Alien vs Predator: Reqiuem
Friday, 18 Jan 2008 10:25
The extraterrestrials do battle for a second time.
Directed by Colin and Greg Strause, out January 18th, in cinemas, starring Steven Pasquale, Reiko Aylesworth and John Ortiz, running time 86 minutes.
In a nutshell…
Big bad monsters on Earth
What's it all about?
The second instalment in the Alien vs Predator franchise, AVPR continues the action on present-day Earth. In fact, it continues exactly where the previous film left off – with the unpleasant birthing of an Alien/Predator hybrid (known, succinctly enough, as a PredAlien). Said PredAlien causes the Predator ship orbiting Earth to crash in the forested mountains of Colorado, near a small town named Gunnison.
Another Predator is dispatched to deal with the Alien/PredAlien mess and inter-species chaos ensues.
Residents of the town include an ex-convict, a sheriff, a female war veteran with a cute little girl, and the usual grouping of uncharacteristically-pretty teenagers. As Aliens overrun the town, the survivors attempt to fight their way to safety.
Who's in it?
Steven Pasquale copes competently with the role of ex-convict Dallas, although he is a surprisingly pleasant and law-abiding version of an ex-con.
Reiko Aylesworth is Kelly O'Brien, a war veteran just returned from postings overseas. She also deals well with her character, but as Kelly is clearly marked as a Ripley from the beginning (short, dark curly hair, muscled physique, cute young daughter), it never feels as if her character achieves what has been signified.
The rest of the cast are fairly replaceable clones of pretty teenagers. Tom Woodruff Jr. and Ian Whyte deserve all the plaudits as the men inside the Alien and Predator suits respectively.
As an example…
Dallas: "People are dying... we need guns!"
Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars
Unless the judges receive a serious bump on the noggin and vastly change their politics and opinions overnight, the little gold man will never grace AVPR. Even though the special effects are happily more than decent in the alien-suits department, this movie just has too much cheese to ever please the hierarchy.
Critics will largely be unlikely to rate this film highly, but if they're a fan of the genre they may appreciate it more than others.
What the others say
"From the majesty of Ridley Scott and James Cameron's episodes, each entry has been almost exponentially worse than the last, to the point where this witless, joyless, pointless mash-up makes its predecessor, Paul WS Anderson's Alien vs Predator, look Oscar-worthy." - Empire
"The world's most illogical and boring action-horror grudge-match between two dull trademarked franchise monsters is back on. The long-standing niggle between these extra-terrestrial beasties has once again flared up, which is pretty bad news for everyone." – The Guardian
So is it any good?
AVPR is full of one-dimensional decisions that restrict the development of this film. The plot is simple: spaceship lands, Aliens and Predator run amok, townfolk die, group of survivors fight to escape.
Unfortunately the characters are perhaps less sophisticated than the plot. They are made for the word 'stereotypical', although arguably they are generally only Alien fodder anyway, but being so one-dimensional encourages the audience to barely shrug when they are inevitably torn asunder.
'The Brothers Strause' were previously special effects wizards on several big-budget films, so it was unsurprising that the gore and monsters are done well, but their direction is like the town sheriff – completely out of its depth. For a film full of action and gunfire, there was little in the way of punch and no terror at all. The red stuff has certainly been splattered about and people are dispatched in many a brutish manner, with the 'birthing' scenes in the hospital being more disgusting than expected or necessary. But most critically, in a film apparently attempting to emulate the spirit of Alien, AVPR has no suspense or thrills. If you venture down a spooky corridor, don’t even bother wondering, there’s ALWAYS an Alien hanging off the ceiling.
The core fans will be confused and disappointed that AVPR dares to meddle with the basic habits of the Aliens. This time there is no Queen, or eggs, or nest, or victims webbed in walls. There is only a PredAlien and, bizarrely, a brand new way of creating drones. The Predator also appears to be unforgivably stupid – he is constantly crept up upon, and although his mission appears to be to cover up the trail of destruction for most of the film he suddenly has zero qualms about stringing up a skinned human body to a tree, just to announce himself.
But let's be honest, people go to AVPR because they want to see the monsters and want to see them kick some ass. The fighting between the two species is certainly better than in previous attempts and all the Predator's gizmos and a certain amount of fighting skill are displayed well. It is extremely satisfying to once again witness some classic monster-suit work (a definite improvement from the previous AVP movie) and overall the special effects are more than adequate.
The Strause Brothers are obviously fans of both subgenres. Their main character is named Dallas (after the captain in the original), Kelly O'Brien is an obvious shadow of Ripley, and there is a surprise character at the end for those in the know. But the tagline is unforgivable: "In Earth Everyone Can Hear You Scream". This is a mockery of the classic Alien tagline, and, besides, isn't that the point of being on Earth?
Thar be monsters here – but unfortunately absolutely zip suspense or horror.
3.5/10
Melanie Green
"Haha, tagline is awful, nearly as bad as "My enemy's enemy is my ally". Good write up Ms Green, keep it up." - Stephen Puszyk
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