Customer Reviews

Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem (Unrated Edition)

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(53)
3 star:		(63)
2 star:		(66)
1 star:		(125)

 

 

This is one of the worst films I have ever seen (try to see) and a shameful abuse of one of the greatest movie monsters of all time. The Alien is no longer scary. Gone is the elegance. Gone is the menace and chilling patience. Made by people who know how to make FX but have no real idea about how to make a movie. I sometimes wondered if they were making fun of what had gone before, like a Zucker/Abrams flick as it seemed to veer into what could be construed as parody. Sadly, no.

I knew going in it would be bad, and that it would probably be yet another nail in the coffin of my favorite sci-fi sequels ("Alien" in my case, though I do enjoy the "Predator" films). I had seen the "redband" trailer, and stared in horror at its frenetic menagerie of 80s teen slasher clichés; I even watched the "exclusive" online clip of the film's first five minutes, and hoped that they had been edited down from a better-paced original (as it turned out, they had not). But even so, I gave the movie a shot. Why? I'm not sure. Perhaps because if a beloved artifice that one has admired for years is to be systematically dismantled and thrown on the trash heap, one should be there to watch it burn. At least, I thought, with my expectations this low, this movie's directors would have to try very hard to undercut them.

They did. I mean really, they must have tried hard. It takes some kind of effort to take two of the most durable mythologies in modern scifi and make them a backdrop to a pizza guy's coming of age. Seriously. That is the only discernible story-arc in this entire film. Truth be told I could forgive even that if the characters hadn't came pre-assembled right out of the teen movie stock barrel. Instead this film spends 40 minutes trying to make us care whether Smarmy Teen gets it off with Hot Blonde before Blond Bully Ex-Boyfriend finds out. Thank God he has Troubled Ex-Con Brother (who trumps in along with his buddy, Nice Cop) to help him out once the aliens (who arrive courtesy of "disturbing" evisceration of Happy Hunting Dad and his son, Curious Preteen) start to take out the population (such as Mumbling Bum Who No One Will Ever Believe and Dense Cop Who Keeps Looking In The Dark After Everyone Else Has Left). They soon meet up with Screaming Bereft Mother and Military Chick, who saves her daughter Cute Little Girl after her husband Wussy New Man is vivisected in line with tradition.

Honestly, with this zoo of automated plot-bots to manage, how do the aliens and the predators (actually a Predator) get a look in? Well in truth, they don't. Very little time is spent developing either character (and let's face it, since neither character actually talks, that isn't surprising) and any tension built up between them is quickly dissipated as the film returns to the interminable "I Know What You Did Last Summer" slasher plot. I'm not sure what sort of budget this had but you can see that money spent on each subsequent Alien or Predator film is getting less & less, with average special effects, no name actors, bland locations & surprisingly cheap looking production values. Please stop embarrassing yourselves even further.

When AVP went into production fans of both the Alien and Predator movies were very excited, but a little hope was lost when it was announced Paul WS Anderson was the writer/director; but what really got fans going crazy was when the rating was PG-13. While one cannot deny there were flaws with AVP it had more to do with the writing than anything else. Anderson's scripts often feel like an early draft rather than final shooting script. All the Alien and Predator movies were R-rated and no doubt AVP should have as well, but when all was said and done the PG-13 rating isn't what hurt AVP. Yes it could have used more gore and action, but the problems again were with the writing.

With AVP-R announced without Paul Anderson being involved and the movie being made with an R-Rating fans were once again excited. And to be totally honest after watching AVP-R I think I'd much rather have Paul Anderson involved. AVP-R was a rather poor movie, while there was potential without Anderson I really think we would have been better off with him.

The biggest problem with AVP-R is the lighting. Daniel Pearl was the DP and from what I have seen from him I have liked. He did the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre so right there he gets my respect, but the lighting here was terrible. There was more gore than AVP, but we can't see it! I don't know if Daniel Pearl was to blame or if it was Colin & Greg Strause who are the directors are too blame. Since Pearl is the DP I have to blame him. Watching this movie at times is sort of like watching a movie with your eyes closed. That was the biggest problem here, but not the only problem.

