Alien Vs. Predator

After gestating in the movie rumor mill since before the internet, Alien Vs. Predator bowed as sheepishly as possible last year: opening in the late-August wasteland, starring a cast of nobodies, helmed by a director best known for adding more and more initials to his byline to differentiate himself from the director of Boogie Nights. In other words, AVP finally got made as a B movie that, according to Paul W.S. Anderson (on the DVD commentary track), cost less than Alien 3 -- so much less that the actors had to share three torch lights and, when the hydraulic queen alien's inner jaws punched through her teeth, production designers had to paw around on the floor for every translucent fang.

In all honesty though, Anderson got an awful lot of bang for his buck, mostly with a seamless blend of CGI and prop work. If nothing else, AVP harkens back to that wonderful pre-Terminator 2 time in sci-fi action when men in rubber suits and ferocious puppets stalked hardbodies in the dark. Two have tried, but no one will ever match the survivalist space operatics James Cameron crafted in Aliens and any monster mash-up is just a fanboy fantasy. Anderson makes cheesy, atmospheric creature features, plain and simple, and AVP is tauter than most, an extremely well-designed production, an overachiever.

AVP gives the geeks exactly what they want: aliens and predators dicing up humans and each other for recreation. The DVD isn't quite geeky enough though. Anderson's commentary track with actors Sanaa Lathan (the mountain climber who bonds with a Predator) and Lance Henrikson (the greatest genre actor this side of Bruce Campbell) is mostly a congratulatory affair that gets funnier as Lathan, anxious to close this chapter of her career, snaps at the other two and frets about leaving in time to attend a premiere. The special effects team espouse plenty of technobabble on their commentary track but ultimately they just point out what's a prop and what's CGI for two hours. There's one hilariously macabre deleted scene and a few totally disposable ones, including an alternate beginning best left on the cutting room floor.

Though also too skimpy, the DVD-ROM materials reach out to fans better with the complete first issue of the AVP comic and a preview of an upcoming AVP graphic novel but, oddly, the new two-disc Predator 2 features a lot more extras. And a much worse movie. -- Joey Tayler