Aliens vs Predator: Requiem is a quintessential example of modern-day, “because-we-can” studio
filmmaking — greenlit and indeed wholly conceived not to satisfy any particular
creative notions, but just to wring undiscriminating, genre-fan dollars from
characters for which the studio, in this case 20th Century Fox, already owns
the rights.
I perhaps can’t speak expertly to the movie’s placement
within the canon of the extended Alien
vs. Predator brand (e.g., the comics, novelizations and videogames), but as
a big screen hybrid of two touchstone, extraterrestrial-influenced action
franchises — highlights of which include Ridley Scott’s seminal work of science
fiction and horror, Alien; James
Cameron’s adrenalized masterpiece follow-up, Aliens; and John McTiernan’s 1987, thrill-of-the-hunt, tropic-set Predator, about an otherworldly warrior stalking
and getting stalked by the future governor of California — this wan exercise in
homage induces chiefly sighs. The title creatures are trotted out, blood is
spilt, and roughly an hour and a half later one is free to go on their way and
continue their day, unencumbered by anything as novel as a strong reaction to
the movie, one way or another.
The story unfolds over 24 hours in the small-sized, central
town of
Predator’s ship crash lands after an on-board fracas, and several Aliens
scamper away. Receiving a distress beacon, another Predator shows up to aide
his comrade and track down the offending creatures. Naturally, this means very
bad things for pretty much the entire populace of
That includes Sheriff Eddie Morales (John Ortiz) and his old friend Dallas
(Steven Pasquale), back in town from a recent prison stint. Meanwhile,
younger brother Ricky (Johnny Lewis, of the forthcoming One Missed Call) is caught up in a love triangle with high school
student Jesse (Kristen Hager) and her jerky jock boyfriend Dale (David Paetkau,
sneering enough to earn points as an honorary Busey). These characters
eventually cross paths with young mother Kelly (24’s Reiko Aylesworth), a returning soldier, and her 9-year-old
daughter Molly (Ariel Gade).
After a Predator/Alien battle blows out Gunnison’s
electricity and leaves the local power station in shambles, a National Guard
battalion is summoned — apparently operating under the Dominos Pizza dictum of
delivery, because they arrive in less than 30 minutes, only to get dutifully
slaughtered and conveniently bequeath their equipment to our main band of
survivors, who then quarrel about the best method of survival and/or escape.
The movie’s screenplay, by Shane Salerno, is full of generic and/or stilted dialogue, and the characters are
fairly thinly sketched. Ortiz is mightily ineffectual as Morales, and while
part of that is in the character (there’s supposed to be a fraternal power
struggle between he and Dallas), neither the film’s script nor direction is
smart enough to make full, interesting use of that, leaving him twisting in the
wind and audiences wondering how this guy came to be sheriff in the first
place. The script is no great shakes in terms of its narrative plotting either;
in lieu of fresh or imaginative staging, it evidences its… umm, “borrowed”
imagination through tangential set-ups to showcase no fewer than four
alien-bursting-through-stomach sequences.
Still, I suppose the movie serves as a successful mulligan
for 2004’s Antarctic-set Alien vs.
Predator in a couple important respects. Most notably, of course, is the
film’s rating, in line with the R-rated origins of its source franchises. This,
combined with a generally healthy sense of mayhem (e.g., kids in peril, plus
who dies and when) give the film a few moments of fleeting, pleasant, mild
surprise.
nearly exceptional about Alien vs.
Predator: Requiem. It necessarily follows that a good bit of the movie’s
action is of somewhat murky design, given the difficulties of CGI rendering and
to-scale battle, but co-directors Colin and Greg Strause, visual effects
supervisors making their respective feature film directorial debuts, muck up
most of even the cheapest thrills of catharsis.
moments of each of these franchises that makes the excitement of seeing them in
action again tickle the cortex a bit. But there’s no compelling story here and
no top-shelf, bravura execution, so why shell out extra money for nostalgia’s
sake when your own DVD player can provide the same kick? For the full, slightly expanded original review, from Reelz, click here. (20th Century Fox, R,
92 minutes)