Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)

Director: Colin Strause, Greg Strause
Starring: Steven Pasquale, Reiko Aylesworth, John Ortiz

Synopsis:
An alien ship crashlands in a small Colorado town, resulting in an infestation that could doom the entire world.

Impressions:
The proliferation of the PG-13 action film was a fairly annoying phase in cinema. I should clarify, though. A film that's naturally a PG-13 is fine, but we had movies that would otherwise be rated R cut down in a bid to grab a larger market share, but by watering down the content, hardcore fans were less than amused and usually the films underperformed. The first AVP suffered from this, so fans were heartened somewhat to hear that the sequel was going to be a hard R. No punches pulled. Right on. The problem is that we get content that's meant to shock but only comes off as tacky. (I'm talking about the maternity ward scene in particular.) This caused a backlash that resulted in the film being more reviled than its lukewarmly received predecessor. Beyond this, a key flaw is that the characters are complete nothings. An hour and a half went by and I really didn't connect with any of them and didn't care what happened. This got me thinking about the films in the Alien and Predator franchises and how they succeeded in establishing the characters and getting you attached to them (even in the more disappointing entries). Shoot, the first AVP, while having a mostly nothing cast, at least did a fair job of building up Lex, Weyland and Sebastian. If they'd relegated the humans to the periphery and just focused on Wolf, that might've been something. Speaking of Wolf, he and the Predalien are the only redeeming qualities to the film. That's not enough for me to recommend it, though. (We still have the problem of the accelerated xenomorph lifecycle which sacrifices tension in a bid to speed up the action.) If you're curious, you may want to give it a shot, but honestly, you're not missing anything much if you pass on it. You can probably get a highlights reel on Youtube and call it good.

Rating:
Avoid It