TV Times

TV Times

Sci-Fi monsters battle for supremacy
By Harinda Vidanage
One of the most anticipated movies of the year which features two characters which sci-fi and demon fans love to watch, come together in one final face off in a great sci fi epic released recently. The movie maintains the iconic title Alien Vs Predator. Bringing this movie to screen has been an almost decade long journey. Twentieth Century Fox considered various storylines until writer, director Paul W.S. Anderson came to the studio with the idea of setting the story on Earth, in contemporary times. The story would take place between the events of “Predator” and “Alien.”

The story line features an incredible and horrific adventure begins when billionaire industrialist Charles Bishop Weyland gathers an international team of archaeologists, scientists and security experts, led by environmentalist and adventurer Alexa “Lex” Woods (SANAA LATHAN ), to investigate a mysterious “heat bloom” emanating from deep under Antarctica. “Alien” film fans will recognize the character’s middle and last names: “Weyland” derives from the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, the multi-national conglomerate that sent the Nostromo on its ill-fated voyage to retrieve the Alien in the first film; and “Bishop” is the name of the android played by Henriksen in the second and third Alien installments.

What this team witness 2000 feet below the frozen surface at first excites, and then terrifies them. They discover a pyramid bearing a mixture of Aztec, Egyptian and Cambodian cultures. Inside the pyramid they find a matrix of chambers so technologically advanced that it becomes obvious that an extraterrestrial influence has been at work there for thousands of years. The chamber walls reconfigure unexpectedly, trapping members of the team and cutting them off from their colleagues. Moving from chamber to chamber, the horrific truth finally reveals itself: Predators have been keeping alive a captive Alien Queen who lays eggs at 100 year intervals. Young Predators warriors are tested by fighting the Alien offspring.

The team stumbles into the middle of an incredible rite of passage and a war between Aliens and Predators. The movie also British actor Ewen Bremner as Graeme Miller, a chemical engineer who is brought onto the team to calculate the age of the ancient structures. Previously, Bremner played a wayward pilot in “The Rundown,” and co-starred in “Black Hawk Down” and “Trainspotting.” The supporting cast includes Colin Salmon, who appeared in “Resident Evil” and the James Bond film “Die Another Day,” Carsten Norgaard, Joseph Rye, Agathe de la Boulaye, Tommy Flanagan and Sam Troughton.

Putting humans in the middle of the maelstrom really ups the stakes in an Alien/Predator battle,” says AVP producer John Davis. “Over the years, I had heard story pitches from over 40 writers, until Paul approached us with his take. His story really drew us in.” According to Davis, it was essential to have a director who was plugged into the worlds of both the Aliens and Predators, and no one knew the films better than Anderson. Davis also produced the recent films “I, Robot,” starring Will Smith, for Fox; “Garfield” for Fox, based on the beloved comic strip character, in a live-action/CGI adventure starring Breckin Meyer and Jennifer Love Hewitt; and the John Woo action film “Paycheck” starring Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman; “First Daughter” starring Katie Holmes for Regency/Fox. “In addition to being a talented filmmaker, Paul is the ultimate Alien and Predator fan,” says the producer. “He’s seen the original ‘Alien’ and ‘Predator’ hundreds of times, and he can recite virtually every scene by memory. The way to make an exciting movie is to begin with a director who’s passionate about the material and has to do it. Paul had to make ALIEN VS. PREDATOR.”

Academy Award-winning Special Effects Artists Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, JR. have created some of the most memorable effects ever seen on the big screen. They are responsible for making Meryl Streep’s head turn backwards in “Death Becomes Her,” fabricating Tim Allen’s plump belly in “The Santa Clause,” creating the enormous bugs in “Starship Troopers,” fashioning John Travolta’s giant angel wings in “Michael,” and designing and modifying the changing looks of the Alien in the four “Alien” movies.

The movie keeps the fans waiting like in all other Alien movies and even in the Predator movie for the creatures to enter the scene. This method was hugely successful in all the previous movies. Thus with mind boggling special effects uniquely made out of models created by the above duo with CGI only contributing to 30 percent of the effects. Definitely a hit in this year and a must for all sci-fi fans.

Top