Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem

Posted on December 25th, 2007.
Genre: Action / Horror / Sci-Fi

Starring: Steven Pasquale, Reiko Aylesworth, John Ortiz, Johnny Lewis, Ariel Gade, Kristen Hager, Robert Joy

Directed by: Colin Strause & Greg Strause

Written by: Shane Salerno

Genre: Action / Horror / Sci-Fi

Run Time: 86 min

Rated: Rated R for violence, gore and language.

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Trailer

Official Site

US Theatrical Release Date: December 25, 2007

Disclaimer: We think that Predator is the best movie ever made, so please don’t expect a biased review for AVP:R

I love both the alien and predator franchises and will continue to see and get excited about every sequel they can throw at me - that being said, this was an awesome addition to the franchise.

I didn’t find out until I saw the 5min preview online, but the movie starts off exactly where AVP finishes. That ending always bothered me a bit because the predators are portrayed as the ultimate hunters who know and respect the evil creatures that they hunt - leaving a few questions to be answered between movies:

- why would the main hunter in AVP not have realized that a facehugger had jumped at him?

- why did the predators that took him onto the ship not check him for embryos?

- why did a predator ship designed for carrying both predators and alien eggs, facehuggers, etc. not have any kind of precautionary measures setup to deal with an escaped alien?

- how did the predalien hatch, grow, and cause enough havoc on the ship in time for it to crash on earth (as it was headed away from earth when first hatching)? (i’m willing to let this one go though as it is known from all past alien movies that the chestburster gestation time frame is usually solely dependent upon the script’s plot points and not science)

If you’re willing to let these questions go unanswered, you’re in for a fun ride w/ AVP:R. All fucking hell breaks loose in the first five minutes and it just gets worse from there. The fast pace and complete chaos in this movie make you feel even more a part of it - you end up not being able to take a deep breath until the surviving characters are able to do the same.

Anyone who has seen some of these movies knows the drill, but AVP:R adds its mark to alien dogma by showing some new (and very disturbing) scenes. Without going into too much detail, the predalien seems to be able to reproduce without the traditional queen element as long as it can find a hospital room full of pregnant chicks (see pic above & I’m stopping there). I also thought it was pretty baddass when the predator homeworld found out about what happened on the ship and decided to send a search and destroy party consisting of 1 (one) predator - a true testament to how tough their senior ranks are.

The giant nerd in me (ok, i’m all nerd, but whatever) enjoyed the numerous references to the past movies. The main character’s name (yeah, the guy from rescue me) was Dallas, a nice tribute to the Nostromo’s captain in the movie that started them all. The sounds of the Colonel’s computer came directly from the first two films. The main character even finds himself in a situation where he’s telling the other survivors to “..get to the chopper” which you can’t go wrong with. All little tributes that made nice additions.

There’s also an interesting scene at the end where the predator’s plasma caster shotgun is delivered by the military to a woman identified as Ms. Yutani (presumably of Weyland/Yutani, or “the company”). He then drops a line saying that this tech was not meant for this world, but I understand that’s not your goal Ms. Yutani (or something like that). Just like it was done for them, the Brothers Strause setup for the next one which will hopefully take us off-world and possibly into the early days of terraform colonies.

If you like any of the alien or predator movies you will enjoy this - (in ahhnold voice) “get to the theater” - ok, that was lame..

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