Alien vs. Predator Requiem (2007) Review

"You're too stupid to talk, Dale."

-Dallas Howard

Picking up where the previous film left off, Alien vs. Predator: Requiem shows us the birth of the Predalien, a hybrid of the two species that causes the Predator's ship to crash on Earth near a town in the mountains of Colorado.  As people begin disappearing, recently released felon, Dallas Howard (Steven Pasquale), and solider Kelly O'Brien (Reiko Aylesworth) have to team up to protect their friends and families from the infestation of Xenomorphs.  A lone Predator arrives to try and clean up the mess, but quickly finds himself in the fight of his life as Earth itself becomes threatened by widespread infestation.

Before I get into Alien vs. Predator: Requiem, I need to set up the context of this review.  When I first watched this movie, I had heard nothing but bad things about it.  It has an 11% on rotten tomatoes and just a terrible reputation.  But as I watched it, I found myself really enjoying it and I could not figure out why people hated it so much.  Afterwards I realized I had watched the unrated version and saw that all the parts I loved were cut out of the theatrical cut.  To this day, I have refused to watch the theatrical version because I can imagine how terrible it is.  Instead, I choose to live in ignorance and enjoy the unrated version, which is what I am reviewing here.  Do yourself a favor and watch the unrated version.  It's worth it.

What Works:

I really admire the balls the filmmakers had with making this film.  They don't hold back at all and are willing to kill any character, especially those that would normally survive movies like this.  We see kids, love interests, and pregnant moms all get brutally slain throughout the film and it doesn't hold back on the gore either.  These aren't off-screen deaths.  They are bold and in your face.  The opening kill of the movie is a little kid and I have to give movies props when they go that far.  It's not common and I respect the move.

The fight scenes between the Xenomorphs and the Predators are also solid.  There are some really cool sequences and some more solid gore.  Even though we don't get a ton of it, I really like the Predalien and am glad they chose to put one in this film.

The setting of Requiem is way better than the first film.  This one takes place in civilization and starts off as a small town mystery.  I live movies that have this small-town search party kind of stories and that's what the first half of this movie is.  Gradually, things begin to fall apart before erupting into full blown chaos and gives us some solid pacing and a lot of energy.

Finally, the characters aren't great by any means, but at least in this movie they all know each other and have history.  That makes them slightly more interesting than the characters from the previous film and none of them are over-the-top or annoying and that goes a long way in a movie like this.

What Sucks:

As far as I'm concerned, Alien vs. Predator Requiem has only one problem, but it's a big one.  The lighting in this film is some of the worst I have ever seen in a big budget film.  The majority of this movie takes place in the dark and you simply can't have any light on in your room if you want to see what is going on.  I tried watching this during the day and it didn't work.  It's clearer if you watch it in pitch black, but even then there are a few shots where it is very difficult to make out what is happening.  This is simply unacceptable and drastically lowers the final score of a movie I otherwise really enjoy.

Verdict:

Alien vs. Predator: Requiem has pretty much everything I want out of a pseudo-B-movie.  It has awesome gore, brutal and unexpected kills, a solid setting, fun fight scenes, and passable characters.  I want to gives this movie a really high score.  Unfortunately, it has what may be the worst lighting I've ever seen in a big budget movie, so I have no choice but to give it my lowest possible recommendation.  Go watch it (the unrated cut), turn the lights off, wait for the sun to go down, and enjoy an otherwise very fun movie.

 6/10: Okay