Celebratory Retrospective Review and Legacy of the Classic "Alien vs. Predator" Film on its 20th Anniversary

In 1979, 20th Century Fox released the sci-fi horror film Alien, directed by Ridley Scott, to theatres and became an instant classic in cinema history, and it was quickly followed in 1986 by an equally successful sequel, Aliens directed by James Cameron, and the following year in 1987 would be released a related film of equal success, Predator directed by John McTiernan. This would turn out to be important groundwork that had just been laid for one of the earliest cinematic universes, because in 1989, Dark Horse Comics officially published the highly acclaimed Aliens vs. Predator, the first among many crossover comics between the Alien and Predator franchises, sparking the larger Xenoverse or AVP franchise.

The concept would carry over to the cinematic realm in the iconic film Predator 2 (1990) with the tease of a Xenomorph skull prominently featured at the end of the film in the trophy room, with the director Stephen Hopkins commenting on it saying this was meant to imply the two species have actually crossed paths and that Xenopredators likes to hunt Xenomorphs. Ever since the comics and that film, the demand among fans to bring the crossover concept to life on the big screen in a full-length feature film had greatly increased, and the studio behind the films had taken note and was initially considering a script draft by Peter Briggs titled The Hunt: Alien vs. Predator (1991).

However, those plans would be postponed, and Briggs' script would be rejected. But eventually, in 2004, the first feature film centered around the crossover event was realized with AVP - Alien vs. Predator directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. The film would go on to divide audiences on its quality, either with some people expressing great love and admiration for it, while others expressed critique or even despised it. As for me personally, this was one of my first introductions to the Xenoverse, and I very much found the movie to be an enjoyable and memorable experience which motivated me to delve deep into the Alien and Predator world through all the media that had come before.

Although there are for sure valid critiques that could be raised against the film, that positive opinion seemed to be shared by most people in my personal circle, friends and family alike, and I was happy to see the film still received a great following online through international communities despite all the hate that came from some corners of the fanbase. It provided all the essential aspects of lore from the previous films while adding new exciting lore to the fold, even borrowing some concepts from the original comic series by Dark Horse Comics, and featuring certain direct tie-ins to the Alien movies set in the far future, such as Charles Bishop Weyland played by Lance Henriksen, being the founder of Weyland Industries and the original founder of Weyland Corporation (prior to his son Peter taking over and reshaping it in his image) as well as the face of the Bishop androids.

On this topic, director Paul Anderson stated in an interview with IGN; "The role was written for him. I wanted some casting continuity with the Alien franchise even though it is set 100 years after our movie. The only person that could be was Lance. He, of course, was an android in the other movies. That was the idea behind that. I thought it was kind of a neat idea … I wanted to use the Weyland-Yutani Corporation in some respect. So the idea is that Charles Bishop Weyland is like Bill Gates, but his area of expertise is robotics. He's made his money in high tech and he's like the father of modern robotics. So that when the Bishop android is created in 150 years time, it's created with the face of the creator. It's kind of like Microsoft building an android in 100 years time that has the face of Bill Gates. The idea with Weyland is that his character is a man who is dying and like a lot of rich men who are facing the end, they realize that money and power aren't enough. What they want to do is leave something behind. So it's kind of like his longing for immortality that precipitates a lot of the events in this film, but also explains why his corporation would build something with his face."

During the same interview, while asked about whether the new film would implement any changes to the Alien and Predator mythology, Anderson stated; "I wouldn't f**king dream of that, no. That's beyond me. The movie is designed to be a sequel to the Predator movies and a prequel to the Alien movies. In no way does it contradict or go against anything in the Alien franchise. We've been very careful about that. It's set in the present day and on Earth, so it's like 150 years before Sigourney Weaver's out in space. It really makes sense. When you see this movie and then those movies, well I understand why she was completely ignorant of the existence of Aliens, but the Weyland-Yutani people did have an awareness of them. In that respect, there is a mythology to it (and there is a lot of mythology in the movie), but it is more related to Earth history rather than the history of Aliens and Predators. I'm not trying to explain away their genesis or anything like that. The idea is very much inspired by something Ron Cobb did for the very first Alien movie. I don't know if any of you have the original Alien book (which was done ages ago), but it had some original artwork from Alien for the pyramid that was never built ... Ron Cobb did some really cool designs, which were hieroglyphics showing the eggs … and that was very much an inspiration for this movie. It was a strand of Alien mythology that existed already but that never made it in Ridley Scott's movie."

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Thankfully, it seems the passing of time won over a lot of its former critics and haters who grew to appreciate it more after giving it a second chance later on. Even James Cameron, the director of Aliens (1986), considered the film his third favourite Alien movie. Ridley Scott never bothered to watch it, considering it a silly concept, even though he would essentially go on to repeat the same formula in his follow-up film Prometheus (2012), and the same could be said with regards to each of their respective sequels, albeit it to a debatably lesser quality.

Scott's new film would even carry over certain elements introduced by the crossover films or hint to things relating to the events of that film with regards to the inclusion of Weyland Industries and the content on its in-universe promotional website. The subsequent films Predators (2010) and The Predator (2018) also featured various aspects of the crossover films, and their respective directors Nimród Antal and Shane Black expressed their admiration of the crossover films and interest in producing follow-ups and including more of those aspects into sequels to their standalone films.

