Alien vs Predator

Year of release: 2004

Running time: 101 mins

Certificate: 15

Director: Paul W.S. Anderson

Starring: Sanaa Lathan, Raoul Bova, Lance Henriksen, Ewen Bremner,  Colin Salmon

Putting two popular franchises together into one film was always going to be difficult, and certainly frowned upon when first announced. Such is where we find ourselves with Paul W.S. Anderson’s Alien and Predator mash-up.

That’s not to say this film is bad. It had potential to be better, but fell short of the mark, but it wasn’t awful. The novelty of Alien vs Predator was captured perfectly in this one. A war between the two, or more like a game for the Predators who hunt the Aliens and kill them to prove they are true warriors, now that bit the fans can get with. It’s the whole back story of the relationship between these two powerful creatures that let this film down. It was a bit vague and, to be honest, shoddy.

Put that aside though and the film does deliver some good punches. The one on one fights between the two creatures, though a little stiff in movement sometimes (clearly a guy in the Alien suit at these said times), are thrilling to behold, with the outcome never truly set in stone.

The story telling is reminiscent of these films, in that we are thrown straight into the action (a death in 2 minutes alone), followed by an introduction to the group who will be put through their paces and a slow start before we get to the bloody action. At a breath-taking pace we travel through the gory story and end on a thrilling fight and somewhat of a cliffhanger.

Character wise we have a collection of accents, Scottish, English, American etc, and nothing much else. In fact the introduction of them at the beginning is dry and makes most of them out to be dull and insignificant. The sharing of the discovery of the pyramid is the only thing to spice things up, as it promises some action. In fact, the characters seem so insignificant it becomes difficult to determine whose on whose team, that also going for the Aliens and Predators as well.

The only remaining thing of note is the very Indiana Jones/Lara Croft feel with the temple, which proves to be just as deadly as the creatures it contains. Yet all the hidden traps and moving pieces sometimes take away from some of the horror elements unfortunately. Let’s be honest: the audience is here to see two great baddies fight to the death… another reason why the humans are mostly pushed to the back.

Overall, the Aliens and the Predators mashed up well together. Visually, its stunning. However, it does begin to feel like the humans have no real significance, being pushed aside whilst mummy and daddy fight (fight amongst yourselves about who’s who). These franchises seem to have lost the ability to create great characters in later releases, allowing the monsters to be the real stars. But what these franchises need are some powerful human figures for the audiences to connect with and who can stand up to these monsters at least somewhat, rather than running away pathetically, that is if they want to drive their stories into the realm of lasting memory.

A 6.9 out of 10.

Pompeii

In the past, films based on historical events have raked in the money. So when director Paul W.S. Anderson released Pompeii in 2014, many people flocked to the cinemas to enjoy a spectacle worthy of historical prominence.

And many slated it into the ashes, saying that it is a loveless, poorly acted story, with only one decent actor/actress: the volcano.

Whilst it wasn’t perfect, and the story for the first half of the film lacked some oomph, the acting is a lot better than its given credit for. But without much opportunity to let it shine we are left to feel no particular worry for most of the characters fates when the volcano finally does blow its top. It is obvious that the first half of this film is trying to give you an insight into the kind of people who lived in Pompeii, to make you feel emotionally sad at the loss of their lives. But they didn’t have the chance to blossom as characters, thus not being very relatable at all and just not feeling very real enough to get sad over.

It is a simple story of a nobody/ savage becoming the hero. One that has been done countless times before, but with a bit of a twist at the end… even if the beginning is a bit predictable.

The ending itself seems like it’s drawn out a bit too much, which isn’t necessarily how it happened. And a tidal wave? Who remembers that from their history lessons?

However, there is no denying the sheer beauty of the end with the superb CGI bringing the destructive volcano to life, along with that terrifying tidal wave. The detail alone is breath-taking, and what this film lacks in story is made up for through this beautiful destruction and chaos.

Add to that some pretty royal sounding background music, as well as that battle music at the end, and the film also sounds epic.

Let’s also give credit for the interesting choreography for the stunts in the fight scenes. It can even be deemed clever in the detail paid in making the fights interesting to watch, keeping us entertained through the first half where the story cannot.

