Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem
Now this is more like it. The acting and dialogue are still pretty bad (although one line stands out as hilariously serious- “People are dying. We need guns.”), and the story is merely serviceable. OK, in all honesty, this is still not a good movie. But this second go at combining two of Hollywood’s most terrifying cinematic creations does succeed at giving us some prime Alien on Predator action, which the first one skimped on terribly. This time around, you just can’t really appreciate the creature effects, as the film is so stark you can only see them mostly in outline. What’s the point in introducing a hybrid creature if we can’t appreciate the artistry of the design?
I’m not going to spend time going through the different human stories, ’cause what’s the point really? This is about the title creatures, whose continuing battle royale delivers the goods. “Requiem” picks up where Paul W.S. Anderson’s 2004 crapfest left off, with a dead predator lying on a table and an alien bursting out of its’ stomach. The ensuing struggle leads to the Predator ship crashing in Colorado, specimen facehuggers getting loose, and proceeding to wreak havoc on a small town (the opening is terrific). When a Predator on the home planet sees what happens, he makes haste to earth to stop the alien invaders.
While the gripping dread of Ridley Scott, James Cameron, and John McTiernan’s films for the franchises is still a thing of the past, at least the two alien species are reverted back to their badass selves in this dreary, but somewhat dumb fun, sequel. Neither species is shy at killing the humans in the middle of their war (even using them as bait for the other), and both are ruthless killers. It’s good to see the Predator back to form after the drinking buddy he became to the lone human survivor in the first film. He’s now a dangerous hunter, of both Alien and human prey while also the valiant warrior the first film painted the iconic race. And Brian Tyler bulks up the excitement with an ominous and action-filled score that pays tribute to the greats before him in the task (Horner, Goldsmith, Silvestri). This may not be the Alien or Predator movies of my childhood, but compared to the first film in this duel franchise, it looks like “Citizen Kane.” Of course, it still pales to New Line’s slyly entertaining camp fest “Freddy vs. Jason.” Maybe next time…at which point maybe we’ll be able to see something as well.
