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Alien vs. Predator

Play trailer Poster for Alien vs. Predator PG-13 2004 1h 40m Sci-Fi Horror Action Adventure Play Trailer Watchlist
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21% Tomatometer 146 Reviews 39% Popcornmeter 250,000+ Ratings
When the wealthy and ambitious Charles Bishop Weyland (Lance Henriksen) funds an expedition to Antarctica, he hopes to find a mysterious source of heat that has been detected. Led by a tough guide, Alexa Woods (Sanaa Lathan), Weyland and his team uncover a pyramid, but they also find malevolent parasitic aliens. Making matters worse, another extraterrestrial species, known as Predators, arrive to hunt the other aliens, with the humans caught in the middle of the conflict.
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Alien vs. Predator

Alien vs. Predator

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Critics Consensus

Gore without scares and cardboard cut-out characters make this clash of the monsters a dull sit.

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Critics Reviews

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Jessica Winter Time Out The title alone betrays an entire Hollywood mindset of rehash, reheat, recombine. Re-please. Jun 24, 2006 Full Review Empire Magazine Sadly devoid of any real thrills. Rated: 2/5 Apr 1, 2006 Full Review Nick Schager Lessons of Darkness Unsurprisingly mediocre. Rated: C May 3, 2005 Full Review Adrian Martin Film Critic: Adrian Martin Any aura of artistic quality that may have once surrounded the original films has well and truly vanished; director Paul W. S. Anderson follows the Roger Corman style: keep it fast, dark and full of gratuitous shocks. Rated: 2.5/5 Jul 30, 2025 Full Review Alan French Sunshine State Cineplex While Paul W.S. Anderson arrived with blockbuster experience in his background, Alien vs. Predator quickly felt outside his comfort zone. The resulting flick has moments of joy, but feels like a lesser entry for both franchises. Rated: 3/10 Aug 16, 2024 Full Review Casey Chong Casey's Movie Mania It was mindless fun watching the two iconic monsters fighting against each other but the problem is, the movie spends considerable time focusing on the human characters. Rated: 2/5 Aug 15, 2024 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Ash P Lemme share y'all a little story before we get to this review. When I was a young'in, me and my mother would debate who is better when this movie was around the corner. I chose Alien. My mother chose Predator. We've seen this in theaters, and we had a good time today. A few times before seeing this movie for the month of October as I decided to add this to the list before Predator: Badlands since I didn't add these last year when I was watching all of the Alien movies leading up to Romulus. I figured, why not? Just a head's up, there will be some spoilers. You have been warned. First of all, it's interesting when trying to have both Alien and Predator universes having a crossover. I found this crossover to be pretty cool since Freddy vs. Jason. Sure, this movie has problems, yet it has its moments. As for this story, it's silly on its own. A satellite picked up a heat signature beneath Bouvetoya, an island that is off the coast of Antarctica. That caught the attention of Charles Bishop Weyland, played by Lance Henriksen, and puts together an investigation team that consists of archaeologists, linguists, mercenaries and a mountaineering guide, Alexa "Lex" Woods, played by Sanaa Lathan. They investigate below to see a pyramid present. Therefore, they investigate further, only to find out that there is more to the pyramid than they were hoping for. Even for Weyland to claim this discovery in his own name and company, especially when he is terminally ill. As they go deeper into the temple, an Alien Queen has been awakened from a cryostasis, birthing some more eggs which allowed Facehuggers breed Chestbursters that grew up in a rapid state that it would make diehard Alien fans question why the growth process was tampered with and whatnot. Then you have a trio of Predators who were observing what the excavation team were doing in their ship before they went to the temple to fight off the xenomorphs who grew up quick while the humans get killed off one-by-one. I mean, we don't learn much about them, unfortunately. Though I admit, them exploring the temple and discovering why it's here is pretty cool. Sure, it would feel like some odd logic from one of the Stargate movies in the 90s, yet I love where they were going in order to have both the Alien and the Predator universes correspond with one another. I would say the effects are amazing. The pyramid is practically set up as the main setting of the movie. The Predator costumes are practical. The xenomorphs were done by animatronics and puppetry, especially for the Alien Queen. The time CGI was used in this movie were some of the weapons, the