What's worse than witnessing the deterioration of a beloved franchise? Seeing two disintegrate at the same time. Such was the feeling of watching 2004's lazy Paul W.S. Anderson effort,
"Alien vs. Predator". So it was with a heavy, betrayal-filled heart that I signed on for this next installment "Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem". While this randomly-named entry has none of the style or thrill of its source material - and a plot that amounts to little more than "Friday the 13th" with Aliens - "Requiem" is a slightly more respectable attempt to save these two flagging franchises from the dust bin.
Picking up scant seconds after "AvP" left off, the script by Shane Salerno sets up its premise with the expediency of a good graphic novel. As you'll no doubt recall, the Predator ship had left earth with a little surprise on board in the form of a newly-born Alien-Predator hybrid. Faster than you can say "face hugger!", the newborn Alien causes enough mayhem to crash the ship in a remote Colorado forest - perfect for a self-contained Alien feeding frenzy.
Enter our human fodder in the form of Steven Pasquale from "Rescue Me" (a dead-ringer for Cole Hauser, for what that's worth). The filmmakers have the gumption to name this character Dallas, in a direct reference to Tom Skerritt's memorable role in the original "Alien". Dallas has a younger brother named Ricky who's having some trouble with bullies at school. This allows Mr. Salerno's script to get Dallas and Ricky into the sewer in attempt to find the car keys that said bullies threw down there. I'll bet you can see where that scene goes.
Johnny Lewis does some surprisingly fine work as Ricky, rising above the usual B-level acting required in these films. Mr. Lewis resembles a young Noah Wyle, and he has an unexpected intensity. Watching his performance is reminiscent of seeing a young Johnny Depp in "A Nightmare on Elm Street" or Jennifer Aniston in "Leprechaun" - this may not be the last we see of this actor. Reiko Aylesworth (Michelle Dessler from "24", channeling her inner Sigourney) also shows up as some kind of war vet (handy to have around in these situations).
Where the first "AvP" featured many of both species (perhaps it should have been called "Aliens vs Predators"), "Requiem" lives up to its name. While the Aliens quickly multiply (they'll do that) and overrun the town, it's up to one lone Predator to clean up the mess - in some cases literally, via a magic blue liquid that dissolves Aliens dead. As is becoming the norm, the filmmakers play fast-and-loose with the Alien lifecycle. Again, the face-hugger/chest-burster combo takes mere minutes, and there's some particularly weird, pointless and unexplained violence in a maternity ward. I'm happy the filmmakers went for a "hard R" (a mistake that cost the first "AvP" much of its cred), but this pregnancy angle is just plain unnecessary.
The direction by Colin and Greg Strause is rudimentary at best. Coming from the world of Visual Effects, the Brothers Strause (as they like to be called) spend more time setting up the gore than setting up a scene. Happily, the Predator mask is vastly improved from the last time out, but the few true Alien versus Predator smack-downs we see (and we don't see enough) are almost too dark and noisy to comprehend. There is one truly memorable sequence in "Requiem" which gives us a cursory glance at the Predator home planet - and dares to attempt to relate it to the derelict spacecraft from the original "Alien". This is the kind of thing we need to see more of.
The original "Alien" and "Predator" films featured two of the richest and most memorable sci-fi monsters to be put on screen in the past three decades. Why then is it so difficult to make a good movie from this wealth of material? The script takes great pains to preserve the integrity of the timelines of both series. But it's getting harder and harder to believe humans had no record of encountering these species. If another "AvP" is made (and I'd be the first on line, as always) it might be best to set it in a galaxy far, far away. Now
there's an idea for a series...
