Alien vs Predator 2 Review

Avp-R-ReviewThanks for checking out our Alien vs Predator Requiem Review. You can see the video review at the bottom of this post.

In the world of “dream fights”, without question one of the top most yearned for on screen battles has always been Aliens verses Predators. So along came the first AVP movie a couple of years ago, and to call it a disappointment would be a bit of an understatement. Personally, I still got a bit of a kick out of it (the line about finding Moses’ DVD collection almost made me spit up my pop) but there is no denying that it could have… and SHOULD HAVE been much much better.

When word came out about they studio giving the franchise another shot, I was shocked. Yes the film made over $170 million world wide, but it was so panned by fans and critics I thought they’d just celebrate their money and call it a day. Nope… here comes AvP-R (bloody stupid as hell title). The trailers made it look like it would be a big step up from the previous attempt? Was it? No.

THE GENERAL IDEA

Our old friends the Predators are back. Always looking for the ultimate prey to hunt and challenge themselves against, they seem to have run out of worthy opponents. So instead of just retiring the old cloaking devices, they decided to breed a new kind of prey by crossing their own DNA with that of ALIENS. Something goes horribly wrong and the Predator ship crashing on earth releasing the new PrediAlien onto our unsuspecting world to kill, breed and multiply. The Predator response to this…. send one guy to come fight them. Why not?

Meanwhile, an edgy pizza boy is in love with the high school hottie, but she is dating the evil popular school jock (no, I’m not kidding, I swear to high heaven I wish I was) who bullies him and makes him sad (poor sad pizza boy), but undeterred the pizza boy is committed to winning the hottie’s heart, and surviving the oncoming Alien Apocalypse (aren’t we all).

THE GOOD

The film wastes no time in setting up the situation. Right from the opening credits we see the Predator ship circling around earth with their little PrediAlien experiment. Chaos, the ship crashes, Aliens escape and start the killing… all within the first 3 minutes!!! I’m come to appreciate it when dumb mindless fun flicks just recognize what they are and jump right into it… AVP-R does that.

It was nice to see that AVP-R never took itself too seriously. They filmmakers clearly understood that people weren’t expecting “300” or “Braveheart” here… they just wanted to see a lot of people and monsters getting ripped the hell up. There were none of the dreaded “life lessons” that plague some other films, no deeper message or purpose… it was essentially an hour and a half of video game nonsense… and for a film like AVP-R, that’s a good thing.

Some of the action was great! As promised by the advanced R rated trailers, there are some gloriously gory and fun shots of guys getting their heads blown, acid burning through unsuspecting flesh… and the movie doesn’t spare children or pregnant women either (I won’t give anything away here… but wow the scene in the hospital was fun!). Yup, it sure seemed like the filmmakers understood what people wanted to see… well… at least in the third act. The first two acts were a waste, which leads us to….

THE BAD

As already mentioned in the opening of this review… THERE IS A PIZZA BOY IN LOVE WITH A HIGH SCHOOL HOTTIE, WHO IS ALREADY DATING THE EVIL POPULAR SCHOOL JOCK!!!! No,,, once again I’m NOT kidding. I had to look around the theater to see if anyone else was about to get up and walk out just for that alone. And of course the big bad boyfriend bullies the pizza boy all while the hottie looks on and feels bad, ultimately (SPOILER) rejecting the jock to get with the loser pizza boy. Good… fricking… grief. For a little while I thought it was some sort of joke.

As expected, the “story” and “dialog” were completely pathetic. Like I said, no one was expecting 300 or Braveheart, but at least pretend to give a shit about the words coming out of these people’s mouths.

For a movie that supposedly understood what people were wanting out of it… a brainless action flick with lots of violence, Alien killing, Predator hunting, people dying a horrible horrible horrible ways… it sure was slow for most of the film. As I mentioned, the movie does jump right into it in the first 5 minutes… but then is pretty much goes to sleep for the next hour. A pizza boy trying to get the hot girl (GAG!!!)… an army mom coming home from a tour of duty trying to win back the affection of her little girl (GAG!!!!)… an ex-con returning to town to try to start over (GAG!!!)… these are the things that make up the majority of the first 2 acts with just the odd transitional scene showing either the Aliens or the Predator.

Ok, now on the level of wanting a dumb, brainless fun action film… I was wanting to see a LOT of Aliens and Predators fighting. However, I was quickly disappointed to see that there was only ONE Predator! COME ON!!!!! Yes we want to see the hapless humans get ripped to shreds… but we’d also like to see some fights where Aliens win certain encounters and rip up a Predator or two as well! Nope… wasn’t going to happen… not with just one Predator. Very disappointing.

