Alien Vs Predator First Look

Yesterday we shared with you our first impression of The Day After Tomorrow. What we didn't mention is that the clips were preceded by a rough assemblage of footage from Alien vs Predator. With principal photography only just having wrapped, no digital effects were complete but, taking that into consideration, things appear to be shaping up nicely. The footage began with Lance Henriksen's industrial billionaire instructing his team of scientists and archaeologists as they make ready to enter the uncovered Aztec dig site deep within the Antarctic circle. Ewan Bremner reveals himself as the token comic relief before we see a montage of panning shots of the temple, with nervous scientists exploring the ruins. The team discover a series of bodies with ruptured ribcages and are, in true shock-jump fashion, surprised by the desiccated body of a facehugger. And that's when things get interesting. A quick glimpse of Predator vision heralds the arrival of an intergalactic hunting party as a group of adolescent Predators enter the temple to complete a coming-of-age ritual. Familiar images of people spraying machine gun fire at shadows as the Predators pick them off with spears and net-guns follow as the new arrivals thin the humans' numbers. While a number of Predators were present, the most prominently featured one sported a more intricate, snout-like motif on his mask and boasted a hulking physique to put his brethren in both the previous films to shame - pretty good shape for what is essentially an alien teenager. As people scatter left, right and centre, a pair of hapless souls find themselves locked in an Aztec chamber. "So what is this room?" asks one. "A sacrificial chamber," is her reply. Panels on a stone alter slide away and a series of alien eggs emerge from within, peeling open to reveal the slumbering face huggers beneath. We then cut to a Predator holding the screaming form of an Alien infant, Ewan Bremner cocooned in Alien slime and the emergence of this triple threat match's third contestant. With effects shots still a work in progress, looks at the Aliens were few but we did get to see one locked in combat with a predator before seeing one of the hunters running side--by-side with Sanaa Lathan's character as a building explodes behind them - any one who's read the original Dark Horse Aliens vs Predator comic will see where that is going. The clip finished with an alien of each species staring each other in the face with barely a foot between them before a close-up on the black carapace sees a pair of inner jaws shoot out to stamp the AVP title on the screen. Everything on show was impressive and, if we weren't so cynical, we'd already be booking our tickets. The only problem is, with a combination of two such titanic franchises, something just has to go wrong. Call us pessimists but it would be almost too good to be true if Paul Anderson carried this off without a hitch. Here's hoping though.