AVP - Alien vs. Predator (DVD)

Probably one of the larger disappointments of the year was the PG-13 rated Alien vs. Predator, and while the rumors of an R-rated DVD edition spread, it just isn't going to happen. While I was left to feel unsatisfied by this film upon its theatrical release there is something about seeing Aliens and Predators in a movie again that gets me giddy.

Set prior to Ridley Scott's Alien, Alien vs. Predator pits two of the most popular sci-fi creatures of all time against one another. As an ancient pyramid is found buried deep under the Antarctic ice a team of scientists soon find themselves in the middle of a battle that has been waged for hundreds of years and doesn't show them much promise for survival.

My beef with this movie was undoubtedly the lack of blood and gore the original franchise films offered plus the atrocious final act that tried extremely hard to create a new Sigourney Weaver and failed miserably as Sanaa Lathan just doesn't hold up.

Nevertheless, watching this movie on DVD has changed my tune to the point where it is a good way to get both the classic creatures on screen and excites you to want to watch the original films even more. Plus, if you listen to the commentary with Paul W.S. Anderson, Lathan and Henriksen you will learn that AVP is not planned to stop at one, or even two for that matter.

The special features are rather limited as they offer up an alternate, or should I say additional, opening that adds a few extra minutes to the beginning of the film, which I could have done with or without. Other than that you get two commentaries, a few deleted scenes, a making-of featurette a Dark Horse comics AVP cover gallery and a bevy of DVD-ROM content including a first edition AVP comic-book, an VP background story and an exclusive preview of the upcoming AVP graphic novel.

Obviously, if you couldn't tell, much of the AVP saga originated in comics and the DVD-ROM content and the gallery on the disc give you a good insight to that. The making-of featurette offers a good look at the special effects and more, but the best of the bunch is definitely the previously mentioned commentary with Anderson, Lathan and Henriksen. These three offer up so much detail on the film and Anderson points out tons of little homages he added as throw backs to the original Alien and Predator films. It is also extremely interesting to hear Anderson talk numbers as he reveals just why the movie was shot in Prague.

For those of you that care about the look of your DVDs on your shelf, as I do, you can be assured that while the Widescreen version offers the Predator on the slipcase and the Fullscreen offers the Alien, that the actual DVD cover offers the opposite of the slip case so you aren't missing anything. Plus another cool feature is that there are various animated menus that show up each time you pop the DVD in the player. I wasn't able to figure out how many, but I did notice two different ones, one for the Aliens and one for the Predators.

As a movie AVP is so-so, but combined with the special features this is a DVD I am happy to recommend to fans of the franchises and this film itself. While it is unfortunate we don't get an R-rated version, that is something we will just have to live with, and I think I can handle it.