When I saw AvP back in the day, I found this movie to be inferior to the Alien franchise. When I rewatched it on Netflix, I was very surprised how this view changed.
I noticed a lot of things that made me change my mind.
First of all - the special effects are not CGI. We have become accustomed to the artificial look of computer generated images, which in my opinion is not a good development. Hands-on special effects had already become perfect in the 80s, at least in most bigger-budgeted films. Especially in creature features, these latex-and-animatronics artists managed to really create horrific scenes that looked real because they ARE real. Just think about masterpieces like "The Thing", "Aliens", or - already quite retro - "Blade II". How can anyone think that basically real creatures could be inferior to CGI? It's a new industry, and it seems it creates its own demand. In AvP, this leads to claustrophobic and really terrifying imagery that is quite underrated today.
Secondly, despite some flaws in dialogue and writing compared to "Aliens", AvP is very much above most of the recent Superhero craze movies. If you watched it, you will clearly notice. There are lots of great ideas and scenes in AvP that would not be done in most movies today.
If you like the Aliens franchise and have never seen AvP - go watch it despite its low rating. You will be surprised how good it actually is.
I noticed a lot of things that made me change my mind.
First of all - the special effects are not CGI. We have become accustomed to the artificial look of computer generated images, which in my opinion is not a good development. Hands-on special effects had already become perfect in the 80s, at least in most bigger-budgeted films. Especially in creature features, these latex-and-animatronics artists managed to really create horrific scenes that looked real because they ARE real. Just think about masterpieces like "The Thing", "Aliens", or - already quite retro - "Blade II". How can anyone think that basically real creatures could be inferior to CGI? It's a new industry, and it seems it creates its own demand. In AvP, this leads to claustrophobic and really terrifying imagery that is quite underrated today.
Secondly, despite some flaws in dialogue and writing compared to "Aliens", AvP is very much above most of the recent Superhero craze movies. If you watched it, you will clearly notice. There are lots of great ideas and scenes in AvP that would not be done in most movies today.
If you like the Aliens franchise and have never seen AvP - go watch it despite its low rating. You will be surprised how good it actually is.