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

After the watered down effort AvP was which had an interesting premise but poor delivery, I went into the cinema with an open mind. There will always be people who don't want the Alien or Predator series to be tarnished by numerous brainless sequels, I for one am one of those people. However I do feel that this film delivers some serious kick ass action and a decent story whilst tying up some ends.

The predalien is a new twist to the series which to me is needed whilst the alien and predator are back doing what they do best, the fact that most action with both creatures is shot for real without CGI for the most part brings back some reality into the film series. I find it doesn't matter how 'real' something looks, your mind just tells you that it isn't real. The acting was something that I felt may let the story down as there are no real recognisable big names but they were believable in the roles they played.

Being set in modern day Colorado I was fearing from the trailers a bit of a teen slasher flick vibe but it didn't turn into one. I thought too that being set where it's set it would just feel too far removed from its space roots to feel like an alien film (thank god for sewers). Although it is interesting to note, I mean who says Alien films have to be in space? The music was well written as there was recognisable themes running through the score for the predator and alien. The other thing in this film is that it didn't play safe and everyone was fair game quite a few chestbursting scenes that are far gorier than AvP.

Now, spoiler or 2 ahead so be warned... The story picks up straight after AvP with the predalien chestburster wreaking havoc onboard the predator ship. I swear the aliens seem to grow faster in each flick however it was hinted that the predators used a juiced up queen in the pyramid in the original. This was so that laying of eggs, facehugger gestation and alien growth time are hastened so the hunt can begin sooner. The predator in the film seems to be the guy who ties up loose ends but ultimately he ends up over his head as the alien spawn gets larger and larger. There are some very cool new gadgets which I won't reveal but you can see a couple in the trailers. You also get a quick glimpse of the Predator homeworld which is awesome. The main predator's seat looks very much like the seat that the 'space jockey' is sitting in in the original Alien.

Apart from the creatures, the main human characters in the film seem to be a woman marine very reminiscent of Ripley and to me thats not such a bad thing as I just didn't relate to the main female lead in the original AvP. There is also a main male lead who is trying to escape with his brother. To be honest I found the acting in the first flick to be annoying apart from Lance Henriksen who is an acting god and his demise in that film was totally unconvincing (Thanks Paul Anderson for giving the man such poor material to work with).

The ending does tie up some of the Alien movie mythos nicely. In the future in the Alien films "the company" was Weyland Yutani, we met Weyland in AvP and in this you see the Yutani side and a suggestion as to how we accelerated our understanding of technology in the future.

All in all I was pleasantly surprised, it wasn't a touch on the original films from either of the alien or pred films but it does fit in nicely to the genre and stands on it own feet bringing something new to the series whilst being faithful to its roots.