The screenplay by Shane Salerno was terrible. There were far too many characters to keep track of and all were so poorly written and lack any depth at all. AVP-R is the type of movie that when all is said and done you'll be hard pressed to remember the names of any of the characters. The script was really poor. It's like Shane Salerno didn't even bother to try. We have the fan base for the Alien and Predator movies and well they'll see anything we spit out. Once again Hollywood treats us like idiots.

Directors Colin & Greg Strause fail at brining any suspense and tension and with the terrible lighting not much of a surprise their scenes lack any of that. The action scenes are decent, but again since we can barley see them they fail at brining any excitement. There were a couple of solid scenes, but not nearly enough to salvage this movie. Had I actually been able to see what was happening maybe AVP-R wouldn't have failed as much as it did; by no means would this be a great movie, but slightly better. The final act is the worst offender; the scenes in the hospital for the climax are so dark that if you have any interest left in the movie by this point you'll probably lose it.

AVP-R proved that the rating of AVP had nothing to do with its failure. Would an R-rating have made AVP better? Odds are yes very slightly better, but no way would it have been great. Like I said earlier the PG-13 rating didn't hurt AVP as much as the writing and this movie proved that. AVP-R was R-rated and wasn't as good as AVP, which was average at best. A lot has changed over the years, back in the 70s and 80s many movies were butchered by the MPAA and if released now most of these titles would clear and R-rating with ease and some would feature minor cuts and not be totally butchered. If AVP was released back in the 80s or mid 90s it would possibly get an R-rating.

Times have changed though and AVP pulled off the PG-13, but it is slightly more extreme than most PG-13 flicks. Paul Anderson is hated by legions of Horror/Sci-Fi fans and while I can't say I like the guys work I don't hate it. I can tolerate him, but barley. And honestly I never thought I would say to myself I wish Paul Anderson did this and while watching AVP-R I found myself wishing Anderson would have done it.

These cross over movies almost always seem to fail. Back in the 40s Universal did it with their monster movies and while some were fun none of them were as good as the monsters on their own. So when it came to AVP I wasn't expecting anything like the movies from either series. Besides being a Vs movie it's also a sequel to both Alien and Predator and honestly with some exceptions as a series goes on they don't get better they might stay enjoyable if lucky. With AVP-R I was simply expecting some mindless fun, and while it was very mindless the makers forgot about the fun part.

For the hardcore fans of the Alien and Predator movies are the only ones who should watch this, but I doubt this movie will live up to your expectations. This one doesn't correct the problems found in AVP it just creates its own and far worse problems. With better lighting AVP-R would have been better, but still not very good either.

Let me begin this review by explaining to those who may not know, that there are a series of very well written AVP books. The central figure is a woman named Machiko Noguchi, who works for Weyland-Yutani Corporation. The series starts off on a colony world, and long story short, much like the original AVP movie, Machiko is blooded as a Predator warrior. But where the first AVP movie made an uninspiring choice, in the AVP books, Machiko joins the predators on their hunts across the galaxy, which makes for a gripping story with her internal conflicts between her loyalty to the predators, her hatred of the aliens, and her heritage as a human. They're really well done, and I highly recommend them:

1. Prey (Aliens Vs. Predator, Book 1)
2. Hunter's Planet (Aliens Vs. Predator, Book 2)
3. War (Aliens Vs. Predator, Book 3)

So, given this context, I found the first AVP movie to be by far the most closely aligned with this vision of AVP, although disappointing that it stopped short of carrying through with the theme described in the novels. Not surprisingly, I found the second AVP movie (requiem), to not only be an unfaithful extension of that theme and a complete deviation from previously understood Alien canon, but also an utter mess of a movie in general.

