I like the idea that it’s Europe on the U.S. The reasons behind it getting stuck in the middle are complicated enough, too, so I bet there are at least a few correlations between, say, the manner and ethnicity of each of the killed characters and who matters in the big currency wars. Though the movie’s badness probably damages it, unless the scenes like the end, where the young black woman (isn’t she American in the movie too, not European or African?) outruns the huge Alien Queen, are meant to symbolize how postmodern the civil ‘war’ is in the U.S.

However, there is the small problem that there is a major difference between the candidates, Europe-wise. That is, between America as Empire or Republic. AVP doesn’t answer that big question, except perhaps in the Predator’s race-blind honor code that shows a system to all of the (in our eyes) senseless human murders. But then they make the Aliens out to be like cornered mothers in nature instead of some pure evil entity, etc. They just wanna survive and breed, like any other animal. So that line’s unclear.

Christopher Lydon puts the Empire or Republic question, and what it means in this election (especially considering the words aren’t mentioned by either candidate) to people like Norman Mailer (http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/lydon/2004/08/30#a569) and Gore Vidal (http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/lydon/2003/12/23#a461) on his radio show. Fascinating.