 -- Part of a 2-Movie 3-Disc Boxed Set -- After a horrifying PredAlien crash lands near a small Colorado town, killing everyone it encounters and producing countless Alien offspring, a lone Predator arrives to clean up the infestation. Soon it's an all out brutal battle to the death with no rules, no mercy - and maximum mayhem! Storyline: In Gunnison County, a spacecraft crashes in the woods bringing a powerful hybrid Alien hosted inside the pilot Predator. A local, Buddy Benson, and his son, Sam, are hunting in the forest and witness the crash, but they are chased and killed by the Alien. Meanwhile another Predator lands on the spot seeking out the Alien and destroys evidence of their presence on Earth. The dwellers of the town find themselves in the middle of a battlefield between the two deadly extraterrestrial creatures, and the small group of survivors splits between the leadership of Sheriff Eddie Morales and the bad-boy Dallas Howard. Both have different opinions about the best means to escape from the beings. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman on April 4, 2008 -- People are dying. We need guns. --- I'm a huge fan of the Alien and Predator series of films (well, the good ones, anyway) and I received news of the original Alien vs. Predator film with opens arms. Although it failed to live up to its potential, it proved to be a decent enough picture, certainly better than the abysmal Alien: Resurrection. When news spread of and trailers were released for Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, I was once again ecstatic. There's no way they'd make two mediocre films in a row, right? Certainly a movie set in a sleepy Colorado town where Aliens and Predators wreak havoc on the locals should make for a fantastic movie, right? The plot had me thinking of 30 Days of Night, a somewhat similarly-themed film where Vampires lay waste to the locals of a small Alaskan town. So, now that I've seen the film (I tend to avoid theaters and wait for the Blu-ray these days), did the filmmakers fall into the trap of making yet another mediocre AvP film? No way! They made this one worse! Aliens vs. Predator Requiem features a cast of characters about whom I didn't care in the least, hardly came to know (despite spending way too much time developing them), and enjoyed watching many of them die. The plot is pretty simple. An alien ship crashes on earth and is discovered by a hunter and his son. They both become alien fodder, hosts for little baby aliens. This is one of the best sequences of the film, and set me up to be very excited and engrossed, only to be let down for the next hour of the film. Anyway, the search for these two individuals escalates, as does the violence in the town. A Predator is dispatched from his home planet to contain the situation he's been informed of on Earth. Meanwhile, aliens, and an Alien-Predator hybrid creature, run amok in the town, killing of people one-by-one. Finally, the town is worked up into a frenzy of fear and paranoia. The townsfolk become divided and the National Guard leisurely make their way into the fight. It's the last thirty minutes of the film that made everything that preceded it worth the wait, although we could have hoped for more even here. Which species will rule the day? How will the action play out, and what will the government's response to this crisis be? Find out in the closing minutes of Aliens vs. Predator Requiem. Some movies just scream "forget plot and character development! Let's just have 95 minutes of aliens and predators ravaging a town!" Unfortunately, Aliens vs. Predator Requiem doesn't figure that out until it's far too late. There is an awful lot of character development, and weak character development at that, for people we know little about and care for even less. There is a pizza boy who everyone picks on except for the attractive girl, the sheriff (who turns out to be a halfway decent character), and the mother who recently returned home from the military whose daughter now shuns her for abandonment. When some of them die, we hardly flinch, just glad that we witnessed another halfway decent kill scene. It all adds up to a yawn-fest of a movie, having me thinking more about squandered potential rather than what was actually happening in the movie. Alright, so Aliens vs. Predator Requiem has a few good things going for it. The movie hearkens back to its roots, playing recurring theme music and effects sounds as we've all come to know and love them, easily and readily identifiable from either the Alien or Predator films. We also learn more about the technology the Predators have at their disposal. There are a few sequences in the third act that work rather well, namely many of the battle scenes. However, these scenes appeared as though they were ripped right out of Aliens. There were several times where I was hearkened back to the first confrontation between Marine and Alien in that film, you know, the one where Apone, Frost, Drake, etc. buy the farm. Remember the APC scene in Aliens where Ripley, Gorman, and Burke watch and listen to the battle whilst inside the relative safety of that vehicle? We've got that scene replicated here too. We even have a little girl at the end of the film who asks, "mommy, are the monsters gone?" Is it real or is it Rebecca, A.K.A. Newt? I'm not sure if paying such direct homage is a good thing, and maybe the writers weren't necessarily trying to. Perhaps they just watched the film before writing and were influenced/inspired by it, but the parallels are definitely there. Aliens vs. Predator Requiem also gets the gore right. The movie pulls absolutely no punches as we see a chest burster come out of a kid who's probably about 10 years old. We see heads blown off, arms and faces melted off by acid, the works. Of course Alien and Aliens proved we don't need excessive gore to sell a horror story, and I agree with that philosophy, but for the most part it worked in this film. The conclusion of the film was good and unexpected as well. Some of the effects were cool, especially the all-too-brief scenes taking place in spacecraft, but as far as the positives of the film go, that's about all I have. Aliens vs. Predator Requiem is a case study in wasted potential. The film has its moments, make no mistake, but those moments are much too far and few between to really matter. The movie drags along from most of the first act and most of the second, and chaos reigns the rainy night in the third, making for at least a good start to what I was hoping to see for the entire length of the film. At least the disc offers Blu-ray quality at its finest. Sporting dual 5-star audio and video ratings, I was thoroughly satisfied with the experience each offered, making this a reference-quality disc. There is also a substantial amount of extra material that is sure to keep the most ardent Aliens vs. Predator Requiem fans busy for hours. I really wanted to be able to recommend this disc, and I can for the high quality of the picture quality and audio quality, as well as the wealth of supplemental material. It is only with the movie itself that I found cause for disappointment, and even then it's one worth watching for fans of either or both of the franchises pitted one against another. Aliens vs. Predator Requiem is a disc I recommend purchasing for Blu-ray fans seeking first-rate picture and audio quality, or for diehard fans of Aliens and Predators. (Based on Comic Book) Cast Notes: Steven Pasquale (Dallas Howard), Reiko Aylesworth (Kelly O'Brien), John Ortiz (Sheriff Eddie Morales), Johnny Lewis (Ricky Howard), Ariel Gade (Molly O'Brien), Kristen Hager (Jesse), Sam Trammell (Tim), Robert Joy (Col. Stevens), David Paetkau (Dale Collins), Tom Woodruff Jr. (Alien), Ian Whyte (Predator), Chelah Horsdal (Darcy Benson), Meshach Peters (Curtis), Matt Ward (Mark), Michal Suchánek (Nick). IMDb Rating (10/23/09): 5.4/10 from 56,609 users
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