Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (Extreme Unrated Set) Blu-ray Review

[Tech News]

Reviewed by Keith Hurst
It's hard to see a loved one die and that's what I feel we are seeing here with the continuing efforts to map the comic creation of the Aliens Vs Predator universe into two classic Sci-Fi franchises. The first had at least a good grounding even though it perhaps wasn't implemented well; this second instalment though just sounds the death knell.

AVP:R adds nothing of any worth the to the mix as a whole. Alien 3 showed us that the Alien eventually takes on some genetic characteristics of the host body and this obviously makes sense. The genetic fusion of the Alien and the Predator in this film though adds nothing to the understanding of the alien breed as a whole. OK so it has mandibles and some dreadlocks; big deal.

Characterisation is non-existent, the plot makes no sense whatsoever and the characters seem to perform only to reproduce scenes shown to much better effect in earlier films. Die-hard fans will have this in their collection if only for completeness and even then some will have it there grudgingly. Others will rent and be glad they never forked out more of their hard earned cash for a film which really is a gore fest and nothing else. Taking this film into the territory of gore and only gore is not what these films were initially all about and that’s something the Brothers Grimm have to take sole responsibility for. Being the fan boys as they state they are they should have known better.
Read the full review...

 

[Rip]

I watched it & thought it was great, you either like sci-fi action adventure or you dont, instead of trying to pick holes in everything, sit back, turn the volume up & enjoy........

 

[OneEyedStuart]

I love Sci-Fi action adventure but I detest seeing a couple of my favourite movies deteriorate to this level. Take 'Aliens' for example it's a wonderful Sci-Fi romp, great characters, wonderful advancing storyline. So what does this rate on the KH Scale... probably an 8. Does AVP:R come anywhere near this, no - nowhere near it; hence my much lower score.

Not everything we review on here is perfect and some things believe it or not do deserve those holes pointed out, just my opinion.

Glad you enjoyed it though

KH

 

[meansizzler]

 

[Rip]

I do see what you mean, but i would say Aliens is sci-fi horror, where as AVP:R is more Sci-fi action, so to me there is a difference & i view them in a different way, expecting diffrent things from each, if that makes sense...

Im sorry you didnt enjoy it, im just glad i can enjoy it all...........

 

[Phill1978]

I love Sci-Fi action adventure but I detest seeing a couple of my favourite movies deteriorate to this level. Take 'Aliens' for example it's a wonderful Sci-Fi romp, great characters, wonderful advancing storyline. So what does this rate on the KH Scale... probably an 8. Does AVP:R come anywhere near this, no - nowhere near it; hence my much lower score.

Not everything we review on here is perfect and some things believe it or not do deserve those holes pointed out, just my opinion.

Glad you enjoyed it though

KH

the pitfall you have fallen into wether you accept it or not, is that you assume a film based loosely on previous incarnations must follow some sort of formula established from the original versions and keep faith with characters and the history of these classic films.

not so, AVP-R was a scifi romp, something different from the gritty experiences we have seen before.
not everyone watches alien,aliens,alien3, predator,predaor 2 religiously and keeps huge metal figurines & posters in there movie room etc..

for the uninitiated to the world of AVP-R its a fun trip into a new way of looking at two alien species battling each other.


iam an avid aliens fan, its my favourite film, ever. i also love predator. i didnt actually feel AVP was too bad as an action film. ok not a barn stomer but more of a filler track.

you have to remember nothing will ever match Aliens, or Alien. and not much these days could capture what the original predator did in terms of atmosphere.

 

[OneEyedStuart]

If it were to follow the same formulaeic plot lines as the previous films then that would be a downside, however it still has to keep the ethos of the Alien / Predator society intact whilst still trying to develop the storyline. AVP:R did none of this.

As for 'filler tracks' I can think of other films which whilst not being classic movies I've enjoyed watching them, passing a couple of hours of my life away. AVP:R never did this for me either and whilst I readily admit that a few do enjoy the film I will never fall into that category; I just didn't like it at all from a wide variety of viewpoints. It added nothing to the mix, nothing to the continuing development of two great characters.

That's just the way it's going to be on this film, and on others no doubt I don't care for but others do.

KH

 

[richiewok]

I agree 100% with the well balanced critique of the film...... there were some excellent scenes, the best being off world; the predators home planet and the shots of the space craft and earth etc. But the plot was formulaic and there was nothing original here, leaving the me dissappointed.

Visually it was hard work too... way to dark and poor contrast balance, again took a lot of hard work to overcome the eye strain. The town scenes some some bizzare lighting arrangements. (in fact the fiirst night my better half and me abandoned it, and I took 30 mins. out to find settings which releaved our head aches, the next night was better)

The lossless sound was, however, superb and we were treated to how the home cinema set up should be heard.

All in all tho 5/10

 

[Sef]

Such a poor film

 

[Daytrader]

Such a poor film

yeh, why oh why are they allowed to make such crap films these days.

 

[stave84]

Great review, thanks alot. Shame about the film. So much potential but i agree with you lot, somehow they managed to make a very poor film.

 

[Member 55145]

i think this film comes down to are you an Alien fan or a Predator fan.

if your an Alien fan you want to have the **** scared out of you
If your a Predator fan you just want everything blowing up.

tbh I think this one as well as the first was made for predator fans. and i see strong ties between AVP and Predator 1, and AVP2 and Predator 2

I like both genres and have to say I liked AVP1&2, I think less of AVP2 though and think it could of been better

 

[IAN P]

This should have got a 10 for sound,totally immersive sound design,sub threatening bass too.

 

[KiLLiNG-TiME]

Well I for one hated it ..the plot sucked big time , another missed opportunity .. give the film rights to an adult to make should solve the problem

p.s. Am a huge Alien & Predator fan I have seen all the films at the cinema (Aliens being imho the best for the rollorcoaster that it was) besides AVP & AVPR I don't why but the films (again imho) seem to have lost all sense of direction maybe it me maybe I am getting old

I agree with the news bot, nice review.

 

[eric pisch]

good film not great

enjoyed it alot

if you fix all the "faults" in the film you end up with utter rubbish like spiderman III and Episode II

7/10

 

[DanHorse]

I thought i would add, seeing as i have just bought the bluray version of this film:

The bluray really doesnt add anything bar a little more detail, and it should be noted that the tranfers of this movie, both DVD and BD are bad - so dark and lacking shadow detail you cant see hardly anything most the time, what were they thinking?

Also, this movie filtered with that weird filter they used on the Transformer movies, which makes the colours all unnatural, overdone and robs detail.

Dont bother with the BD if you have the dvd, if anything, the BD is even darker! useless - and why?

 

[varkanoid]

Thing is there were Aliens v Predator books way before the films came out that didnt follow the aforementioned Aliens films. I was hoping they would follow the books. The first A v P film does follow the first book very superficially eg the main character being similiar and the mark she is given by the Predator, however in the books she becomes a human "predator" and goes to live with the Predators and hunt as one of them. Would have made the AvP films more interesting.

This 2nd AvP is just wrong wrong wrong on so many levels but I`m in the camp that likes to see a movie build on the previous one not throw it away and start again and go off in a different direction. Only throwback to 1st one is the first minute and the last minute, everything in between is just nonsense. To me you could stick the first few minutes to the last few minutes and all the inbetween is forgotten.