The success of the first crossover film would quickly greenlight the release of the 2007 sequel AVPR - Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem directed the Brothers Strause, receiving a similar degree of conflicting, controversial, and critical opinions, with people saying it either fixed some issues or made other issues worse, but which over time has also received greater acceptance and admiration among the more critical portions of the fanbase, and rightfully so in my opinion.

These controversial successes would only increase the expansion of the franchise, with many to this day expecting and demanding the release of an AVP3 film, and such plans were indeed under development afterwards, initially with the Brothers Strause expressing interest in returning to the director's seat and Liam O'Donnell writing an early script treatment for the film, only to be postponed indefinitely, leaving us fans still waiting to this day for what many of us view as essentially inevitable.

The film would go on to spawn masses of merchandise and additional expanded universe materials in various media forms which has continued for two decades, leaving an unmistakable mark on the franchise, as well as the fanbase as demonstrated through the stellar fan-driven news site AVPGalaxy, which was a major source of information and inspiration for me personally during my younger years growing up with the AVP and AVPR films and simply enjoying all the Alien and Predator content available at the time while eagerly looking forward to whatever would come next. I definitely appreciated the 2008 DVD box set Alien/Predator - Total Destruction: The Ultimate DVD Collection and the 2011 Blu-ray box set Alien/AVP/Predator - The Ultimate Annihilation: Nine Movie Collection, including all Xenoverse movies released between 1979 and 2010, to prepare for the release of Prometheus which was the first Xenoverse film I had the pleasure of experiencing at the theatre.

We would receive a sequel in video game form, however, in terms of the popular Aliens vs. Predator (2010) developed by Rebellion and SEGA, which simultaneously served as the newest game in their own successful series of reputable products, starting with Aliens vs. Predator (1999), and continuing with Aliens vs. Predator 2 (2001), the latter's expansion pack Aliens vs. Predator 2: Primal Hunt (2002), and Aliens vs. Predator: Extinction (2003). They would even develop Predator: Concrete Jungle (2005) and the PSP adapted Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007), both inspired by the crossover films.

The influence of the crossover films and associated materials would be reflected in that aspects or themes were featured in various other projects, such as the video games Aliens: Colonial Marines (2013) by Gearbox Software, Alien: Isolation (2014) by Creative Assembly, Aliens vs. Pinball (2016) by Zen Studios, Predator: Hunting Grounds (2020) by IllFonic, the guide book Alien: The Weyland-Yutani Report (2014) by Insight Editions, the table-top game Alien: The Roleplaying Game (2019) by Free League Publishing, and the novel Alien: Uncivil War (2024) by Titan Books.

The franchise would also be further expanded upon with the comic books Alien vs. Predator: Thrill of the Hunt (2004), Alien vs. Predator: Whoever Wins...We Lose (2005), Alien vs. Predator: Sand Trap (2007), Aliens vs. Predator: Deadspace (2008), Alien vs. Predator: Civilized Beasts (2008), Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War (2010), Fire and Stone (2014-2015) and Life and Death (2016-2017) by Dark Horse Comics, as well as The Rage War trilogy novels Predator: Incursion (2015), Alien: Invasion (2016), and Alien vs. Predator: Armageddon (2016) by Titan Books, the boardgames AVP: The Hunt Begins (2015), AVP: Unleashed (2017), and AVP: Hot Landing Zone (2019) by Prodos Games, and the app game AVP: Evolution (2013) by Angry Mob Games.

In 2016, Titans Vinyl Figures would release their batch of AVP: Whoever Wins Collection figures based on the crossover films. Between 2016-2018, Eaglemoss would also release their extensive Alien and Predator Figurine Collection featuring characters and merchandise based on all the movies of the Xenoverse, between 1979 and 2018, while Loot Crate released the short film Predator vs. Colonial Marines (2016). Also in 2020, NECA also released the Predator 2 - 30th Anniversary Ultimate Predator action figures promoting aspects of this crossover.

In 2014, Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights featured mazes based on the Xenoverse, and since 2015, a major theme park attraction based on the Xenoverse, named AVP: Descent Into Darkness, was being constructed and planned to open in Malaysia, only to be regrettably cancelled by 2022. (See; AvP: Descent Into Darkness – The Cancelled Malaysia Rides & Land)

Dark Horse Comics would eventually publish their last crossover comic with the aptly titled Alien vs. Predator: Thicker Than Blood (2019) before they were stripped of the rights to the franchise which were later given to Marvel Comics, which has yet to publish another crossover comic but did strongly indicate this was bound to happen and praised all the crossover products and the 2004 film that came before.

In addition, after years of fans longing for Titan Books to produce a crossover anthology novel in the spirit of Aliens: Bug Hunt (2017) and Predator: If It Bleeds (2017), one was finally released with Aliens vs. Predators: Ultimate Hunt (2022), which was followed two others, Aliens vs. Predators: Rift War (2022) and Predator: Eyes of the Demon (2022).

 

Given the success of films like Prey (2022) and Alien: Romulus (2024), the hype around a potential third crossover film has also increased in the media and fandom forums, and hopefully this is something we can hope to begin seeing realized as we pass into the new year. It would be one of my biggest nostalgia experiences of all time, and one among few movies I would be very excited about and eager to watch in theatres! It's definitely long overdue by now...