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What did the critics misunderstand about AvP? Certainly, it wasn’t their assessment of the movie’s construction, which suffers from the same poor storytelling and flat characters in every other Paul W.S. Anderson movie, further hobbled by a PG-13 rating. Nor was its reverence for the original films, as the crossover sequel’s use of thermal vision and chestbursters gave audiences what they wanted, but little of the ingenuity or terror those same devices employed decades earlier.
No, what the critics failed to understand was the rise of fan culture in the early 2000s: audiences who placed fidelity to their preferred interpretations of characters or “universes” over aesthetic concerns. And it’s that very fan culture, now dominant in Hollywood, which is why the time is right for a new Alien vs. Predator movie.
Hunting For Hits
Despite the promises of the match-up, the Alien and Predator franchises weren’t on the same footing, at least not in 2004. At that point, Predator had just two big screen entries, one of which came from Stephen Hopkins, right off of A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child. 1987’s Predator fares much better, thanks to the great Stan Winston effects and perfect direction from John McTiernan, but it is fundamentally a genre riff. The themes of American exceptionalism and toxic masculinity are secondary to its portrayal of musclebound dudes who face off against an unstoppable opponent. It’s the most salacious selling point of The Most Dangerous Game streamlined for the Reagan Years and post-The Terminator.
Alien, on the other hand, garnered far more respect. Thanks to Ridley Scott’s direction, a killer idea from writer Dan O’Bannon, and a steady hand on the production from Walter Hill, Alien transcended its “haunted house in space” premise to become a classic about blue-collar resilience and male fears of impregnation and bodily violation. Each of the three successive films also boasted auteurs behind the camera, including James Cameron and David Fincher (even if the latter disowned Alien 3). Alien: Resurrection may be a hot mess, but at least it’s an interesting mess thanks to the involvement of French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
In other words, Alien vs. Predator diminished Alien in the eyes of many, bringing the better franchise down to Predator’s trashy level.
Today, the two franchises are on more equal footing. Yes, Ridley Scott returned to Alien after Resurrection to make Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, two movies rich in theme and ambition, even if they have a checkered reception. Yet for all his significant strengths as a filmmaker, Alien: Romulus director Fede Alvarez specializes in gross-out shocks more than he does thematic depth. And with Disney already putting a Noah Hawley-directed spin-off show on Hulu, it’s clear that Alien doesn’t have the same prestige it once enjoyed.