The best quotes from the film are:

• ‘Gino’s tit!’ – Severus (Jared Harris)
• ‘Men killing each other is not sport.’ – Cassia (Emily Browning)

Not perfect, but neither deserving of the venom it received from critics, this film is a beautiful master piece visually. With a little work on the first half’s plot this film could have received far more praise, particularly for its visual display.

So a 7.1 out of 10.

Resident Evil: Retribution

Ok guys, yes I have been a bit slack with posting again recently. But please bare with me as I get back into the swing of things! Onwards and upwards!

In 2012 director Paul W.S. Anderson brought us the fifth instalment in the Resident Evil series: Resident Evil: Retribution.

After the battle that leaves Alice (Milla Jovovich) once again unconscious she awakes to find herself in another Umbrella facility, deep underground. When she is mysteriously freed she finds herself teaming up with an old enemy, plus a bunch of new, and old, faces. It becomes a race against time to escape from the facility, with all manner of mutated creatures and hordes of zombies blocking their path.

After the slight wobble with the last film, all of which can be seen in my previous blog post, I went into this film with a little lower expectations, just to be on the safe side. But thankfully this film picks up where it’s predecessor previously fell short. There were less slow motion scenes, the music was used less and there is certainly much more zombie-action!

I did notice that this film relied a little too heavily on stuff from the previous films though… characters, events (through simulations), monsters, hell even the music is mostly from the last film. For the most part it worked, but in places I feel that they could have mixed it up, just to show that they weren’t running low on new ideas! However, I do recognise the need for such a heavy reliance on past material, as the story requires a lot of it.

I also liked the scenes behind the beginning credits. They’re basically scenes that are played a little later on, just played backwards. It made for something a little bit different and interesting.

As ever, the acting was brilliant, the special effects superb and the storyline was definitely clever, full of action, tension and jumpy moments and just an all round roller-coaster of a ride. Seriously, there seems to be no let up. Just when you think things have died down, something comes along almost immediately to ruin the quiet!

Some particular scenes/moments to watch out for are Alice’s dream, which consists of people from her past in an every day, normal life, as well as many shit-your-panties moments; Alice versus a ton of zombies in the white corridor… there is a good use of an empty gun magazine as a weapon as well as some amazing choreography; the ‘spinning wheel of death’ as I have come to call it, which, when thrown, sends a continuous spiral of bullets in every direction… who needs guns right? Then you have the scene where Alice and Ada Wong (Bingbing Li) face off against not just one, but two Executioners (the axemen from the previous film); then the scene where the two girls face Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory) and others from Alice’s past in a good old fashion shoot out; Alice versus the giant Licker… this is actually a very, very quick fight; the bullets coming out of Rain’s (Michelle Rodriguez) fingers; Leon’s (Johann Urb) advances on Ada being instantly turned down (poor Leon haha); and finally the very end scene where we get to see the true extent of the state that the world is in… there are loads of monsters everywhere attacking the fort, being held off by the last of the human race!

And my favourite quotes from the film are:

• *About a gun* ‘It’s just like a camera… point and shoot.’ – Alice
• ‘Hold on. Next stop: Men’s Wear and Sporting Goods.’ – Barry (Kevin Durand)

Overall, it was nice to see this series pick back up again. There are some very nice twists in this one, with a lot of jumpy scenes that take us back to the days of the first film.

So an 8.6 out of 10.

Resident Evil: Afterlife

In 2010 the fourth instalment in the Resident Evil film series, Resident Evil: Afterlife, was brought out by director Paul W.S. Anderson.

This one sees Alice (Milla Jovovich) trying to take out the Umbrella corporation. When this fails, she attempts to meet up with Claire (Ali Larter) and the group at the fabled Arcadia. But when she finds an abandoned air-field in the location where Arcadia is meant to be she realises things are not what they seem. With Claire, who has lost her memory, she flies to the dead city of Los Angeles where she finds another group of survivors hiding out in a prison. Together they will find out what Arcadia really is.

