Death of the Alien Hybrid
I honestly thought that after "AVP: Alien vs. Predator" that was it, there would be no more of these crossover movies but the studios obviously felt otherwise because 3 years later we got "AVPR: Aliens vs Predator - Requiem". And like with "AVP" "AVPR" is another disappointment in fact it is even more disappointing because in reality this movie isn't about Aliens or Predators. Okay so we have a story which sees Aliens crashing to earth and a Predator sent down to clear things up but in reality this is more like a zombie movie. As such the story revolves around a small group of people running to survive as their town is over run by Aliens with a Predator trying to destroy any proof of their or his existence. It is tedious, never exciting and nor does it have some stunning special effects to wow you with, so unless you enjoy mind numbing action there is nothing to write home about.
Making sense of "AVPR" is simple, it starts with a Predator spaceship which just happens to have a Predator infected by an Alien onboard. What should be a moment of shock and awe is seriously dull when we see the Alien burst out from the Predator's chest, the first of many missed opportunities to deliver electrifying atmosphere. The spacecraft crashes to Earth and so we have Aliens on the loose and in particular in the area of Gunnison and so we have a solitary Predator sent to Earth to destroy the Aliens and clear up any evidence of their existence.
But as already mentioned this is a movie less to do with Aliens and Predators and more to do with a bunch of locals fighting to survive. We still get those familiar elements from the Predator's armoury, the Alien's slobbering mouth and so on but basically "AVPR" doesn't build on what we already know.
So as to those survivors who are trying to escape either becoming Alien incubators or being killed by the Predator, well we don't care about them. We have a group of thin characters from a Sheriff to former bad boys who we know very little about and so don't care if they become fodder or not. In fact one thing which sort of stands out about "AVPR" is even those who are relatively decent can die which makes a change because occasionally you are unsure whether one of the good guys will die or not.
And that is it, there is little else to say other than that because none of the actors which include John Ortiz, Johnny Lewis and Steven Pasquale make any impression. Then again nothing about "AVPR" makes an impression be it the direction or the special effects and the action well that is just sporadic moments of violence delivering the same thing we saw in the previous movie.
What this all boils down to is that "AVPR: Aliens vs Predator - Requiem" is dull and truthfully a disappointment all though after the disappointment of "AVP" it is little surprise it is so poor. Maybe those who just like violent action will enjoy it but for anyone else it has little if anything to entertain.
