Movie Review
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem
Posted by Kevin Carr (kevin@filmschoolrejects.com) on December 27, 2007
It’s Christmas Day. Maybe there’s snow on the ground. The children are waking you up early to open presents ‘cause Santa’s been here. The turkey is cooking in the oven, and things are just a little more warm and fuzzy in your world. What better way to celebrate Christ’s birth than watching two warring alien races kicking the holy hell out of each other?
For the past several years, Hollywood has dropped a horror movie as a Christmas Day opening. Last year’s Black Christmas sucked so bad I almost lost my figgy pudding, so I was arguably nervous when I heard that the anticipated sequel to Alien vs. Predator was coming out on December 25 this year.
Still, I’m a big fan of both the Alien and the Predator films. I’ve seen them all, and I even enjoyed Aliens vs. Predator a couple years ago, so I was looking forward to the movie. And when the credits rolled, I was at least content that I got exactly what I expected.
I can’t accurately say that Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem is a good film. Really, it’s not. But it is enjoyable. It’s one of those movies that you don’t see for plot or characters or deep spiritual discovery. You’re seeing it because you want to see Aliens and Predators go toe to toe.
The story is ludicrous and the characters are a mess. While all seven preceding movies (four Alien ones, two Predators and a single double bill) may not have had the best plots, they tended to make their own cliches. This new film, however, dips into the cliche well of the slasher movies and cheap horror flicks of the 80s and 90s.
A small mountain town seems like the perfect place to live… until a Predator ship crashes in the woods, unleashing an army of Aliens led by a fantastically vicious Alien/Predator hybrid. Soon, another Predator comes from the home world to clean up the town, which has been overrun by Polaroid Aliens, which seem to pop out instantly from their victims in a matter of hours.
I’m not going to bother with who the characters are, since they’re really nothing more than xenomorph bait. I will tell you that they’re the dumbest population for a mountain town that has ever faced imminent threat in a horror movie. Somehow, they don’t hear the crashing ship, or the massive explosion when the Predator clean-up specialist incinerates the ship.
It gets worse, with them not noticing Aliens literally exploding into their streets and refusing to evacuate in order to break into the local sporting goods store to steal some guns. All this played well because by the end, it was fun to watch the humans get picked off.
This new film is, at times, a strong action flick. Other times, it’s a gore-fest, with lots of gruesome blood effects and human mutilation. This isn’t a surprise since the film is directed by visual effects gurus-turned-director The Brothers Strause. When it comes to character and plot, the film could have been easily directed by The Brothers Sprouse (aka Zack and Cody from Disney Channel’s The Suite Life).
But the film is saved when the Aliens and the Predator are on-screen. The large cast leads to a ridiculous body county. Yet, the draw of the movie is still there – a big, fat Aliens and Predator smackdown.
And that was enough to make a horror film geek like me giggle on Christmas.
Grade: B
The Upside: Aliens and a Predator beating the shit out of each other.
The Downside: A recycled plot from the remake of The Blob.
On the Side: While this film picks up right where the last one left off, the Weyland corporation and actor Lance Henriksen is not to be seen.
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23 Comments
December 27th, 2007 at 9:41 am
Good Lord. A “B”?!?
Damn…
This thing SUCKED.
Vic
December 27th, 2007 at 10:35 am
I actually want to see this one I think… Kevin I think you’ve convinced me.
December 27th, 2007 at 10:53 am
I really enjoyed this movie a hell of alot better than PWA’s AVP.
Number 1: It’s rated R the way an Alien and Predator movie should be rated.
Number 2: Anybody and everyone was getting clipped during the movie.
Number 3: They had original sound fx for predator and aliens.
I like the way the opening credits started. It was like a Freddy vs Jason type thing. For the Aliens they had the radar noise from Aliens and the predator they had the noise the predator makes.
ofcourse this movie had some bad acting, what would anyone expect. At least the predator didn’t make friends with any humans and ran into the sunset together.
Hopefully there will be another installment because you can’t end a movie like this the way it ended and have no sequel.
All I can say is that this movie was better than AVP.
December 27th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
I don’t understand why people are looking for character depth in these movies. It’s Alien VS Predator! Not Humans Have Self-Discovery Among Alien Races Duking It Out.
Requiem made up for the junk that the first AVP was. Movie was a success in my mind when Dallas resurrected Arnie’s famous line, “GET TO THE CHOPPA!”
Also agree with Felipe bout the Pred not making friends with humans. That was ridiculous in the first one. Requiem probably means Clean-Up guy in Predatese. “I am here to CLEAN god-damnit! Ain’t nobody gonna stop me nuh-uh! Not humans, not aliens, and most definitely not the pred-alien hybrid that forced me to leave my Virtual Boy game.”
