Many sci-fi fans (myself included) got
quite excited at the prospect of an alien vs predator franchise after the alien
skull could be seen in the predator ship at the end of Predator 2. Fourteen
years after the release of that film, Paul W.S. Anderson brought us the first
instalment in the Alien vs Predator franchise. I think most (if not all) alien
and predator fans agree that the full potential of this combination was not met
in this first outing. That’s about as tactfully as I can put it. I can’t say
I’m a huge fan of Mr Anderson’s work anyway, but the film felt too rushed, with
little character development, mainly due to them being bumped of way too
quickly.
It’s amazing what you can find on the
internet, with a little digging it seems that the first AVP film cost
$70,000,000 to make with an additional $35,000,000 spent on prints and
advertising. With a worldwide theatrical haul of $171,000,000 that makes a
profit of $66,000,000. I’m sure the studios were hoping for more profit than
that, but the fact that the turkey made any kind of profit is what probably got
AVP2 the green light (the film purist in me wants to believe the studios wanted
a film to do justice to the franchises potential, the realist in me knows that
it comes down to the bottom line and they
can see more profit).
Out of the ashes of AVP rises Alien vs
Predator 2: Requiem. It’s a different production team this time round,
thankfully. Brothers, Colin and Greg Strause take the helm as directors with
the main writing done by Shane Salerno. The Strause brothers seem to be better
known for their work in visual effects and not as directors, which starts you
worrying, but could they really do a worse job that Paul W.S. Anderson? In my
opinion, no, but this still isn’t the film that the subject matter deserves.
One complaint the original suffered from
was that it took two franchises that were rated 18 and removed the violence and
gore to make a wider appealing film with a 15 rating (PG13 in the states). AVP2
certainly doesn’t hold back on the violence and gore this time round, but
amazingly it still gets a 15 rating here in the UK (although it was back to an
R rating in the states). Personally I thought they went a bit over the top with
some of it, particularly one scene in a hospital maternity ward. Anyway lets
talk about the plot for a moment. If you’ve seen the first AVP film then you’ll
know that the last scene gave a brief glimpse of an alien/predator hybrid and
‘Requiem’ is centred around an alien/predator hybrid, so does the second film
follow on from the first, no.
The film opens and we see a predator ship
high above the earth. Onboard the ship are several canisters bearing face
huggers. It seems that the predators are possibly about to ‘seed’ the aliens as
they did in the first film for one of their nice hunts. There’s no explanation
how, but it seems that a predator onboard managed to get themselves
impregnated, his chest burst and the little blighter has grown to full size.
The ensuing battle between the alien/predator hybrid and other predators
results in the ship being damaged, sending it on a collision course with earth.
You might think that the crash landing in a forest would kill everything on
board, but you’d be wrong. Seems the face huggers and the hybrid ‘predalien’
are resilient little buggers. With a town nearby you can guess what’s going to
happen and surely enough the face huggers do their thing and the town faces a
fight for its life.
Back on the predator home world, video
footage of the events on the ship are relayed and a lone predator despatched to
kill the aliens and remove any evidence of their existence. Quite why they only
send one predator, when the hybrid managed to polish off several on the ship is
not made clear. Maybe this predator is the Dirty Harry of predators, he
certainly has some impressive fire power!
In the Alien vs Predator stories, humans
always seem to be caught in the middle and that is again the case here. We’re
introduced, briefly and superficially, with several human characters. There’s a
guy who’s seemingly just been released from prison having learnt the error of
his ways and his rebellious little brother. There’s a girl the little brother
has the hots for and her idiot boyfriend. There’s also a mother, just back from
a stint in the army and a sheriff in way over his head. There’s very little back-story
to any of them and as such you go through the film not really caring about any
of them, which is probably a good thing as most of them are there for alien
chow. Characters, as well as unknown extras, are bumped off left right and
centre by both the aliens and the predator covering his tracks.
Like most of the alien films, the action
takes place in dark murky areas so you never really get a good look at the
action. I think it’s filmed this way to try and recapture some of the suspense
of the first film, as you never know where an alien is hidden and about to uncoil itself behind someone and
punch a hole in their head. The only problem with this is that we’ve seen it
all before and just isn’t effective any more. I personally wish they’d brighten
things up a bit and move it more towards some good open actions scenes. Instead
it’s all dark corridors and fast cuts once the action gets going so it’s
difficult to get a good picture of what exactly is going on. The only real
suspense in the film is generated by the absolute ruthlessness of the writing.
No main character is safe and can be brutally despatched at any time. I
would’ve put money on a couple of the characters surviving only to see them
mown down in their prime (I won’t say which ones though to keep you guessing!). There doesn't seem to be much of a plot, the town gets over-run by aliens and the core group races to get out of town alive, while the rest of the town gets eaten, that's about it really.
For the big sci-fi fans out there that know
the alien and predator worlds inside and out there are a few annoying technical
inconsistencies, but I’m not going to mention them as that would make me look
like too much of a geek! Suffice to say that the incredibly short incubation
and maturation time of the aliens from the first AVP film are still present,
along with a couple of other annoying details. If you’re more of a casual
viewer then don’t worry about them, sit back and enjoy the carnage!
The version reviewed was the Blu Ray and
the picture was consistently excellent on my 720p 37 inch HD TV played through
a Playstation 3, so should look even better for those of you lucky enough to have larger 1080p sets. Although a lot of the action is a bit murky, that’s the way it
was filmed, the general detail throughout was very good. As I don’t own an amp
capable of the new HD sound formats I listened to the DTS track and found it to
be excellent. The sub-woofer certainly wasn’t short of things to do as the base
thumps throughout most of the film, there was also plenty of use of the rear
channels. If the HD soundtrack is any better, and you’ve got the equipment to
decode it, then you’re in for a treat.
This two disc set comes with a host of
extra features including two commentaries on the Blu Ray disc and many
documentaries and features on the separate SD DVD. For the sci-fi fan the
featurettes are well worth a view, but give them a miss if you’re more of a
casual viewer. Generally if you’re after a film to satisfy the 14 year wait for
a decent alien vs predator film then you’re going to be disappointed. If you’re
after a sci-fi action action/gore fest then it’s well worth a watch. If you’re
after a Blu Ray to show off your TV and sound system it’s also a good title.
