I posted this review yesterday...
Roughly defined, the word "Requiem" means a song or mourning for the dead. When added to the title of the new Alien/Aliens vs. Predator film, I'm not quite sure what about this word is supposed to be descriptive of the events that are unfolding. We have a lone Predator covering up the deaths of his comrades due to the infestation of the Alien Xenomorph species. Sort of a damage control, as it were. I guess it could be related to the events taking motion due to the fallen Predators in the films opening.
Or perhaps the directors of the film, Greg and Colin Strause, saw their film, blunderingly titled AVPR: Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem, as a sort of homage to two dead franchises that needed to merge together in order to continue. Is this the requiem that the title refers to? Most likely. I can't help but notice the fact that the film's main heroine "coincidentally" looks a lot like Alien hard ass Sigourney Weaver and is "coincidentally" placed in much similar situations that Weaver's Ripley character was placed in for the film Aliens.
I think that is an excelent example of why AVPR failed. I'm sure the Strause Brothers thought this was a cute little wink wink, but the movie always seems to be looking back and never moving forward.
My prominant theory as to why "Requiem" was added to the title is that they wanted to add "R" to AVP and turn the acronym of AVPR into a double entadre. It's AVP again, but this time it's
R! As in
rated R. An attempt to appease all the whiney crybabies on the net that thought that rating the original AVP PG-13 was the equivalant of murdering their siblings. Now they can have all their blood and guts and sigh with relief.
But gore does not a movie make. The first AVP may have been toned down, but at least it was interesting to watch. AVPR is a bit too...for the lack of a better term...safe. I know, I'm asking to be flamed by posting on the net that a PG-13 Alien/Predator film is less safe than an R rated one. The fact is that neither film was great, but making a movie with an idea is better than throwing a plotless gorefest together as a byproduct for those who weren't pleased by a lack of it previously.
There are some aspects that AVPR delivers in. The acting is better than the previous film, though you still won't care to follow any careers after seeing any of them. In the past I've commented on how the first AVP felt more like an Alien film than a Predator film, with it's dark and claustrophobic sets and atmosphere, and AVPR counterbalances it by making it feel more in the vein of Predator and Predator 2. In fact, the choreography of the main Predator is the best since the 1987 film, and when this "One Ugly Motherflapjackser" is onscreen, the movie is at it's best.
On the other hand, the setting is poor, the characters are nothing but cannon fodder, and the film has absolutly no pace (this latter complaint is self-admitedly a problem the original AVP had as well). I might have liked the movie better had it built up a momentum, but even for 80 minutes (the shortest film of either series) this movie felt
long. And then there are just moments that made me question the entire film. There is a scene midway through the film in which the main "bad" alien, the Alien/Predator hybrid, somehow impregnates a woman without the aid of a facehugger, which has been previously established as the the way the Aliens reproduce. It's a very odd and confusing scene that
could have been cut without effecting the rest of the film, and yet, it's just left in leaving the viewer rather speechless.
I'll only recommend AVPR to those who don't care about plot and just want to see some Aliens bust out of people's chests and the Predator slice some heads off. The film takes no mercy. Men, women, and children of all ages are slaughtered left and right. None of it is scary or effective in any way, but you know any movie that shows an alien looking at a newborn baby nursery as a buffet table isn't afraid to go too far.
For those of us who were hoping that there would be a good reason to sit through these two races duke it out again, the film offers nothing to make it worthwhile. This soulless film is a serious contender with Alien: Resurrection as the worst of either series. Resurrection at least had ideas, it just executed them incompetantly. AVPR is just a ghost.
** out of ****
