After Prey and Alien: Romulus successfully revitalized both franchises, 20th Century Studios and its Disney overlords are rushing ahead with an aggressive expansion of the two universes, but could they clash again? Now, 20 years after its release, we look at what went right and wrong with AVP: Alien vs. Predator and the (good and bad) lessons learned.
While 20th Century Studios hasn’t outright confirmed (yet) that a new crossover is in the works, it’s looking increasingly likely. A sequel to Alien: Romulus is pretty much locked in and Predator: Badlands is coming in 2025 alongside a new ‘secret’ Predator movie. All this buzz has only ramped up fan theories about putting the two extraterrestrial monsters together again, and even the filmmakers are acknowledging that noise. Both series’ immediate future seems more traditional, but even 20th Century Studios boss Steve Asbell is open to the idea of a reworked AVP smackdown.
AVP and its sequel aren’t well-regarded – and their box office hauls were modest at best – yet their cultural impact can’t be denied. After Alien and Predator comic books became huge at Dark Horse and were merged to great success, spawning some of the best alien video games of all time. So, a big-screen crossover felt like a no-brainer, yet that idea took a while to come together.
Two decades later, most sci-fi horror movie fanatics are still trying to forget about Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, but Paul W. S. Anderson’s original has undergone a bit of a reevaluation over the years. Were we too harsh or is this just nostalgia?
The good: Stylish action, subtle homages, and tons of practical FX
Something that’s immediately noticeable when watching AVP in 2024 is the large amount of practical FX and ambitious sets on display. It’s helped it stand the test of time far better than other sci-fi blockbusters from the early 2000s (remember the Star Wars prequels and The Matrix kickstarted a CGI revolution). Sure, Paul W. S. Anderson wasn’t the most inspired choice to helm the long-in-development event movie, but if we consider how boring and lifeless middle-of-the-road modern blockbusters can be (sorry The Marvels), even a troubled flick like the first Alien vs. Predator looks stylish by comparison.
There’s an artistry – held down by a poor script – to the first AVP that makes it memorable despite all its recurring issues and awkward moments. It only becomes clearer once you give the DVD/Blu-ray bonus features a watch; the Xenomorphs and Yautjas looked pretty good and remained practical in most scenes while being more agile thanks to digital shots at the right moments. The same can’t be said about Requiem, which only had hard-hitting violence and a couple of strong ideas to make up for shoddy directing and dreadful post-production choices.
Additionally, AVP knew how to land cheeky callbacks and visual homages to both big-screen series without resorting to the brand of cheap nostalgia we’ve (sadly) become too accustomed to nowadays. In many cases, such as Charles Weyland playing with his pen like Bishop with a big knife in Aliens, it’s hard to discern if they came from Anderson himself or Shane Salerno (who reportedly co-wrote the shooting script), as they remain brief and Easter egg-y in nature.
Harald Kloser’s original score also felt fitting and distinct without relying too much on what came before it. AVP doesn’t sound like an Alien nor a Predator movie. Sure, you can notice tints of Goldsmith, Horner, and Silvestri across the entire thing, but it’s got its own beats and tone. It’s primal and relentless, and often far spookier than what’s on the screen. Those final moments with the Predator spaceship leaving Earth and that one final surprise wouldn’t land as hard as they do without Kloser’s music, and Brian Tyler’s overly bombastic work on Requiem never quite reached the same heights.
The bad: A half-baked script and awkward pacing
The ‘problem’ with movies is that a notable presentation can only get them so far. Alien vs. Predator objectively suffered from noticeable script problems and a final cut which felt terribly rushed and weightless. Some fans were quick to reject the movie due to these issues and still continue to do so. Whilst we’ve highlighted a decent number of positives worth considering, it’s important to briefly discuss the elements that gave it a bad reputation.
We feel that both the ups and downs of AVP fall on Paul W. S. Anderson’s shoulders. This is because, while Shane Salerno comes up time and again regarding the script conversation, the movie’s final credits don’t include him (he was the sole writer on Requiem though). But, it is to Anderson’s credit that the movie doesn’t waste time developing characters that are clearly cannon fodder, instead giving neat little touches to the main players before all hell breaks loose. That balance, however, goes out of the window the moment the pyramid becomes fully active, the Xenos are released, and the three young Predators begin their messy hunt.
Up to that point, the whole thing kinda makes sense if you embrace the pulpy tone the filmmaker was clearly going for. First and foremost, an AVP movie should be the right kind of silly and fun, and, on that front, Anderson mostly delivers. That said, the internal logic of the puerile premise also starts showing cracks the more the plot advances. Even if we leave eyebrow-raising Aztec lore aside, the Xenomorph life cycle feels oddly fast without a good excuse (Romulus, on the other hand, rushed to explain why). And, even if modern humans hadn’t intervened, the hunt felt ill-fated from the start; that Alien Queen was faaaaaar too easy to reach and unshackle. Unfortunate flashbacks suggest otherwise, but has this rite of passage ever worked out for the Predators?
We won’t even get into how the script burns through the main cast like wildfire in exchange for cheap shock value until it reaches a refreshing human-Predator alliance. It’s a movie that takes a while to get going, and after delivering a strong first encounter between the two lethal species, it begins to rush towards the nearest exit.
When it comes to the jumpiness of the final cut, placing the blame on either the writer-director or Fox (or both) was and still is difficult; trying to separate the bad and good is the more rewarding exercise two decades later, don’t you think?
The legacy: A worse sequel and untapped potential
We might dive deep into Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem at some point in the future (and you can bet we won’t be as kind), but right now we can tell you that it was a textbook example of how not to follow-up on a divisive first movie. As a result, both series almost went dormant had it not been for Robert Rodriguez’s pitch to return to the roots of the Predator series. This lead to the decent-enough Predators and Ridley Scott’s ambitious but ultimately confused Alien prequels.
Those efforts struggled to keep both properties alive, yet somehow they bounced back after a brief respite with Prey and Alien: Romulus. Understandably, conservative fans grimace at the idea of rebooting AVP. However, with the hype surrounding these creatures and their respective universes at the highest it’s ever been since the early days, there’s plenty to gain and little to lose if the right creatives are involved.
For now, 20th Century Studios president Steve Asbell has teased a potential return to the basic AVP concept that will be “organically created out of these two franchises that we’ve continued with characters that we fall in love with and those characters will combine.” Think of what the Marvel Cinematic Universe has achieved or what Star Wars is trying to do with The Mandalorian and its adjacent shows. In that case, a new crossover is still a way off, yet more possible than it was a few months ago.
Getting such a project right would be difficult, especially the daunting task of drawing in casual audiences. A good start would be to follow in the comics and video games’ footsteps. For now, let’s hope the studio can get hit the mark with a few more Alien and Predator projects before thinking this big again. Hey, it has worked out well for Legendary’s MonsterVerse, so it’s not unreasonable to hold out hope.