December 27th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
I love how this movie is called AvP: R. It’s like they are acknowledge the biggest problem with the first AvP was its PG-13 rating. They want the world to know they did not water this movie down. Seriously.
December 27th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
I enjoyed this film too. My review will probably be up soon, its also very positive.
Someone mentioned the “choppa” line, I hope you also caught the line “What the fuck are you?” which was in both films.
Lots of fun, lots of blood. I would love a 3rd. Or new Alien and Predator films. I love both franchises. Also, notice the Predator design has gone back to the original style, where AvP had big blocky Predators that looked like doodoo.
December 27th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
There was also the “You’re one ugly motherf*cker” line, only said to an alien rather than a predator.
December 27th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
I was wondering if some one could tell me what the hell the end of the movie was about with the female character and the general brings the pred gun to her nad she says” the world isn’t ready for this technology who the hell is she ?
December 27th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
“I don’t understand why people are looking for character depth in these movies.”
Oh, you mean like there was in “Alien” and “Aliens”? Where we actually CARED about what happened to the characters and were rooting for them to survive and it bothered us when they died?
Like that?
It’s funny that someone mentioned “Freddy vs Jason” because that very thought occurred to me as I was watching this piece of crap.
Vic
December 27th, 2007 at 11:39 pm
Weyland-Yutani is a fictional corporation in the motion picture Alien and its sequels, often referred to simply as “The Company”. It is one of the corporations that runs the human colonies outside the solar system through the Extrasolar Colonization Administration, has a seat in the Interstellar Commerce Commission’s Company Review Board, and also has a large presence on Earth.
Weyland-Yutani is consistently portrayed as exhibiting the worst aspects of corporate profiteering, and as being willing to sacrifice decency and human life in the pursuit of profit. In various portrayals of the Aliens’ universe, the corporation has its hands in all aspects of space colonization and research. The corporation has consistently ordered its employees and agents to attempt to obtain living Xenomorphs so that they can be exploited as a biological weapon, of course, without regard for their lives.
Weyland-Yutani is a modern example of the longstanding trope of the evil megacorporation in science fiction.
hahahahahaah I answered my own question oh well here is the answer
December 28th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
I think the woman in the end was Anna from Predator.
December 28th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
The first AVP movie had so much more depth than this one. The predators in the first movie were skillful, fast, interesting, had awesome weaponry, two seemed younger and therefore more ruthless and killed everything whereas the one predator who lasted until the end seemed more mature and allowed to girl to live as she gave him his weapon back. He even marks her face with alien blood since she earned a warrior status by killing 1 alien. In this movie, the predator was stupid, had no purpose, was slow, was always playing catch up with the aliens, and his fighting skills were boring at best. This movie didn’t spark an ounce of interest in me and I left the theater upset I spent money on it. The best word to describe it is dull.
December 28th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Ruben, I wish I saw the version of AvP you did! 2 of the 3 Predtors were killed pretty much immediately, leaving behind a slow, chunky, below average Predator.
In the new movie, he was much closer to the original Predator. I felt he was faster than in AvP. He was also a great hunter! He killed dozens of Aliens, while in the original AvP the main predator killed maybe 8 or 9.
I dug this way more than AvP and felt it really was a decent “Alien vs Predator” movie showing what we wanted - lots of aliens fighting a Predator. Hopefully a 3rd AvP would go a little darker and be more in tone with the original movies, but for a pure popcorn driven fun fight flick, AvP:R was a winner to me.
December 30th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
I just walked out of this movie and I found it much better than the previous AVP. This is a close as you could get to what would really happen if some Aliens got loose on Earth. I only wish that they would have shown a little more of the Predator home planet and explain who that Asian lady was at the end. I was waiting for her eyes to glow or something. Overall I would give it a solid B too. If you are a fan of the Alien or Predator films I would recommend seeing this one.
January 2nd, 2008 at 1:02 am
Please do not go see this movie, if you liked the first one then you wont like this one. Not because it wasn’t connected to the first one, but mostly just cause it was a steaming pile of crap. Way too many shallow characters and infinite plot holes could never be made up by some so-so action/violence. I think that the only reason why there was only one predator is that they couldnt afford more :p. Oh well it was fun to laugh at.
January 2nd, 2008 at 1:57 am
The Asian lady at the end was Miss Yutani. Yutani is one half of “The Corporation,” aka Weyland Yutani Industries, from the Alien franchise. There a fairly evil big corporation who own and operate nearly everything in the future. They were the ones that owned the space rigs in Alien and later were trying to capture the aliens for use and study.
At some point in the far far future (Alien: Resurrection) they were bought out, sometimes its said that Wal-Mart bought them out (novels).
In AVP Weyland (the other half) was played by Lance Henrickson.
So AvP-R was just giving us Yutani to AvPs Weyland. The start of something big and evil.
