs. Predator (AVP) with my 14 year old son and here are my quick thoughts, impressions and review:

- I think I know the magic formula for not getting an R rating: keep the f-bombs and other adult language down, don’t show a lot of red blood and little to no sin or skin (nudity). Well, AVP shows a lot of green alien blood but it doesn’t spill much red human blood — visibly anyway and there is no nudity (sorry all you horror boobie buffs) or sex. In fact, there’s really no romance at all … save for a bit of hunter respect (I won’t spoil that part).
- AVP has some very cool fight scenes. Better than Freddy vs. Jason. You really want to see Predator kick some Alien butt because the Predators seem so completely outnumbered.
- the sounds in the movie are great with snarling and screaming bouncing off the walls. Great use of surround sound experience.
- Predator actually has a heart … well, the heart of a warrior. You wouldn’t have expected any compassion in these creatures from seeing the first two Predator movies.
- never get stuck in the middle of a 100 year old war between aliens and predators! Never, never, never.
- Was that Weyland Industries dude constantly smoking pot for his cancer(?) condition or what was he doing? (asthma inhaler?) He is spared by the Predator for his weakness and then he gets killed anyway with the ultra lamest line in the movie: “Don’t you turn your back on me!” Yeah … smart.
- this movie isn’t really a horror movie as it is more of a WWF-style action movie; another good reason it wasn’t rated R, I guess. This is further example of Hollywood fascination from the comic book to movie translations.
- there is little to no humor in this movie which may turn off a lot of viewers. Some spots in the plot, particularly the first 45 minutes start to drag. It’s like: get to the good stuff. Freddy vs. Jason suffered from these same story action continuity issues.
- never steal the bad guys weapons … and be sure to train your team how to use a Rubix cube or navigate a maze.
- of course there is a wide opening for a future AVP sequel at the end of the movie. That’s all part of the Hollywood machine.
- I sure hope they don’t make 10 of these movies because it is doubtful that it could look up from here.
- When I was a kid this movie would have been rated R. Boy, how times have changed.

Overall I actually did like this movie. It wasn’t fantastic and it didn’t suck. Perhaps a tiny bit better than Freddy vs. Jason but I’m going to stick with the same grade. I took away points for the slow plot, lack of humor and the fact that there really wasn’t any likeable characters (save for one of the creatures, perhaps). I definitely would like to see some other badass matchups. How about Jason vs. Predator or Freddy vs. Aliens or perhaps a tag team of Jason and Freddy against the Alien and Predator. And then there’s the whole superhero crossovers with: spiderman vs. Hulk, X-Men vs. Aliens … and so on. It’s kind of like the 2004 version of Godzilla vs. ___ yet without the weird subtitling and not set in Japan. This could spawn a whole new trend of movies. Perhaps with the release of Jason vs. Freddy these new vs. movies have already begun. Grade: B-

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