I would rank the Alien movies as follows:

1. Aliens (*****)
2. Alien (*****)
3. AVP 1 (***)
4. Alien 3 (**)
5. Alien Resurrection (**)
6. AVP Requiem (*)

To provide additional insight about my view of this movie, I own all previously released Alien movies, but have no intention of wasting my money on this one. Furthermore, after I'd finished viewing this movie at the theatre, I was actually incensed as I told myself that I'd just lost 101 minutes of my life that I could never get back.

Do yourself a favor - spend some quality time with a friend or family member, go out to a nice restaurant, or read a good book (such as those I've listed above), but DO NOT waste some of your precious time on this Earth watching this stinker.

I think it's safe to say that the AvP crossover is not Hollywood's thing. This movie sucked. it had decent action scenes, but it was too dark to ever get a good sense of what was going on. Acting and storyline were sub=par at best. The deal with the hybrid impregnating pregnant women was distasteful and offensive. I guess the Strause Brothers and their mom didn't get along too well.

Top 10 Reasons This Movie Sucks

1. Characters are bad, their performances are bad and at every opportunity they make bad choices. Especially the sheriff that guy was retarded or something.

2. What was the predator's motivation? At first I thought it was here to cover up / kill the escaped aliens when it was hiding bodies but then it started randomly killing people and leaving them skinned and hanging in trees.

3. I thought the National Guard troops were going to make the movie interesting. I was really hoping for some aliens/space marines style action. But they were all killed in like a minute by the aliens. "Game over man."

4. Alien acid blood flying everywhere and no one getting burned.

5. The blond girl getting killed.

6. Her borderline retarded boyfriend living.

7. Predator taking off all his weapons to fight the boss alien. Guess he wanted to keep it fare.

8. Aliens no longer need to lay eggs they now simply spit half a dozen embryos down people's throats. And all half dozen of them come popping out of their chest two and one half minutes later. Good for them that was a real weakness.

9. Fights are so dark you can't tell the Alien from the predator when they are rolling around. But with the amount of alien acid blood flying around he should have been a puddle.

10. The paratroopers should have mowed the survivors down as they exited the crashed helicopter. They just nuked the town for Christ sake they would want to cover that up. And the government deciding to nuke a town based on a 2 second clip of a alien.

It's like this movie was written by a couple of stupid drunken frat boys. I hear their next movie will be called "Ninjas VS Pirates".

Hope this review helps.

Thanks,

There's bad cinema, and there's really bad cinema. And then there's AvP Requiem. I do sympathize with the cast and crew, however, having a budget of only $40 million. With today's high-tech blue screens, CGI and special effects computers, $40 million ain't much. But it should still be possible to make a fair film from that meager amount.

Regardless of budgetary constraints (Pitch Black cost only $23 million to make), one would hope for at least some cool camera shots, great action sequences, and good gadgets. Not so. The filming is dark. Too dark. In fact, it was so dark I couldn't tell who was doing what to whom. "Are they having sex? Or is that blood spurting from someone's eye?"

Next problem: main character. Who was it?! I have no idea. If someone out there in FilmLand knows, please advise. At first I thought it might be Dallas Howard (Steven Pasquale), a down-on-his-luck excon trying to find his way after his release from jail. But no, we quickly move away from him and on to ...a mother named Kelly (Reiko Aylesworth, Mr. Brooks) who's just returned from military service and is trying to reconnect with her young daughter Molly (Ariel Gade, Dark Water). But no, we then move on to Dallas' brother Ricky (Johnny Lewis, a pizza delivery boy whose crush on a local hottie has him in hotter water with some local bullies. But no, then we move on (fleetingly) to Colonel Stevens (Robert Joy) who somehow, someway, knows that there's a serious threat to national security in this small town and is prepared to do whatever is necessary to eliminate it. Perhaps the main character was the Predator/Alien hybrid? Or the Predator that comes from Predatoria (my made up name for their homeworld) to kick some serious hybrid booty? Or maybe ...I don't know!

