Review: ‘Alien vs. Predator: Requiem’

Travis:

Let’s hear it. Come on. I know you want to say it. Everyone must be thinking, “AVP totally sucked. How could AVPR be any good?” Well, you’re wrong. Of course, this statement comes with a handy little disclaimer. This movie rocks, IF you went to see it for what it is. There are many fans of the Alien franchise and many fans of the Predator franchise. Many of these fans are fans of both. So, long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… someone had a brilliant idea:

STUDIO-HOLLYWOOD-PERSON says, “Hey! I have a great idea! Lets take these two highly successful movie franchises and combine them into a versus movie.”

Well, word got out and fans all over the world rejoiced. Then, over ten years later, the fans had all but given up until one day news leaked out that it was actually being made. Then, we saw it… and we all mourned. My point being that we all knew what the one thing was that the movie needed to succeed… LOTS OF AWESOME KICK-A** ALIEN/PREDATOR ACTION!!! Instead, we got lots of really boring and ridiculous plot with absurdly bad dialogue and only one known actor to speak of, who (with all due respect, Mr. Henricksen) hasn’t seen a role in a wdie-release theatrical film since Scream 3. I mean, we did get some action sequences and they weren’t horrible. But, we fans understood that after four Alien movies and two Predator movies, we don’t need a robust plot with mystery and twists. Just give us lots of cool shi* to look at.

Alien vs. Predator Requiem delivers what the fans have been asking for more than a decade long. Lots of well-done action, lots of great special effects, just enough cool, but subtle twists and surprises to our beloved extra-terrestrial hunters, and of course gnarly Predator weapons and gadgets. Oh yeah, everyone is fair game too, including the little cheerleader princess that is the love interest of one of the human quasi-heroes. In fact, the dog is one of the few living creatures that actually survives. (For those who aren’t familiar, this is rare.) Long story short: do not go see this movie for its depth of story, character development or underlying message of human hope (except maybe the tell-tale message of military always screws up when aliens attack) because, you will not find it. What you will get is a healthy dose of bada** sci-fi action. Enjoy.

(3 out of 5)

Zac:

A guilty pleasure film for sure, this follow up to the bad AVP from a couple of years ago is by no means a good movie in the traditional sense, but the parts that we are here to see, are done well and the film is at least entertaining if you know what your are getting into.
The film picks up right where the last film left off with an alien bursting out of a fallen Predator’s chest as their ship leaves Earth, which some how happens to be a hybrid of the two alien races. The Predator/Alien wreaks havoc on the ship and it crashes right back to Earth, but not before one of the Predators sends a message to his home world and the call is answered by another predator that is like the Michael Clayton of the Predator world. He lands on Earth and immediately begins covering the track of any trace of the Predator’s or Alien’s being there.
There are humans involved in this battle as well as the Predator cleans up the mess, and they get killed in the struggle as the Predator kills anyone getting in the way as the Predator/Alien tries to reproduce as much as possible. The Alien lore and logic is kind of thrown out the window as a Queen is the only one that should be able to reproduce, but Predator/Alien is ingesting pregnant women and little Alien’s burst out of the womb, anyways, it’s a necessary plot hole so there are more Alien’s to kill so we let it slide.
The humans that matter are an ex-con, the sheriff, a hot blonde high school girl, the outsider boy who wants hot blonde, and an ex-army mother and daughter. I don’t remember any of their names, except Dallas (horrible), and it doesn’t matter because you aren’t here to watch a human story, we are here to watch Alien vs. Predator. When the movie is doing what it’s titled, it usually works and is a fun time. The humans add some cool deaths as they get picked off and some great unintentional humor with horrible lines, “people are dying,” but we want Alien on Predator action and we get a lot more of it in this film than the last and outside a bit disappointing finale, it is all pretty cool.
In the end though, it is a horrible movie when it comes to the human side and pretty fun when we follow the Predator investigation. If you know what you are getting into it is good fun and an ok way to blow 86min, if you should do that at the theater or not is up to your interest in the material, but if you like either franchise it is at least worth a rental for the cool alien fights and Predator plot line.

(2.5 out of 5)

[rating: 3/5]