OVERALL

If you really want to enjoy Alien Vs Predator – Requiem, just watch the R-rated trailer… because most of (not all) of the best stuff is in there… and the rest of the film is mostly moms connecting with daughters and the pizza boy trying to get the girl. However, AVP-R is not a total waste of a film. There is enough mindless fun in it that you won’t HATE the film (I didn’t hate it), just not enough to be anywhere as good as it could have been. Overall I give AVP-R a 4.5 out of 10.

YOU CAN WATCH THE REVIEW BELOW

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42 thoughts on “Alien vs Predator 2 Review

  1. I was under the impression that the alien effected predator was a result of the Predator getting attacked in AVP 1. It wasnt an experiment to breed a new Alien. This takes place right after the ship leaves the Artic in AVP 1.

  2. Utterly garbage film. It started with some fairly decent scenes before getting into the teen storyline and never recovered from there. Exactly the same thing happened with Transformers. This wasn’t the case with Alien or Aliens. You liked the characters in those films, and there was tension when they were in danger and an effect when they died. All you felt in this film was a big “thank God” all the while hoping the main character would join them.

    I can’t believe that some people have actually commented that this was a good film. Just out of curiosity, are any of you guys who liked it over the age of fourteen?

    As an aside, I find it ironic that Leo apologised for the length of his post rather than for his lack of grammar or punctuation, which rendered it almost unreadable. What the hell is with this widespread lack of literacy that has arisen in the last ten years? Many young people now carry on some of this disgusting misuse of English even into more formal pieces of writing.

  3. (Type your comment here. Make sure you’ve read the commenting rules before doing so)Being a fan of both Alien and Predator movies the first two AVP movies are both disapointing. The first movie though did have a pretty descent plot to it, which would cause me to say that it is better than the 2nd. The problem with AVP2 has been mentioned several times in this review, 1. Why do we care about the humans in this film, we don’t care about each other in reality.
    2. Why does a predalien exist in the first place, I mean come on you don’t get humaliens wene they lay eggs in people, and to try to make a monster such as the Alien any better than he already was is beyond me.
    3. In the first AVP there where three Predators who couldnt even take down a few Aliens, for that matter the same one Alien killed not one but two of the Predators buy himself, so why send one Predator to fight all the Aliens in AVP2. Not choosen sides but the Predator wouldn’t have had a chance alone.
    4. The one good thing I can say for AVP2 is it truly shows just how unforgiving and uncaring the Alien and Predator truly are.

    I hope to see a AVP3 but truly I think that we won’t, if so I hope that it is written and directed by an Alien and Predator fan, that truly wont’s to see a battle of what I believe to be the two ultimate scifi monster to ever be put on film. Thanks J.P.

  4. I have just finished watching AVP2 and read most of your comments and I must say ya’ll aint payin attention.

    1) Why is it the new predalien never spawned other predaliens? instead it infected the host with regular alien chestbursters

    2) The movie DOES follow on directly from the first one that is pretty clear and obvious my one question is why does he not arm himself onboard his own ship? instead he raids the weapons from the dead body of his predator freind

    3) the facehuggers in the tubes were not part of some interspecies breeding experiment. If yall remember the predators simply breed and release the aliens for their own hunting and sport, does no-one remember AVP there was a scene in there that talks about the ancient mayans and how the predators who were looked upon as gods gave them the technology to build their pyramids and temples in exchange for using their land as a hunting ground it is only when they get overrun the predator blows his self destruct thus ending the mayan civilisation and the alien invasion

  5. Hi John,

    I’m Totally with you and your review. I just watched it yesterday and it sucks as big as possible. Could it be worse? I doubt as the AVP-R was the worse. I got your points and review and understood exactly why you are/were frustrated with the outcome of the movie.
    The storyline was a joke, the “actors”, if that’s what you call actor, it was more like babies. However, I enjoyed every scene where was the Alien and the Predator, those scenes were classic.
    Seriously, a
    Pizza boy trying to get the girl?
    A little boy getting jeaulous and start to hit the pizza boy?
    The girl staring and feeling sorry?
    An ex-con trying to get a life back?
    No sex in the swimming pool? (At least naked in the water damn)
    AND WHAT INTRIGUES ME MOST ANS STUPID, IS THAT THE OLD MAN STARES AT THE TV “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU?”… THE QUESTION IS……. DOESN’T THE MILITARY HAVE ALL THE TECHNOLOGY TO DETECT INCOMINGS FROM OUTERSPACE??? With all that smoke coming from the sky, when the spaceship falls down……….AND NO ARMY OR SPECIAL SERVICES AROUND ????????????? How long would it take for the message from the Predator to arrive to his home planet and ask for SOS and in the same time for the 2nd Predator fly through space and arrive???
    It wasn’t real (Yia yia, Aliens and Predators are fictional, let’s not get into that, it’s not the point here), but damn… the storyline could be close to reality damn it! Too many flaws and NO CREATIVITY with the story line. Pathetic and waste of time.
    Watch the Trailor and it’s enough.

