Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem (Unrated)

Review By: Rocco Passafuime
RoccoPassafuime@TheCinemaSource.com

The Alien and Predator movies are two of the ultimate mixes of science-fiction, thrills, and chills in modern cinema. When 20th Century Fox decided to bring Dark Horse’s popular comic book adaptation Aliens Vs. Predator to the big screen, there was plenty of reason to be excited.

The resulting movie Alien Vs. Predator, despite being panned by critics, was fairly successful in the box office. Now, the two worlds collide once again in the film’s sequel Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem, now available on DVD in an unrated edition.

In space, an Alien stumbles onboard the ship and attacks a group of Predators, their enemies. In the interim, the Alien transforms into a new hybrid creature known as a “Predalien”.

Soon enough, the Predalien, along with a group of Aliens, attack the town of Gunnison, Colorado on Earth. Seemingly coming to the townspeople’s unlikely aid is a Predator dispatched to kill the creatures, settle the score, and avenge his brethren.

But they quickly realize that the Predator is no less out for blood as the Aliens. A group of survivors (Steven Pasquale, Reiko Aylesworth, Johnny Lewis, Ariel Gade) must now do everything they can to survive and stop the planet from turning into the creatures’ next battleground in a centuries-old intergalactic war.

The original Alien Vs. Predator benefited from plenty of action and a mildly intriguing concept that put the two franchise creatures together, but suffered exponentially from a bad script, inept direction, one-dimensional characters, and rather neutered terror sequences. While the sequel Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem R rating improves significantly enough on the level of gore, there is little else that makes this seemingly pointless sequel work.

The bland and seemingly random townspeople characters are even more one-dimensional than the first, played by a second-rate cast, and create a human plot that is almost completely non-existent. The directors and screenwriters’ numerous nods to the original movies show a more serious approach than its seemingly rushed and slapdash predecessor, but the special effects here still suffer from the same level of cheapness and the scenes the same level of almost unwatchable darkness. On top of that, the now almost non-existent story here is revelatory of how extremely tired this franchise has become.

The DVD’s picture quality is in the 2:35:1 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio, with the sound quality in Dolby Digital Surround 5.1. There are some added scenes in this unrated cut, but they do little to salvage the tediousness of the human plot. The Unrated edition of this DVD is also packed with plenty of special features.

The first are two audio commentaries, with one