The final nail in the franchises' coffin
Requiem continues right after Alien Vs Predator (part-one of the spin-off series), with the surviving Predator taken onboard a rescue ship from his home planet. But despite their advanced technology and experience in handling the Aliens (they used them as target practice in the first movie), his rescuers were unable to detect the alien embryo that is growing inside him. Probably the most inept warriors of their species, the crew were immediately wiped out by the newborn, a hybrid of Alien and Predator for some reason, even though previous face-hugging incidents never produced that result. Inevitably, the Predator ship soon comes crashing down to Earth, specifically the Americana small-town of Gunnison, Colorado. Of course, these stupid rescuers were also carrying jars and jars of live face-huggers onboard, thus the critters and the aforementioned Alien of Predator-Alien parentage were inadvertently unleashed onto the unsuspecting human populace. But never fear, because a distress beacon had been sent to Predator HQ prior to the crash, and instead of sending a battalion to clear up this mess once and for all, they dispatched just one ill-equipped Predator (he scavenged most of his weapons from the crashed ship).
Ignore the fact that this is an Alien and Predator movie, and it's actually a passable monster movie that showcases directors Colin and Greg Strause's knack for handling visual effects (they were formerly VFX-trained). They also did the best they could with boring dialogue scenes that should only be blamed on the shoddy script (and its writer). But it’s really a bad idea to start off a directing career helming a movie that is flanked by two mega monster franchises. And to throw these two classic movie monsters into a typical slasher movie setting, complete with horny, dumb, screaming teenagers… surely the Strauses are only asking for it?
Other travesties committed: uneven portrayal of the Predator’s combat skills (single-handedly wiping out hordes of Aliens in one scene, struggling to kill just one in another), the Alien-Predator hybrid who literally has a face-hugger for a face, wanton nuking of an entire town and its population that had no repercussion of any sort, and worse of all, with a canon of great protagonists to pit against these deadly aliens (Earth and space marines, cops, Ripley), you have to pick f***ing high-schoolers for the Human team.
To their credit, the opening was pretty good. If they had extended the Predator portions and minimize or even removed the human ones entirely, it would have been so much better. Think Apocalypto, but with Predators and Aliens. Imagine that! - BMF
For the record:
Aliens > Alien > Predator > Predator 2 > Alien Resurrection > Alien 3 >>>>> AvPR > AvP
Directed by the Strause Brothers (16mm Mystery) and butchered (written) by Shane Salerno (Shaft, Armageddon). Stars Steven Pasquale, Reiko Aylesworth, John Ortiz, Johnny Lewis, Ariel Gade, Kristen Hager and Sam Trammell. Based on characters created by Dan O'Bannon, Ronald Shusett (Alien), Jim and John Thomas (Predator). |
