I certainly was not expecting this movie to be as good as the first AVP, mainly because it is directed by people other than the previous director and I wasn’t really impressed with what they had expressed to the media about the vision and direction they were taking. Pretty much, I was right. I did, however expect Requiem to be better than it turned out to be. Its cool scenes are too few and far between and it is marred by a setting and events that either don’t make sense or don’t jive with the established formula for these iconic sci-fi characters.
AVP:R starts out pretty cool. It picks up immediately where the first AVP left off. We get to see the alien/predator hybrid burst out of the chest again. This new creature kills the crew of the spaceship and it crash lands somewhere in Colorado. As expected, the alien face huggers and eggs that they were experimenting on are knocked loose in the crash, infect a few locals, and are soon running all over the city. In a cruel tease, we see some sort of elder or king of the predators on their homeworld. He has been notified of the crash, quickly collects his hunting gear, and departs in his own craft to clean up the mess.
The rest of the movie involves the townsfolk running from and trying to defend against the aliens while the elder predator goes around camouflaged and cleans up evidence with some kind of neon blue glowing juice that is able to dissolve all the questionable bodies.
The best parts of the movie are, like the first time around, watching the alien and predator duke it out. The elder predator is able to easily dispatch grunt aliens one after another. He is clearly very experienced. The hybrid is more than a match for him though, mixing alien speed and physiology with predator strength and hunting skills. Its a shame then that so many other things detract from this. We are introduced to a few human characters to try to get us to feel for them, but things pick up quickly and the character development is poor so you end up not really caring about what happens to any of the humans. Maybe its just me, but I find it completely uninteresting to watch people from our own time try to fight the aliens when they are so obviously mismatched with our primitive weapons. Most importantly, don’t tease us with 5 seconds of the predator homeworld only to have the entire movie take place in Colorado!!! GAAAHHH!
As far as the new stuff, I guess I can accept the blue glowing goo that dissolves stuff, but late into the movie we see that the hybrid creature has somehow gained the ability to start sucking on a pregnant womans face and plant something inside her that turns the baby into aliens. Whuuuuttttt????? Where the heck did THIS idea come from? It seems out of place and untrue to what either the alien or predator is supposed to be. Lastly, during the humans escape from the town, one of them picks up the predators shoulder gun that has fallen off. Without any knowledge of technology from another planet or how to use it, he proceeds to shoot the gun at any alien that comes near him. I dont think those guns even have triggers!
The reason the first AVP worked so well (especially set in current times) is that the location was so remote and unique it might just as well have been on another world. It also gave the aliens and predators a good, believable reason for being in the same movie together that made sense. The human characters were obviously only along for the ride, caught in the middle of something bigger. This movie feels more like a rehash of Alien Resurrection with a predator cameo than it does an AVP sequel. I am willing to forgive a lot if a film makes up for it with cool stuff. I’m afraid to say though that Requiem’s problems are too big and the cool stuff not nearly plentiful enough to overcome them. One of the biggest sequel screw-ups Ive ever seen, and thats saying a lot coming from me. If you’re an unwavering fan, wait for DVD and put it on your Netflix list. If you spend actual money on it, you will be let down. I was.