  6. i’m with dj machismo,john the predators werent breeding the predalien, if you saw the first film you’d remember that scar got the predalien implanted in him ACIDENTLY while he was marking himself with xenomorph blood.and i think the predators were just cutting open the facehuggers to expierement on their organs.PS the predator’s DID send 1 guy to extirmenate

  7. well we’ve seen the future of alein series and now starting from alien vs predator 1 till who knows they will compelete the link to the 1st alien movie,the conflict will end with the last form which seen in part 1
    the weired giant dead creature setting on some kind of cannon (dead on chair) ..to be honest AVP2 is the worst ever. but the story still gr8, i wish the upcomming parts would be better.

    now regarding the predators at predator 2 i thik u noticed the alien skull sivoneer(trophy)beneath the ground at last conflict so it is logic to attach the two of them in AVP ..the prdalien wasnt a clone , and the specimens of alien emperio are for something else, had u noticed how did the predator injected the liquid of the containers in the machine attached to his hand… i think it will make the set capable to trace the aliens ,, wich some how describes why the predator can not trace the predalien which always surprisly attack him ,and needed different spectrum vision to focus on.

    now for the part that amazes me which is the sence when the child(little girl)were looking outside her window with the nightvision scope and screamed after that to tell that there is a monster…this part of movie was the main refusal by Sigourney weaver she declared before that she is happy to act for the upcomming alien movies on 1 condition “the Alien must not be on earth for the sake of our childrens”

    i wonder why they included this part which is usless and can be avioded …or its something against Sigourney weaver well !

    am a big fan of Alien moives i felt i have to take a part and express a comment here,am sorry that i wrote too much.

  8. well i have not seen the film yet but i loved the 1st one but the second one is way off the base of the 1st one because if you have a film then make a second one try and keep the story line or sumthing the same as the 1st one wat the directors could have done was keep the location and get a search team to go and find out wat happend out in the ruins and have another part found where they find a lab and the are predators doing research on dead aliens and they use a dead predator and mix the dna a each and they can think of the rest so wats every one think ??????

  9. I saw this movie despite all the bad comments on here….and it totally sucked. Not even the action or effects were really that great. Maybe if they had and extra $50M budget they could have done some better effects.

    The Predalien looked stupid and the final fight between the Predator and Predalien was cheap and disappointing. Nothing about this movie was good.

    DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!

  10. I agree with the posts comparing AVP-R with Dawsons Creek. As an non-US viewer the Pizza boy/jock storyline completely ruined the direction of the film in a Transformers-esque manner. The pool scene was totally gratuitous and the women in the audience were on the verge of walking out at that point. So, from that point on you had to ignore the teens in the film in order to appreciate the rest of what was going on. In regards to avp2sux comment on the look of the aliens…all aliens we’ve ever seen up until this point are human alien hybrids except the dog/bull alien in alien 3 which is a not like the rest. The Predator skinned the human due to him attempting to kill the predator and losing. All the Dawson’s aside I enjoyed the small references to previous films such as the lighting and atmosphere of it all. The film makers did their homework with the first two alien films and predator. The predator’s communicator seat was a fantastic nod to the original Alien down on the crashed ship.

  11. I think the next film should go back to the alien series, they should do a prequel set between alien and aliens. be great if they set it on lv422 with what happened to the colonists before the marines got there. show how they tried to hide from the aliens and how the girl survived. think this would take the film back to form although avp2 looks good.

  12. i saw the movie and it suxs big time…. not as what i expected.. a lot of technical issue which dun make sense… eg

    – earlier versions when pred dies… they have a bunch of pred buddies to do some ritual and body collection…
    – when aliens goes into human they dun become alienhuman… but then when they go into pred, they become alienpred… ??
    – lots of killing children and infants
    – earlier versions of alien… normal guns cant take those buggers down… also then national guard(trained) can take them down in avp2… but during escape 1 soldier+excon+pizza boy takes down a couple
    – alien blood melts/burns down faces and metal but during escape in a helicopter, the alien gets blasted at the copper windscreen… nothin melts..
    – the whole movie ended up in such a way the american government becomes a winner by dropping an a-bomb… and sets everything right… what that guys says at the last also do not make sense when he was commenting about the pred gun…

  13. @ Canuk:

    The reason as to why there was no real character development in the human characters, is that the directors didn’t want any real emotional bond to form with the humans or that’s how I perceive it.

