Mania Grade: C+
Maniac Grade: C
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Info:
- Reviewed Format: Theatrical Release
- Rated: R
- Stars: Steven Pasquale, Reiko Aylesworth, John Ortiz, Johnny Lewis
- Writer: Shane Salerno, based on characters created by Dan O'Bannon & Ronald Shusett and Jim Thomas and John Thomas
- Directors: Colin Strause & Greg Strause
- Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox
ALIENS VS. PREDATOR: REQUIEM
A bunch of aliens vs. one Predator vs. a bunch of Colorado townsfolk... By Rachel Reitsleff
December 26, 2007
Victoria Bidewell and the PredAlien in ALIENS VS. PREDATOR: REQUIEM (2007).
© Twentieth Century Fox
After Aliens in all three gestation forms run amok on a Predator ship (presumably the same one from the end of Alien Vs. Predator), the whole caboodle crashes to Earth outside a small town in Colorado. A lone Predator is sent to deal with the infestation. Meanwhile, meet the townies, who include a just-released convict coming home (Steven Pasquale), the convict’s teenaged brother (Johnny Lewis), the high-school jerks tormenting said brother, a combat veteran (Reiko Aylesworth) returning to her husband and little daughter and a diligent sheriff (John Ortiz) hard-pressed to deal with the growing carnage in the area.
There are glimmers of a really exciting movie within Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem. When the title creatures face off against each other in those moments where we can see what’s happening, or when we see Aliens swarming up the sides of a power plant and a hospital, it’s cool.
Unfortunately, whether due to understandable but not-well-executed aesthetic loyalty to the visual darkness of the original Alien and Aliens or shortcomings in the final results that had the filmmakers not wanting to give us too close a look, it’s often very hard to see what’s going on when the Predator takes on the Aliens, especially in confrontations between the weapons-toting big bad E.T. and the very big Alien that was gestated within a Predator (this isn’t a spoiler, as we’re shown this has happened in the first frame of the film). We can just enough to recognize that the Alien-Predator has Predator-type dreadlocks and enough time to think, hey, the dreads are part of the armor, not the Predator itself. What’s the deal here – is the armor biological or did somebody not think this through? The Amalgamated Dynamics Inc. creature effects team, headed up by Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr. (it’s Woodruff in the Alien suit), does terrific work here and in the past, so this isn’t a slam at the creature’s appearance, just the logic of this detail.
This is not the only plot question we’ve got. For starters, why, if the Predators insist on hauling Aliens around the galaxy, even with the catastrophic incidents we’ve seen in this film and its predecessor, don’t they send in more than one Predator to cap the latest Earth infestation. Unless of course they don’t care, in which case, why are they bothering at all? Why give our hero an ex-con background if it’s never going to play into the story? Why have a subplot about high school bullying, depicted so perfunctorily that it would be annoying even in a routine slasher movie, with actors who all look too old for the grade?
There are also inconsistencies with the Aliens’ acidic blood, which can sometimes take a man’s arm off and sometimes squirt all over someone’s face with no evident effect.
Even these issues wouldn’t matter so much, except that Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem is never actually scary, unless one is frightened by gore. The blood and guts are plentiful and impressive, but it’s hard to muster feeling for most of the characters and nothing ever jumps out in a way that startles.
It is simple monster movie fun to see Aliens and a Predator grapping with each other in the somewhat incongruous environs of a U.S. small town – indeed, the incongruity is perhaps the most entertaining part. It’s just a shame that what’s built up around this core doesn’t work better.
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