AVP: Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem

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"Alien vs. Predator: Requiem" is a rare case where the sequel is far superior to the original, but still is hardly a good film. I say this as a fervent fan of both science fiction series that forms the genesis of the AVP franchise and as a person who despised the first AVP entry, "Alien vs. Predator." The first film was simply awful and had very little value in watching the film aside from seeing the big-screen return of the "Predator" creatures. Its plot was laughable and the human characters that populated the film were best served as food dishes to the hordes of aliens. Thankfully, screenwriter Shane Salerno decided to allow these feared xenoforms to the general human populace and provide a concept that the longtime fans of the "Aliens" series has long waited for. If it weren´t for one or two plot missteps and poor human characters, "Alien vs. Predator: Requiem" would have been a clear-cut winner.

The film takes place directly after the events of the first film. The corpse of the scarred Predator warrior from the first film is shown on-board the alien ship. A Chest Burster leaves the corpse and it is quickly revealed that the offspring of the Predator host is the first big-screen appearance by the ´Predalien´ (Tom Woodruff, Jr.); an Alien that takes on half of its characteristics from Predator DNA and is able to produce full-strain Alien offspring without the need of a Face Hugger. For those unfamiliar with the Alien universe, an Alien typically requires a spider-like creature to cling to a host victim´s face and this creature places a single alien offspring into the chest of the host. Eventually, the newborn alien will burst through the chest of its host and enter the world to begin its life of carnage and death. The Predalien simply transfers its offspring, which take on none of the Predator characteristics, by mouth-to-mouth transfer.

The Predalien causes the Predator ship to crash back to Earth and all Predators on-board are killed, but a distress signal is sent out into space to summon a Predator hunter called ´Wolf´ (Ian Whyte) by the film´s directors Colin and Greg Strause. In very short order, the Predalien begins his murderous rampage and starts slaughtering innocent and easy human prey. The residents of Gunnison, Texas soon become aware that murderous creatures are amongst them and a fight to survive ensues between Aliens, Predator, Predalien and human. This includes residents of the town and the National Guard that is called in when an explosion occurs at the local nuclear power plant.

The town´s sheriff, Eddie Morales (John Ortiz) leads a ragtag bunch of residents to a gun store to procure weaponry and then fight the alien invaders. Ex-con Dallas Howard (Steven Pasquale) has a friendship with Sheriff Morales and assists Morales in keeping as many townfolk alive as possible. Dallas´ younger brother Ricky (Johnny Lewis) and his love interest Jesse (Kristen Hager) were ambushed by Aliens at the local high school´s pool and Ricky´s rival Dale Collins (David Paetkau) had showed up with friends to beat Ricky up, but the three find themselves running for their lives from the xenos threat and join up with Morales and Dallas. A few other minor characters inhabit the screen, but they are typically killed by Aliens in short order and do not add much to the story or plot aside than providing a meal for the film´s villains.

As the story moves along, the Predalien creates more and more aliens that infest the sewers and eventually places Gunnison under siege. There is a lot of death and a young mother (Reiko Aylesworth) and her daughter Molly (Ariel Gade) replenish the survivor´s numbers. The military becomes more involved and the survivors must decide if information given by Colonel Stevens (Robert Joy) will lead them to salvation or containment. The Army´s new Stryker provides transportation for the survivors and is incorrectly referred to as a ´Tank´ during the film. Some cool Predator weapons are on display and the final confrontation between Morales and his fellow survivors takes place in a hospital that has become a hive for the Predalien and his Alien offspring.

After watching "Alien vs. Predator: Requiem," I could not help but feel this is the film that should have introduced the two franchises coming together. The first film was pretty much complete rubbish and tarnished these two great franchises further than their most recent sequels. I´ve always wanted to see the Aliens running amuck on Earth and this film finally provided that notion in motion. The plot was still a little hokey, but it was superior to the first film. The first pictured did introduce the character of Weyland. This second movie throws fans another bone with a very brief introduction of Ms. Yutani, the other half of the infamous Weyland-Yutani Corporation. Aside from the movie monsters, this is the only connection to the previous trilogies.

While this film does right with a better story and a better concept that its predecessor, it is still fatally flawed. I have two problems with this movie. The first is that the humans. They are both poorly acted and uninteresting in character. The relationship between Dallas and Morales was just one example of the complete lack of depth to any of the film´s characters. Aside from the love triangle for pretty Jesse, the motivations of the individual characters were nonexistent. It was impossible to tell what made each survivor tick and they seemed pretty well collected considering the circumstances. There was no chemistry and there were no emotions towards caring what happened to any of the characters. Much of this is due to the less-than-stellar acting. There is no A or B list actors in this film. It is unknown talent and I´m not quite sure ´talent´ is a proper term to use. You can´t fully blame the actors, as they weren´t given the best dialogue and newcomers probably found it hard to work against special effects.

The second issue I had with the film wasn´t the story, or the pacing. I found that passable and felt the film moved along nicely. No, the next major problem I had with the film was the Predalien. Yes, I know that this creation has been featured in comics and other elements in the "Alien vs. Predator" universe, but I simply despise the creation. I wanted Predators fighting Aliens. There is no need for a hybrid that is half of each famed alien. The Predalien was more of an oddity than it was frightening. It didn´t seem to fit and I cannot, for the life of me, come to any terms with the reproduction of this ´Queen.´ The Predalien reproduced without the always frightening face-huggers and produced what seemed to be pure-strained Aliens. There was no Predator blood among the offspring. I wanted to see a handful of Predators battling a horde of blood-thirsty aliens. Instead, the film provided a singular Predator fighting something that was part Predator.

The film isn´t the most remarkable science-fiction horror film and it still does some injustice to the classic films "Alien" and "Predator." I found it to be far superior to the first film and there were enough of the iconic Alien critters to keep my interest and the Predator was nicely handled in this film. The humans were a waste of screen-time and the Predalien left me with a feeling of disappointment. I didn´t dislike this sequel, but I have a hard time allowing my lips to use the word ´good´ in describing "Alien vs. Predator: Requiem." Some of the death scenes are very nicely done and there are a couple good jump frights contained in the picture for those susceptible to such things. The action is decent and the effects are convincing. This is probably the fourth best film out of any franchise dealing with either Aliens or Predators. That is not saying a lot considering the poor follow-ups to the first two Alien films or the second Predator film, but maybe the franchise is heading in the right direction now.

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