Review of Aliens vs Predator: Requiem (2007) by C_Degner — 26 Nov 2020

I came to see Aliens and Predators trying to kick each other's ass!! The human characters may have been 2 dimensional, but who really cares? After all, the title is 'Aliens vs Predator,' not 'Gunnerson, CO, A Love Story.' From reading previous posts, you all know the story and how it goes. The first movie was about the Predator's hunting the Aliens as a right of passage, earning the right to wear shoulder cannons. The addition of the Weyland Corp. discovering the temple in the Antarctic was a good story arc.

This time around, there's the Alien/ Predator hybrid to tangle with from the first movie. Before there is any argument over whether or not the alien takes on the characteristics of its host, I'll remind you that the alien did in the 3rd movie - it burst out of a dog, if I recall correctly, and ran after Ripley and the prisoners on all fours, like it's host would. (My inner nerd/ geek coming out, here).

Another poster mentioned the showing of the hybrid in the nursery to imply it ate the human babies before shoving little baby aliens down the throats of pregnant women, as being "too over the top." I don't recall the aliens having a soul or regard for human or other life; just being the perfect killing machines that they are. Engineered and bred to kill and they do in spades in this film.

I did root for the Predator, and always will, because unlike the aliens, they do have a code. In Predator 2, he was about to kill a woman cop until he discovered she was pregnant. He let her live unlike the aliens in this movie as I mentioned above. Here, we see that he's portrayed much like Harvey Keitel's character of "The Cleaner" in 'Point of No Return' (remember when he dissolved the targets in the fountain using acid?) or 'Pulp Fiction.' He doesn't care how the mess got created, he's just there to clean it up as best he can and leave no traces. Like my Drill Instructor always said - "We were never here.".

Why I gave it a '9' out of 10? First was the lighting - too dark; what's wrong with using dimmer light? Have it take place at dusk or dawn, or something? Another was because this Predator was bad ass from the get go; taking on 5 aliens at once isn't an easy feat, but from the sight of his trophy room it's clear he's accomplished and more than capable of handling his task. However, I was let down by him taking one of his shoulder cannons and turning it into a pistol. That cheapened his image for me, because I felt the Predator to be like a ninja type hunter and not have to resort to something that crude. I suppose as maybe a last resort, but still it didn't sit right with me.

The ending I felt was rushed, but it had the same feel as the 'Resident Evil' franchise; giving it a mediocre ending to leave wide enough room for a sequel.

IMO, the human characters just got in the way. Perhaps a better installment to appease everyone would be to leave out the human characters, and have us watch a movie with zero dialog set on a desolate planet in the far reaches of space where we can see both species' behavior in action.

Then again, people would **** about that, too.