Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem


The only real reason I can give for wanting to see this movie is that while I am against violence in real life, sometimes I like to watch movies where a lot of people die in crazy ways. The first AVP did not give me enough of that but this one was rated R and that could only mean good things for me. The concept of this movie is grounded in the Freddy Vs. Jason success but they screwed it up originally by declawing it making trying to market it so anyone could it. However, it looked as if they rectified that this time around and I knew some people who watched the first five minutes online and was told by them that it looked like the action and death quotient were pumped up big time. This could only mean good things, right?

I am not going to bog this down with a lot of plot because there isn't much of one. Essentially The Aliens end up in a tiny Colorado town and the Predator follows them to kill them. In the mix are thrown stock human characters- a nerdy guy, the hot girl he wants, a local sheriff, the former convict just come back to town, a bully and a few other archetypes. Also, there is a hybrid Predator/Alien thing that is playing for team Alien. However, Aliens and Predators both take no pity on the humans this time around as they are all for killing them. The Predator has a ton of cool gadgets this time out and he seems to be of a high intelligence than the Aliens. Nothing that happens with the humans is remotely interesting enough to mention except the hot girl filling out a bikini nicely and the camera perfectly framing her ass for all of us to enjoy.

As far as action movies go, this is perfectly average. There are some great moments where people get killed and cool shit happens, but often time so much of the action happens in the dark that I could not always tell who was an Alien and who was a Predator. It got even worse when the hybrid came into play totally messing with me. I enjoyed parts an awful lot and then didn't like at all. I liked that the movie strayed from conventions and killed whoever they wanted- children and pregnant women- but I never felt like I was rooting for anyone. I wanted all of the humans to die, but I wasn't rooting for the Aliens or the Predator, I was just rooting for awesome action and every time I thought I would get it, the scene would get too dark or the editing would happen too quickly or the rain would be too thick and I wouldn't be able to fully enjoy myself. Don't get me wrong, this is a step in the right direction, but I am not sure they are quite there yet with this franchise. The ending seems to be a nod at the Alien franchise, like maybe these movies are actually prequels of some sort or maybe the directors are just trying to tie them to the original franchises.

I am not saying this is a complete waste of a movie because there were moments where I felt drawn in and was having a damn good time, but I guess I was still hoping for more of that or at least have it be more visible. There isn't a whole lot of gore although what gore there is, is effective and made me cheer a little bit, but overall this is not what I was hoping for when I saw the new rating or what I saw from the trailer, which made the movie look awesome!

Overall Grade: C-

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