ZJW's Movie Review of AVPR: Aliens vs Predator - Requiem

Horribly Disappointing
ZJW - wrote on 01/22/08

The first Alien vs Predator wasn't as terrible as made everyone made it out to be but it certainly left a sour taste in your mouth. The Studio's decision to go ahead with a sequel seemed to stem only from the Box Office success of the first film, as opposed to any creative reasons. At the time of AvP's release Paul W. Anderson often said that a sequel was never intended, despite the open-ended conclusion to the film. Fox however thought better of that and presented us with the worst film of either franchise in Aliens vs Predator: Requiem.

It is an unnecessary sequel and an all around unnecessary film. One of the key selling points was the R rating that the previous film lacked. The "gore" in this film however is beyond ridiculous and really isn't anything to get excited about. It's the type of gore you would expect to see in an 80's slasher film but not an Alien or Predator movie. Speaking of slasher - that is essentially what this film is, a slasher flick with Aliens and Predators.

The setting is a small American town which goes against everything set in the previous Alien films. The characters are mostly teenagers with few exceptions. The script is absolutely dreadful and the dialogue horrendous. Many lines came off as being funny even though that was never the intention of the film, despite what the directors may have said after the fact. The pacing of the film is also a key issue here. Everything feels rushed and the movie never really takes its time to build itself up. The lighting and texture of the film also left much to be desired, such as seeing what was actually going on on-screen.

The film isn't all bad however, just extremely disappointing. The movie starts well enough with us on the Predator ship last seen at the end of AvP. Most scenes following Wolf (our star Predator) were excellent, starting with his introduction and the shots of the Predator home world. The scenes with Wolf were the only scenes that were really interesting and pulled you in. It created the illusion that you watching a much better movie than you actually were. A few other scenes proved somewhat interesting as well but they were few and far between.

As for the Aliens however... they have been reduced here to nothing more than over gown bugs. Their designs aren't terrible but they certainly aren't great. You never really get a good look at them anyways with the poor lighting. The real problem is their seeming lack of intelligence in the film. The new reproductive system introduced in the film by the Predalien is also completely pointless, not to mention ridiculous. It is of course unexplained and yet I think we are better off without an explanation.

There are some decent scrums in the film between the two title creatures which are entertaining but the Predator often has the upper hand. The problem with a lot of them, especially the sewer battle, was that they were way to dark and the editing was very poor. The film really seems very poorly pieced together on the whole. With it's script it was never going to be great but it could have been flushed out so it didn't seem so rushed and the editing certainly could have been better. One key instance, speaking of fleshing the movie out, is the National Guard sequences that was advertised before the film. It came and gone it what seemed like two minutes. It would have been a perfect opportunity to create tension and suspense but it was wasted. As soon as the guards stepped out on to the street they fell under attack.

Overall I feel this film was very unneeded and we would have been better off it had not been made. There were a few good aspects and scenes that could have been very good if executed well but they simply weren't. A sequel to AvP never seemed necessary although a quality follow-up would be gladly welcomed. This however is not that film. It is Fox trying to make a quick buck off the name of "Alien" and "Predator" and nothing more. If they wanted the film to be good they could have started by not green lighting this awful script. Maybe they will get it right with AvP 3 as it's bound to happen eventually. My fear though is they will only lower the budget further and we will be left with another half-assed Alien vs Predator.