El Chupacabra

I am the 1 in 10 that thought this movie was okay

Let me tell you now that I am very biased in favor of the Alien movies. I saw Alien when I was a kid and I still sometimes see black long tails full of bony protuberances hanging from the ceiling behind my furnace. Whenever I calm enough to go back downstairs and check, I always see that it's a power cord hanging down or some other such thing. The point is, I saw Alien and Aliens as well as Predator and Predator 2 at that young age where experiences seem to make a much greater impression and tend to last with you forever.

Like other Alien and Predator fans, the thought of these two iconic extra terrestrials made me foam at the mouth with anticipation. Darkhorse put the idea into a comic book series, now Hollywood just had to bring it to the big screen. Aliens versus Predator became one of those ideas whose expectations were fanned to such a height that no mortal (except maybe James Cameron) could deliver on them. The first Alien versus Predator movie, while proof that the union could me made, suffered this exact fate. It wasn't a bad movie, but it certainly didn't do each franchise justice. Just like movies such as Doom, producers and writers made decisions that made no sense and which did not remain true to the respective canons. I wonder what these types of niche movied would be like if fans were focus grouped from start to finish.

Okay, and now to the words I know I will regret, but which seems just as true now as when I walked out of the theatre. I enjoyed Alien verus Predator: Requiem. It was at least as good as the first Alien versus Predator even with what seemed to be cheaper production values. To be sure, it was nowhere near the original movies of either franchise. The plot was weak and, with the exception of the ending (a good sequel?), only served to place humans, aliens and a predator within close proximity as many times as possible. The cast seemed right out of a teenage slasher flick like Scream. On the upside, there were a lot of young, attractive adolescents being hunted by aliens who were in turn being hunted by an angry predator. And that is where this movie excels, albeit at the expense of keeping the monsters hidden until the end like all truly good sci-fi horror movies. At the risk of sounding like someone with a very weird fetish, there is a lot of predator on alien on human action in this movie. And that's a good thing when everything else is lacking. Perhaps this is what distracted me from Requiem's obvious flaws. That and my adult fear of facehuggers hiding under my bed. Regardless, in the end, coupled with decent production values given the budget, this movie is worthy enough that it may help ensure a truly good quality sequel with real actors and a good director. Kick James Cameron in the balls for Titanic and see if he'll recapture his days of truly worthy cinema!

Eberts Thumb

Alien vs. Predator vs. Teen Angst

AVP:R was better than the first AVP, but it still isn't as good either Aliens or Predator. Its somewhere in between Aliens 3 and Predator 2 in terms of quality. Its not that it was bad, just that you see so much potential and AVP:R just didn't live up to it.

It did correct the biggest problem of the first AVP in that it went straight for an R rating. Tons of blood, tons of people getting killed, and probably some swearing. Also characters who would normally stay alive in other sci-fi horrors get offed unexpectedly and characters who you know will die get killed earlier than they would have in other movies. So it wasn't as by-the-numbers as other movies in this genre.

The movie follows the three story lines, one for each race:

• The Predalien creeping around town laying eggs and killing hobos.
• The Predator come halfway across the galaxy to clean up after his coworkers crashed on earth because a whole crew of Predators couldn't kill a single alien. Theres obviously some disparity in the quality of Predators. Now he needs revenge on the Predalien who disturbed his afternoon.
• The ex-con returning to his home town and having trouble fitting in. His younger brother is having trouble with the high school jocks but has the affection of the hottest girl in school.

Guess which story line they dwelt a bit too much on.

Where AVP:R didn't live up to expectations is that it had a lot of references to previous aliens and predator movies that just weren't as good. We got the scene of the Predator healing himself in the woods by stabbing himself and screaming, but the scream was more muted. We had a little girl stuck in a sewer and aliens rise out of the water behind her, but the sense of dread wasn't there. There were others but I saw the movie over a month ago and can't quite remember them all. So there were these references to the other movies that just reminded us that this movie isn't as cool as those movies.

Also ***SPOILER*** nobody wins. The Predator and Predalien kill each other and the whole town gets nuked. How about for the next AVP (and you know there'll be quite a few) the aliens win. Or the Predator wins. I know they don't want to upset the fans of either side, but some upsetting would be infinitely more interesting than another draw. At the end of the fourth movie the other side can win and everyone will be happy again.