| "Alien vs. Predator" on American screens Paul Thomas Anderson's Alien vs. Predator hits theaters today. For the first time, the two sacred monsters of the Fox studio will collide mouth to mouth on wide screens - a battle will begin that people of good will and specific tastes have dreamed of for a very long time: until now, the Alien and the Predator have entered into confrontation in comics and very popular computer games. True, in the second episode of “Predator,” a careful eye could for a split second examine the Alien’s skull in the predatory collection of the space hunter. And now justice has triumphed: the main characters of the new film are not stars of flesh and blood, not Schwarzenegger or Sigourney Weaver, but precisely the alien monsters in the title. By right: Hollywood designers rarely rose to the heights of Predator and Alien in creating their creatures. In Anderson's film (best known for the film adaptations of the computer games "Mortal Kombat" and "Resident Evil", as well as significant failures like "Soldier" with Kurt Russell), there are quite deliberately no famous actors: the most popular actors in the cast turned out to be Evan Bremner ("Trainspotting") ", "Black Hawk Down") and Lance Henriksen - he, by the way, is the only link between the new film and the classic films: he plays a scientist, in whose image and likeness the android Bishop from the previous "Aliens" will be created. Henriksen's hero leads an expedition to Antarctica, whose members find themselves hostage to the alien "Zarnitsa": in a huge pyramid, young Predators train on even younger, newly hatched Aliens in hunting skills. And as the film’s advertising slogan says, “whoever wins this fight, humanity will lose.”
The yet-to-be-released film has caused controversy among fans. The main concern expressed during online conferences is the assignment of a PG-13 age rating to the film (“children under 13 years of age accompanied by parents”), despite the fact that all four episodes of Alien and both Predators were released under a much stricter rated R. Fans of both monsters rightly believe that the completely liberal and automatically increasing audience rating indicates the concessions that Anderson made for the sake of the upcoming box office. And therefore, there is no need to expect pierced chests, severed heads and flayed bodies swinging on hooks (in general, everything that gave Aliens and Predators their bloodthirsty charisma). Many are also alarmed by the message leaked on the Internet about the length of the film - less than an hour and a half - which also, perhaps, does not imply focusing on cannibalistic details. There is even a petition that has appeared on the Internet, in which the Fox studio is required to restore violated justice and give the fans as much guts and blood as they deserve. Otherwise, anything can happen: some film fans promise to boycott not only the film itself, but also all the works of Paul Thomas Anderson, as well as the upcoming projects of the Fox studio. As for the director, direct threats are made against him at conferences, from which one of the fans makes a disappointing conclusion: “If you, Anderson, ruin this movie, someone will definitely kill you. People have been waiting for this film for 20 years.”
This is the honest truth: if the film really isn't good enough, a lot of people will be upset. But in any case, “Alien vs. Predator” remains a highly anticipated project - and not only in America. Compared to overseas moviegoers, who had the opportunity to see all six previous films with the participation of their favorite monsters on the widest screens, the situation here is far from so bright: of the six films, only “Aliens” and the second “ Predator" (and this happened in the early nineties, before the advent of the era of properly equipped cinemas, Dolby surround and all the other joys familiar today), and in the latest film history - only "Alien: Resurrection", which, whatever one may say, seems to be a by-product and completely apocryphal. And going to see Anderson’s film for domestic fans of these film myths means not just getting acquainted with the new product (the Russian premiere is scheduled for mid-October), but also getting the long-awaited opportunity to watch the creatures dear to the heart as they should. Likewise, more recently, those whose youth was in the late eighties went to see Freddy vs. Jason primarily to experience the sensations they were deprived of in the absence of the wide-screen projection of A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th " At first you just have to admire, and the inevitable questions will come later. In less than an hour and a half. Stanislav F. ROSTOTSKY |
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