NONE of the ALIEN movies were these epic in terms of concept. At it's best it delivers on atmosphere and tension. What's there to actually "get" in AVP-R or any ALIEN or Predator film? No one ALIEN movie is more complicated than the other. It's all in the execution. You can have Ridley Scott tell you the story or you can have Paul Anderson tell you the story.
Huh?
Wait, you're saying you didn't get all the sexual undertones of Alien?
You didn't delve into the critique of the Vietnam war in Aliens?
The religious themes in A3 didn't give you pause to think?
You didn't follow the questioning on what it is that makes us human in A:R?
And, to add to the discussion. I just watched AvP again last night.
And you know what?
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I was never a hater of the movie, but I hadn't seen it in a while.
Here's a few things AvP has (IMHO) that AvP-R doesn't:
Pathos: Charles Bishop Weyland is a great character. How he faces his own mortality and desperately seeks a way of attaining a kind of immortality by being remembered for something more than just making money is, to me at least, poignant. His little speech "do you think that is the last thing he remembered" is great, as is his infuriated "don't you turn your back at me" line to Scar. That is actually great writing and acting. Gives a lot of depth to the character.
Cinematography: you can say what you like, but Anderson knows how to make something look great. The way the mazes work, the lights bouncing off reflective surfaces or being sucked up by the darkness, the pacing of the film. It's very well done.
Characters: they may not be as well written or directed as the characters in the previous movies (and some are better than some of the stuff we got in A:R), but you understand their motivations, which are more complex than just "there's monsters, let's get the ^^^^ out of here". There is a very human side to characters like Verheiden and Miller, how their roles reverse as the situation and horror unfold. Again, Weyland is a complex character, and beyond the pathos he brings, he still is a ^^^^ who really just wants to be remembered and sacrifices everybody for that goal.
I'm still on the fence about getting AvP-R, at first I thought it really wasn't worth it. Now I'm thinking I'll wait for it to be on sale.
