Today I finally saw AvP: R, the long-awaited sequel to Paul W.S. Anderson's AvP. I must say, by the end of the film I felt quite many things - boredom, shock, confusion, and irritation. I knew that it wasn't going to be a masterpiece such as Aliens, for instance - and I was prepared for that -, but what I saw made me wonder how on earth could they end up making a movie this horrible. AvP has generally been considered bad, but I think most of us have to admit, compared to Requiem, AvP is a masterpiece. In the following paragraphs I will tell you the main reasons why I think AvP: R sucks.

There is no character development. We just follow a bunch of random people who are scared and getting killed in the most ridiculous ways. The death of a person is supposed to be a tragic thing, but when watching AvP: R, I just didn't feel like I care at all. They were almost like an anonymous cattle of animals being slaughtered, without giving us a chance to get to know them and try to relate. Yeah, maybe you're supposed to relate to some random high school dude drooling over a hot babe who is going out with the biggest bully of the school. Or the wannabe-Ripley woman who has just got back from Iraq and whose daughter prefers her daddy to read her a bedtime story. But these moments are so random and so superficial, and just leave you wondering why they even showed you this.

I mentioned that the leading woman resembles Ripley. She does - the tough female leader-yet-feminine type with a little girl as her responsibility. It's the Ripley theme used all over again, complete with the little girl asking about monsters at the end of the film. In fact, I'm sure a lot of you noticed the number of scenes in this film that resembled those in Aliens, and as if that wasn't enough, the music in such scenes was identical to the music used in the very same scenes in Aliens! This shocked me the most. It's bad enough if you make a film where everything is so random and there is no rhythm that can be followed, but making a film where you copy scenes from the best Alien film because you're not able to come up with something good on your own? Dear god.

Also, what's with the constant darkness and the fact that none of the fight scenes can be followed properly? It almost feels as if they're hiding something. As if they don't want us to see the aliens decently. Mostly all you see is only a part of some alien, and most often it's in the darkness, and in some blurred motion with the creature sighting being over before you could get a decent look at it. Sure, the previous films haven't really shown the aliens very much either, but they get away with it successfully due to proper lighting and appropriate angles.

In relation to that, it gets a bit annoying how halfway into the film and even longer, no one has a clue of what or who has been killing those people. They're absolutely clueless and act in most irrational ways. And the sad part is that the viewer still doesn't care about their fate. Well at least I didn't - and I'm usually quite an emotional viewer, tears and all.

All in all, so far I've considered myself quite easily entertained when it comes to aliens and predators. I love Alien Resurrection, I even enjoy watching AvP. AvP: R, however, is just too much. But hey, I'm sure in a few years someone else will try again with their own vision, to make an Alien vs Predator film that will top them all. And again we'll be there to assess the result, as good or bad as it may be. For now, I don't have much hope for a glorious future for AvP, but then again, who knows? Miracles can happen.