This movie, as ever, was full of great stunts, great acting, good story-telling and brilliant special effects. There are shocking moments as we move forward with the Resident Evil storyline, plus new characters and a few new creatures to get to grips with.

Plus there’s a pretty clever, if unintentional, use of umbrellas in the very beginning scene, which some could argue symbolizes the Umbrella Corporation in general.

And don’t forget the clever cliff-hangar at the end and the extra scene in the credits. Though annoying (as you want to find out what happens next) it reveals a little more about some characters, and raises questions about others.

However, I do have some things that I believe didn’t work so well in this one. For one, the music, in places, was over-used and not necessary, to the point where it made scenes seems cheesy. That’s not me hating the music choice either… I loved the soundtrack for this film… but it needs to be left out in some places. The other thing that annoyed me was the over-use of the slow-motion effect, again making many scenes cheesy.

However, it was still a rather enjoyable film, with some great moments throughout, including Alice’s headshot with a sword (headthrow?); Wesker (Shawn Roberts) purging the first Umbrella base… a bit too purged, just a bit; the shots of Los Angeles in ruin, including the gigantic gathering of the undead around the prison… it’s like a sea of cadavers; the infected with tentacles for mouths that have adapted to live in water (one of the new monsters); Alice on the rooftop with zombies before blowing them up, then jumping off and running through a crowd of them on the street… she’s mad that way; Claire and Alice versus the big monster with the big axe in the shower room… this is a chance for Claire to shine with her own amazing fighting; and finally the final battle against Wesker… with even more incredible stunts.

And my favourite quotes from this movie are:

• ‘Nice landing.’ – Luther (Boris Kodjoe)  ‘I think technically it’s called crashing.’ – Alice
• ‘That’s right! Star power, bitches!’ – Luther

Overall, this was a rather good film, but needed work, or less work as was the case, in quite a few places.

So an 8.2 out of 10.

Resident Evil

Back to zombie films now guys, and we are now going to look at a classic series of zombie movies, the Resident Evil series. The first one, simply entitled Resident Evil, was first brought out in 2002 by director Paul W.S. Anderson.

When the T-Virus escapes in the underground Umbrella facility the building’s control computer, the Red Queen (Michaela Dicker), goes homicidal and kills everyone in the building. 5 hours later, a group is sent down into the facility to deactivate the Red Queen, including a  woman named Alice (Milla Jovovich) who has no memory of what came before this group invading her house. But they will soon encounter the people killed by the computer system… and they aren’t exactly dead anymore.

The story behind this series just gets more grand and epic with each movie. But it’s nice to see where it all started off (in the film adaptations of course). It was a very tense, atmospheric film, with some promises of horror and action. A really fast-paced story, one that if you miss even a second of it could result in you not getting how it all pieces together!

The acting too was superb, with the zombie make-up mostly pretty good for its time. The only thing I can criticise is that with some of the more severe zombie making, like missing noses for instance, it looks like the effect were created through CGI, which doesn’t really work.

That aside, there were many brilliant moments throughout this movie, including the actual attack of the crazed building… this includes deadly gas, over-acting sprinklers and deathly elevators; the scene in the corridor with the death lasers… just ow; our first look at a zombie (like I said, pretty impressive make-up for its time); the zombie carrying an axe, as this is showing us that it was one of the staff killed in the beginning; the elevator full of zombies… poor JD (Pasquale Aleardi) didn’t stand a chance… and it’s another showing of the staff who died in the beginning; the zombie dogs… one of which gets a kick in the face from Alice (nicely done ma’am); the crawl and walk across the pipe with a sea of zombies below… one of those tense scenes I mentioned earlier; and finally the Licker on the train… lots of devastation!

And my favourite quotes from this film are:

• ‘You’re all going to die down here.’ – Red Queen
• ‘Get her off me before I stab her ass!’ – Rain (Michelle Rodriguez)
• ‘You’re going to have to work for your meal!’ – Kaplan (Martin Crewes)
• ‘Back… the f*** off.’ – Spence (James Purefoy)

Overall, this was a brilliant start to a series. A really tense, slightly jumpy in places, film that has made zombie-lovers the world over ooh in delight.

An 8.5 out of 10.