cloaking effect, electricity to awaken the Alien Queen, and some enchantments to the live-action shots. I'm guilty of saying that the final fight between Lex and the surviving Predator against the remaining xenomorphs was pretty cool, despite not much from Lex. Still, the final moments of this movie did pick up when both sides of the spectrum shot up. Some of the action shots are cool, yet some of them do get awkward. Not to mention that this movie is PG-13 as to why some of the kills were off camera. Mainly the humans being PG-13'd to death except for the alien actors. You see the gore happening with both the xenomorphs and the Predators. At least it makes up for seeing the humans wither being killed off or being cannon fodder for breeding purposes. And I'll be fair, the only humans that I liked out of this were Lex, Weyland, and Sabastian, played by Raoul Bova, for surviving longer than the rest of the excavation crew. Is it perfect? No. Do I think this is a terrible movie? Absolutely not. We're not even at the sequel of this yet. It might as well be the rose-colored glasses to make me say it, but I still have a good time with it. Alien vs. Predator is just as much of a guilty pleasure as any other I have on the list. It's more or less worth checking out whether you're an Alien fan, a Predator fan, a science fiction fan, or you're just looking for something to pass the time. As for the Alien vs. Predator movie goes for me, I'm giving this movie six iconic shot between Alien and Predator out of ten. 6/10. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 10/21/25 Full Review William W For Alien and Predator franchise fans it’s a pretty cool crossover with a whole lot of actions and convincing visual effects. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 10/11/25 Full Review Mark F AVP deserves more love. Overall it's a decent movie that IMO sits around the middle of the list of Alien/Predator installments - nowhere near the best, but far from the worst. One thing Paul W. S. Anderson is good at is production design and this has lots of nice touches that tie it into both the Alien and Predator cinematic universe(s). In terms of story it's on the silly side but the idea for how to create an arena for the beasties to face off isn't completely terrible. The biggest problem I have with it is that the aliens' gestation and growth timescale is ridiculously accelerated in order for the movie to work (us sci-fi fans are happy to suspend our disbelief but you'd better not mess with the lore ha ha). Then there's the team up between the protagonist and the Predator, which also takes the movie into silly territory. Other than that it's entertaining and the characters, while pretty much there to be killed off, are at least never dumb (unlike those in more recent Alien franchise efforts). They actually seem to know their jobs, they're just completely unprepared to face aliens and predators, which makes perfect sense. As for the whole point of the movie (aliens and predators fighting) it delivers, although there could have been more. No complaints with the money shot though, when the alien and predator come face to face (literally) it's the moment that makes the whole movie worthwhile. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 10/11/25 Full Review Chris J Great film, The alien vs predator fight scenes are possibly the best fight scenes in movie history! Rated 5 out of 5 stars 10/10/25 Full Review Jasmine W. it was what the title said although did enjoy some parts of it action scenes were somewhat great. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 10/08/25 Full Review Andrew Terrible plot but really good action Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 10/06/25 Full Review Read all reviews
Alien vs. Predator

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Movie Info

Synopsis When the wealthy and ambitious Charles Bishop Weyland (Lance Henriksen) funds an expedition to Antarctica, he hopes to find a mysterious source of heat that has been detected. Led by a tough guide, Alexa Woods (Sanaa Lathan), Weyland and his team uncover a pyramid, but they also find malevolent parasitic aliens. Making matters worse, another extraterrestrial species, known as Predators, arrive to hunt the other aliens, with the humans caught in the middle of the conflict.
Director
Paul W.S. Anderson
Producer
John Davis, Lawrence Gordon, Walter Hill, Gordon Carroll, David Giler
Screenwriter
Dan O'Bannon, Ronald Shusett, Paul W.S. Anderson
Distributor
20th Century Fox
Production Co
Kut Films, Davis Entertainment
Rating
PG-13 (Language|Horror Images|Slime and Gore|Violence)
Genre
Sci-Fi, Horror, Action, Adventure
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Aug 12, 2004, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
May 11, 2014
Box Office (Gross USA)
$80.3M
Runtime
1h 40m
Sound Mix
Dolby SR, DTS, Surround
Aspect Ratio
Scope (2.35:1)
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