Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem
December 28, 2007
Rated: R Runtime: 86 min Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
My god…what did I just watch? I loved both Predator and Predator II. Alien was great and its sequel, Aliens, is in my top 10 all time favorites list. I didn’t expect this to be great, but I had hoped it wouldn’t be an embarrassment to either series. Whoops.
Where to start? How about the end. When the credits roll at the end of Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, we see in big and bold stylized letters that it was directed by “The Brothers Strause”. Obviously, they must be proud of their work. I have no idea why, however. The only things “The Brothers Strause” ever directed before being handed this project were music videos and short features…and BOY does it show. They’ve produced nearly 90 minutes of pure amateur-hour cinema and cleverly managed to get a lot of people to shell out $10 each to see it.
The Strause boys *do* have a lot of experience with visual effects, however, and that aspect of AVP:R is at least reasonably tolerable. There won’t be any Oscars coming their way, but the effects could certainly have been worse. No, the problem lies elsewhere. Make that EVERYwhere else. I don’t think I’m exaggerating much when I say that you can find almost every old sci-fi / action / horror cliche’ here. But it doesn’t stop there. Apparently the Strause boys figured that cliche’s just weren’t good enough…so they decided to mix things up by making sure that several characters got killed unexpectedly. No part of the story was advanced by these killings, mind you, they were just random deaths. Oh, and lets not forget all the logic holes that you could drive a truck through. I can check my brain at the door like anyone else, but I do at least ask that you don’t insult my intelligence every five minutes.
No, this is not a rejuvenation of an old franchise. It’s not a pleasant stroll down memory lane. Hell, it’s not even a decent way to spend 86 minutes of your life. It’s just simply 2 very weak star movie…and nothing more.
Popularity: 55% [?]
Seen it? How many stars do you give it?
(14 votes, average: 2.71 out of 5)
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How did it compare to the first ALIEN VS. PREDATORS movie? I have to admit, I kind of like the first one. I don’t put it in the same class as the Sigourney Weaver alien films; it was inspired by a comic-book. But if you don’t nitpick too much, the first movie is fun…
It was similar to the first one in scope, but much worse in execution (in my opinion).
I saw ALIENS VS. PREDATOR REQUIEM at a cheaper-than-matinee on New Year’s morning. That’s about the right price to pay for it, that or wait for rental.
I liked it better than Alex did… I’d give it 3 out of 5 stars… I think the premise is better than the first one, but, as Alex said, the execution is worse. The first half, I had high hopes, but the second half goes downhill.
The direction is not good. Too many scenes too dark, with too many quick cuts. It’s often hard to tell the aliens from the predator from the other thing.
Also, early on they establish how many aliens there are— there’s a finite number — and thereafter, it gets really hard to tell how many of them have been killed, how many are left.
Like the first film, the aliens gestate way too fast, these things seem to instantly go from implanted host to baby to adult.
I could nitpick some other things, but I don’t want to give spoilers, so I’ll just mention this one thing.
It’s shame both of these films felt the need to clock in at 90 minutes or so, because an extra 10-15 minutes might give some time for character development, a little exposition, something.
For example, this is what I found extraordinary: This film takes place in a modern-day Colorado town. NOBODY THERE FINDS IT THE SLIGHTEST BIT STRANGE THAT THEY’RE BEING ATTACKED AND KILLED BY MONSTERS.
They hate it, they’re scared, they wish they weren’t being hunted, they wish they were somewhere else… but nobody shows the slightest bit of surprise that there are monsters running around in their town.
I’d think at least once in the film, somebody would take a moment to say, “So, uh….what are these things? Outer space aliens, or what?”
But nope, no time!
Seeing ALIENS VS. PREDATOR: REQUIEM must have given me Aliens/Predator fever, because it made me dig out some old Dark Horse comics in boxes in the closet, circa 1989-1992. Aliens comics. Predator comics. Aliens Vs. Predator comics. Some pretty good ones, some pretty silly ones. And some weird crossovers, mostly ones I bought in remaindered bins at comic stores. Batman Vs. Predator. Superman Vs. Aliens. Superman Vs. Predator. Magnus Robot Fighter Vs. Predator. Aliens Vs. Predator Vs. The Terminator!
The first couple of ALIENS comics were pretty good, both in artwork and story. Mark Verheiden wrote a lot of them, who of late has worked on SMALLVILLE, the new BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, and the upcoming Bruce Campbell movie MY NAME IS BRUCE.
But they used Ripley, Hicks, and Newt as characters, and in 1992 ALIEN3 came out and made all those storylines moot.
Also, in the story arc they effectively destroyed Earth, and then found that was sort of a dead-end as far as storytelling, so they miraculously brought it back in the blink of an eye.
Also, later stories seemed to have the problem that all they could come up with was marines and/or a corporation trying to invade a bigger hive to get samples and encountering a bigger and badder super-Queen or whatever. And the artwork was often a lot worse than the earlier series.
The last series I bought completely was the 1992 ALIEN: HIVE, which involved building an android Alien to infiltrate a hive. The art was by Kelley Jones, who had done the Neil Gaiman SANDMAN arc SEASON OF MISTS, so it was a good fit, a very Hellish Alien hive.
The Predator comics were less uneven then the Aliens ones, and involved less convolutions to get the humans and Predators together (after all, the Predators come to you). But, after awhile each series was pretty much like the last series, so I stopped getting both Aliens and Predator comics after 1992.
I was looking through the Dark Horse online catalog, just curious what those pesky Aliens and Predators had been up to during the 15 years after I stopped buying the comics.
Some stood out: ALIENS: EARTH ANGEL: Earth in the 1950s. PREDATOR: RACE WAR: Set in a state penitentiary. PREDATOR: HOMEWORLD: Yellowstone. PREDATOR: BAD BLOOD: New Jersey pine barrens. PREDATOR: KINDRED: Oregon. PREDATOR: HELL AND HOT WATER: A ship at sea. PREDATOR: NEMESIS: Victorian London. PREDATOR: PRIMAL: Alaska. PREDATOR: HELL COME A WALKIN’: American Civil War. PREDATOR: CAPTIVE: A billionaire captures a Predator as a pet. PREDATOR: STRANGE ROUX: Cajun country!
ALIENS VS. PREDATOR – REQUIEM came out on DVD on April 15th, in various versions, and I’ve had a chance to look over some of them.
This film grows on me a bit in the rewatching. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a good movie, and it’s not really at the same level as the ALIENS movie or the PREDATOR movies, but as a bit of Grindhouse scifi horror, it works pretty well on the small screen.
It’s definitely a nasty bit of work; children, pregnant women, babies… all are targeted by the Aliens in this movie.
First, there’s the DVD of the 94-minute theaterical version, with no extra features (Amazon). But why would you want that?
Then, there’s ALIENS VS. PREDATOR – REQUIEM, UNRATED EDITION (Amazon.) .
The “Unrated” might be a bit misleading. This is 101 minutes long, 7 minutes longer than the 94 minute theaterical version. But much of the added footage isn’t particularly “Unrated.” It’s not a lot gorier than the theatrical R version, there’s no nudity, etc. But the story flows a little better with the added stuff.
* Two audio commentaries, one by the producer and directors, one by the practical special effects guys.
* Green- and red-band trailers for the movie.
Then there’s ALIENS VS. PREDATOR – REQUIEM, TWO DISK SPECIAL EDITION (Amazon).
Disk 1 has the same stuff from the Unrated Edition, plus:
* 5 featurettes (Mostly related to the special effects).
* Photo galleries.
* Disk 2 is a digital version of the movie.
Also available on Blu-Ray.