Movie Reviews: Aliens Vs. Predator 2: Requiem

This movie features the hybrid Predalien, created at the end of AVP: Aliens Vs. Predator (2004) when an Alien face-hugger impregnated a Predator with an Alien embroyo. Of course, the embroyo takes on some characteristics of the host body, and thus the Predalien is born. The Predalien causes a space ship to crash outside a small Colorado town. The crash frees the Predalien as well as several captive Alien face huggers, and in a matter of a few days, they take over a Colorado town. Meanwhile a Predator journeys from his home planet to Earth in order to clean up the mess along the way. In the middle of everything, the town's citizens just try to survive.

The original four Aliens movies featured Academy Award nominee Sigourney Weaver. Other strong actors with solid roles in at least one Aliens film included Tom Skerritt, Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton, Paul Reiser, Charles S. Dutton and Winona Ryder.

The original Predator movie had the king of modern action heroes, Arnold Schwarzenegger, in the lead, with the sequel featuring Danny Glover. Other actors with solid roles in one of the Predator films included Gary Busey, Carl Weathers, Maria Conchita Alonso, Reuben Blades, and yes, Bill Paxton again.

But similar to its predecessor AVP, Aliens Vs. Predator 2: Requiem does not feature any strong actors or known celebrities to anchor it. The two lead characters are played by Steven Pasquale and Johnny Lewis, who seem unable to bring any kind of acting depth to these roles. This severely hurts the movie the actors are just walking through it. The script features very little characterization as it is. Having borderline actors does not help the viewer identify or connect with any of the characters.




And maybe that's on purpose. This movie truly focuses on the Aliens and Predator characters. The humans serve no purpose except as cattle led to slaughter or vessels for alien impregnation.

The Predalien has a new ability of being able to impregnate a host with multiple eggs without using a face-hugger. Although gross in execution, this is a great evolution for the Aliens race and I hope to see it used again in future movies.


The action sequences were strong and showed how quickly these Aliens can take over a small town. My only qualm with the movie is that it's quite dark and some of the battle scenes could have used a bit more light so that you could see more detail.




I do look forward to a future third installment, especially if the action is going to be as strong as it is in this one. But one thing I'd really like to see is some strong human characters in the vein of Sigourney Weaver's Ripley or Michael Biehn's Hicks. In order to build a connection with the characters in the movie and to care whether or not they survive, we need strong characters presented by good actors.

Still, this movie was a fun way to spend the afternoon.