January 2nd, 2008 at 3:09 am
When I was a kid, people got really excited about Rocky, and Flash Gordon. I remember seeing people punching the air as they left the theater, now I see rolling eyes and smirks.
What levels of fulfillment are people requiring from the silver screen these days? Was it that too much faith was pledged early on ending in a confused forlorn mess of disenchanted cynicism?
I have not seen this film yet, but I am going with an open mind while not expecting to discover the meaning of life.
January 11th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
As I read the review and the comments a simple question comes to my mind, does
anyone remmember the first Alien and predator movies? ANYONE AT ALL?
I can’t believe what I’m reading, the Alien and Predator movies are not just regular
monster movies they’re all about CHARACTERS, who can forget Ripley, Bishop, Hudson,
Vasquez, Dallas, Ash and Parker? (just to mention some).
Ok I admit that Predator’s characters are more iconic action movie types, but still that’s
not an excuse to replace Ripley, one of the strongest female characters ever made for a
friggin pizza delivery boy!!!
… Well I could go on and on with this subject, but there’s no point to it, thanks to AvP
and AvP-R the remaining dignity of this 2 alien races it’s completely gone.
January 21st, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Like alot of you, i am also a huge fan of the originals. I thought the AVP:R was way better than AVP.
I dont think wer will ever get what the James Cameron, ridley scott and John McTiernan delivered. I mean these are top notch directors.
Why dont these movie producers pull out the cash for a better script, director and cast. They want a blockbuster with little money spent.
I think we should just appreciate we can still go to the pictures to see Predator and Aliens on the big screen.
I say lets join the writers.
February 21st, 2008 at 10:40 am
Agree with the fact that it’s improved from AVP,but many things don’t make sense at all.
Humans, are real dumb,not suspecting of nothing…why would everyone go to the town center if the civilians know that there’s the thick of battle?running away driving is a much better idea…why the cars were all empty?ok,the colonel told them,but only the sheriff knew that there’s gonna be evac in the city center.so,why were all survivors in the city center?
Aliens:As fans of A,P,AVP series,you all know that aliens hunt for the queen,for reproduction,cause they need hosts for the facehuggers,if there’s no queen present{in this case},they just hunt for needs(self defense,etc),their acid blood could sustain them millenia,they don’t need human as food,so why they keep attacking humans like that?
Predator:In AVP,the ship carrying the corpse of the deceased predator(with alien inside)was in a huge ship,and there will be hundred,if not thousands of predators inside,where’s that ship?Why change it?Where’s the old Leader predator?The ship was leaving earth’s orbit,in this film,it was going near earth,why?
Besides,all predator would disarm themselves in their own ship,why the predator skinning the trophy was fully armed?And for god’s sake,blowing a hole in their own ship?Even the dumbest human wouldn’t do that,not mentioning these are much highly evolved creatures…
Why the self destruction bomb didn’t explode?The death of the predator would make no difference,as you recall in AVP,the bomb would explode even if it left the predator’s body.Well,the predalien must be some bomb expert,knowing how to disactivate bombs I guess…
What’s really ridiculous is the ability of the predalien to transform human babies into 4-5 baby aliens,you’ve gotta be kidding me….A baby can turm in 4 aliens?You tell me that…You’ve no need of queens anymore,get a predalien,grab some pregnant women and there you go!!The queen should eat the guy who thought of this idea…
February 21st, 2008 at 10:43 am
One last thing,was the predator in this film so poor that he couldn’t afford his own weapons?Why he need to arm himself in the crashed ship?
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Ok Reichgard, You have several problems with your problems.
First: the other humans went to the town center because they heard for the military also, you could hear the colonel on one of their radios when they pulled up in the truck.
Second: I the previous alien movies the aliens not only hunted for reproduction, they also killed randomly, as if for sport or simply because they are pissy little bastards.
Third: The huge ship you are speaking of was leaving earth’s orbit because this film picked up right were AVP left off (ship leaving after dropping Queen alien in the drink). The small ship separated from the large ship that was presumably heading home, and it was this small ship that crashed on earth.
Fourth: The bomb in AVP didn’t explode when it was remove, the predator armed it, and then removed and threw it.
Lastly: The Predalien did not turn human babies into aliens, he simply put alien larva into them, you will remember the waitress was not pregnant and she produced three aliens herself.
In regards to your second post: The predator was armed when arriving at the downed ship, he just was not aware that there were aliens on the ship and realized that he would need stronger weapons to deal the the alien masses.
I hope I have helped clear things up for you. If I am wrong in any of this let me know.
Oh and I did enjoy this film, it was a bit of mindless fun that was more in the style of the old films.
September 10th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Man oh man, that fan boy really knows what he is talking about. I wonder if he is a famous critic?