When you have two such major weaknesses in a film (poor lighting and no main character to follow), you've pretty much set yourself up for disaster. Fans of the graphic novels might have fun sitting through it, but for regular ol' scifi buffs, this one's a no-go.

(P.S. There's the possibility of a sequel thanks to the impregnating of a pregnant woman with ...OH WHO CARES! Grrr!)

By definition, a movie is "a motion picture." How can there be any motion when the entire screen is black? Even with all the lights out, and your equipment adjusted to enhance, the action you are able to see in this flick is confusing at best. Most of the time will be spent wondering what you are supposed to be looking at. The rest of the time will be spent wondering why the heck you should care - in addition to being pi**ed off because you spent good money on this mud. AVPR would be a great case study for future film students. This is what happens when artistic self-indulgence gets in the way of the story. You can't RELATE to the story on the screen if you can't SEE the story on the screen (like writing that story on white paper using white ink). Subjecting film students to mandatory viewing of this "movie" should drive the point home quite neatly. There are failures on all other levels, too. Due to the lack of comprehensive visuals, this could almost be repackaged as an audio book - if it wasn't for the shoddy writing and the sub-zero acting. "On earth everyone can hear you scream." They are screaming REFUND!

My wife and I both loved AVP. It began with an archeological dig, which we love, paying homage to The Thing. AVP 2, as we'll call this, was a disaster.
There was a lot of action. That's true. If we'd been able to see any of it, it would have been good. This movie made us stop and increase brightness for our picture to where it distorted every other channel/movie. Just so we could try to watch AVP 2.
The aliens were given dreadlocks (I think--hard to really see), so it was almost impossible to tell if it was an alien or the Predator.
The day in this Colorado town was odd: 23 hours plus of night each day. We'd get about 10 minutes of daytime action, then it would be night again. And impossible to see what was happening. What a sorry disappointment.

What happened. I have been a Alien and Predator fan since I was able to remember. After reading all the comics and playing al the games I could not wait for the movie. AvP 1 wasn't bad but completely unfullfilling. I figured round 2 they would improve the action with a decent story-line but no. AvP Requim has awesome action but awful story. I brought 5 friends and they all hated life after. How hard is it to make a decent plot? The action is awesome, the original soundtrack and sfx are all there, new weapons, tons of killings, but the plot is a teenage drama, A TEENAGE DRAMA!!! What the hell where these guys thinking. I finally get the action I wanted, a Predalien, tons of aliens, still only 1 predator (which is another screw up) and then they gave us this plot, I felt cheated in life. I hope Fox realizes they messed up big time and sell the franchise to a company (WB, Paramount, MGM even Disney!!!) they wont ruin this anymore.

Insipid. Abysmal. Wretched. Horrible. Abhorrent....when something is this bad, how can words describe it?

The direction was absolutely terrible - constantly dark, murky, and muted lighting makes it difficult to see anything. These directors clearly do not know what they are doing. There is the total absence of a narrative or conflict that drives movies and make the original two Aliens movies great and first Predator decent. The story can't decide if it is a teenage horror movie, science fiction, or action thriller. Of course, with directors as incompetent as these, it fails miserably on all counts. They can't even get one out of three right. It is pointlessly cruel - one could tolerate an exploding pregnant woman's abdomen or the implied death of 20 or so infants in a hospital if there was a point or even in a teenage boy kind of attempt-to-be-edgy-and-artsy way, but in this context there was no point. While Battlefield Earth was a good bad movie, thus making it a mildly pleasant, albeit absurd, diversion, this film is the worst kind: a bad bad movie.

If you go to the directors' website, you can see their other "work" - commercials, music videos, etc. There may be a few who like these talentless, poor excuses for film makers and use the fact that this film did well financially worldwide as a defense. But there is one thing we all can agree on: in 20 years, the directors will be quickly forgotten, relegated to the dustbin of film-maker history, where they will rightfully take their place among the totally forgotten, unremarkable, and utterly meaningless film makers.