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Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)
What Happened Here?
Directed By: The Brothers Strause
Starring: Steven Pasquale, Reiko Aylesworth, & Johnny Lewis
MPAA Rating: “Unrated”
Starring: Steven Pasquale, Reiko Aylesworth, & Johnny Lewis
MPAA Rating: “Unrated”
With the debate of PG-13 versus R waging furiously in the minds of horror fans with the recent box-office success of Prom Night (2008), gore-hounds should not be pleased that this film was released as a representation of the more violent, blood-soaked, profanity-laden horror films. Because, if this were my first venture into R-rated horror, I would turn right around and live forever in the realm of PG-13. Here is a film that is all violence...and only violence. This was supposed to be the film horror fans were waiting for: the ultimate showdown between two of horror’s most notorious icons. The Brothers Strause openly proclaimed that it was the battle these two titans deserved. Instead, we have a film that is even more embarrassing and even more disappointing, and even more incompetent.
Starting right where AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004), we again meet the Alien/Predator hybrid that was first introduced in the first film. After it makes the predators’ ship crash back to earth, chaos quickly erupts. Aliens quickly begin to spread across Gunnison, Colorado. Soon, however, a cleaner predator is dispatched to cover up the mess that was started in Antarctica. Soon, the two warring alien species again launch into battle with a terrified town plunged in the middle. A few terrified survivors, including former convict, Dallas Howard (Pasquale), and Kelly O’Brien (Aylesworth), begin a desperate battle to escape the town. Meanwhile, the United States government has a much darker and deadlier plan for the small town of Gunnison, one that will ensure the complete annihilation of both the aliens and predator...but everyone else still alive in the town as well. Well, at least, I suppose that this is the plot...I really couldn’t make out what was happening half of the time.
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem suffers from its greatest problems in its handling of the once-terrifying creatures and in the execution of the principle human characters. The aliens and the single predator are essentially limited to just a series of quick-cut editing jobs, boring motions, and dull battle scenes. There is no personality, no tension, and no interest in any of them. The same can be said for all of the other characters. These suffer from what is perhaps the worst characterization in any movie. If they do have personalities, they are just clichés and stereotypes that have been pulled from age-old molds. However, most of them are not even afforded these; they are just cardboard cut-outs that can run and shoot guns. There are no relationships and, therefore, no real emotions associated with any of them.
So, with boring characters and boring warring aliens, we can at least expect some hardcore action scenes...right? There may have been carefully-choreographed fight scenes and pulse-pounding violence (I doubt it severely, though), but I can’t really say for sure because I couldn’t see anything. Whoever was responsible for the lighting in this film should be taken out back and beat with sticks. The film is so disastrously dark (even in daylight settings) that the plot is almost completely incoherent, any of the action scenes are hidden, and it often comes off as a series of jumbled sound bites with the occasional flash of light. Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem is just a distinctly boring, rather insipid film that never breaks away from the dreaded shadow of its predecessor. Paul W. S. Anderson was not included in this project, because studios feared that fanboys would be turned off by him after AVP: Alien vs. Predator. Unfortunately, they replaced him with filmmakers who are perhaps even worse. Not even the most gruesome gore or extreme violence could save such a terrible disappointment.
Starting right where AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004), we again meet the Alien/Predator hybrid that was first introduced in the first film. After it makes the predators’ ship crash back to earth, chaos quickly erupts. Aliens quickly begin to spread across Gunnison, Colorado. Soon, however, a cleaner predator is dispatched to cover up the mess that was started in Antarctica. Soon, the two warring alien species again launch into battle with a terrified town plunged in the middle. A few terrified survivors, including former convict, Dallas Howard (Pasquale), and Kelly O’Brien (Aylesworth), begin a desperate battle to escape the town. Meanwhile, the United States government has a much darker and deadlier plan for the small town of Gunnison, one that will ensure the complete annihilation of both the aliens and predator...but everyone else still alive in the town as well. Well, at least, I suppose that this is the plot...I really couldn’t make out what was happening half of the time.
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem suffers from its greatest problems in its handling of the once-terrifying creatures and in the execution of the principle human characters. The aliens and the single predator are essentially limited to just a series of quick-cut editing jobs, boring motions, and dull battle scenes. There is no personality, no tension, and no interest in any of them. The same can be said for all of the other characters. These suffer from what is perhaps the worst characterization in any movie. If they do have personalities, they are just clichés and stereotypes that have been pulled from age-old molds. However, most of them are not even afforded these; they are just cardboard cut-outs that can run and shoot guns. There are no relationships and, therefore, no real emotions associated with any of them.
So, with boring characters and boring warring aliens, we can at least expect some hardcore action scenes...right? There may have been carefully-choreographed fight scenes and pulse-pounding violence (I doubt it severely, though), but I can’t really say for sure because I couldn’t see anything. Whoever was responsible for the lighting in this film should be taken out back and beat with sticks. The film is so disastrously dark (even in daylight settings) that the plot is almost completely incoherent, any of the action scenes are hidden, and it often comes off as a series of jumbled sound bites with the occasional flash of light. Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem is just a distinctly boring, rather insipid film that never breaks away from the dreaded shadow of its predecessor. Paul W. S. Anderson was not included in this project, because studios feared that fanboys would be turned off by him after AVP: Alien vs. Predator. Unfortunately, they replaced him with filmmakers who are perhaps even worse. Not even the most gruesome gore or extreme violence could save such a terrible disappointment.
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