    Fair enough. But there once was a time when we cared about some characters who were killed by Aliens and Predators in thier respected franchises. Imagine what would have happened if the jocks were not stereotyped and not automatically hated. Imagine if the “fired” boyfriend simply said they followed them to the school pool instead of “She’s a slut; She did the same thing with me here”. This statement cheapens her character. And his.

    But if we like characters, and those characters get killed, we feel suspense and surprise. If the intent was indeed to make the people cardboard cutouts, then the directors’ purpose is self-defeating. It’s like saying they intentionally wanted to make a weak, cliched film. Fox knew it, pulled out of Comic Con (where this cheese would have been more than welcomed) and didn’t screen AvPR for critics.

    I’m in strong agreement with the notion that it should be set in space. But y’know something? I don’t want another film, I don’t even want these two past films to be canon. Stand them alone. Get back to an Alien film and/or a Predator film.

  14. A friend of mine saw this film and didn’t like it:

    “I went and saw the Alien vs Predator sequel, which was about as bad as I expected. I was hoping it would be cheesier, but it took itself pretty seriously for the most part.”

  15. John, first and foremost I admire what you do, and even look up to you. I also trust your movie judgment. However this movie my friend is very good. And it does indeed pick up right where the last film left off. Did you not see the last scene of the first movie because its the first scene of this movie. Movies like this need character development. I liked the pizza guy. The girl dies which pisses me off. The end was great. the begining was a great set up ok ill agree that the middle was slow but not pointless. Sure its Alien Vs Predator but its also Humans vs Alien vs Predator and that is were the movie was awsome

  16. There be spoilers here – yyyaaarrrgggghhhh!!!

    Here’s what’s great about this movie:

    -one pred to kick all the aliens asses – that’s all you need anyways
    -I like that they had a little bit of music from the first Predator movie mixed in with this one.
    -The pred vs. four aliens in the tunnel fight
    -the tracking assist device in the tunnel
    -shooting a facehugger from way on top of a hill
    -swimming alien
    -tracking the aliens with the red triangles
    -national guard getting taken out and in the rain of all things
    -riding along the gourney with a facehugger latched onto someone’s face
    -maternity ward scene
    -stoners heads exploding

    Now for the bad parts

    -story
    -the “hot” chick had no ass
    -just how much of that blue jelly did the pred have?
    -academy award winning acting
    -the “hot” chick with no ass dies
    -just blow the whole town up

  17. Not sure if people actually have read the novel materials or background information that these two epic critters are based apon. I’m not talking about the stand alone stuff that we’ve gotten from the movies and video games, but the AvP novels (which way back in the day the movie was supposed to be based apon the first which I believe is “Aliens versus Predator: Prey” which the first AvP movie is based on loosely).

    In my opinion this was a continuation of the previous AvP, even if the directors said that it’s not. They could have had so many different starting points to get the movie going.

    Now not pointing fingers or anything for people not knowing backgrounds or histories of these two species confrontations with one another, but but the first AvP did indicate that the predators seed planets for their hunt.
    So AvP-R, predators where not suspecting one of their own to be impregnated, bad short-sided predators. It get’s away, the specimens in the jars where for future hunts/seeding planets. So something goes wrong, crap happens, the ship crashes, and a warning signal goes off to the predator homeworld as the predator couldn’t use his self-destruct system to resolve the situation. So the cleaner, who’s by the look of his collection of masks is a vetern predator, from what i’ve seen in the movie, is above the predator code of ethics (rank has its privilages?). But if you also seen the other predator movies, the vets generally hunt as individuals, and the unblooded hunt in groups to prove themselves.
    Ok so the cleaner pred kills a bunch of people, has no problems using humans as bait, awesome! He needs to clean up the mess before the spread before their “game” get’s out of control.

    The reason as to why there was no real character development in the human characters, is that the directors didn’t want any real emotional bond to form with the humans or that’s how I perceive it. Especially when it’s time for them to die, after all this is Aliens vs Predator, not Humans vs Aliens vs Predator.

    Alot of the human roles were your a-typical type cast character in any movie out there. The directors didn’t want emotional attachment of the movie to be drawn towards the humans. They should have had more Predator vs everybody killing.

    When I saw the movie, I got what I expected, carnage, killing, and gore. I give it a 3/5.

    *PS* I liked it how the kept the alien and predator in a draw as the humans nuked the city.
    *PSS* I’ve spent way to much time debating and theorizing this encounters over the years with my friends. :)

  18. “You can’t apply the same rules or requirements to Silence of the Lambs as you do to Transformers.”

    But you could apply the same rules and requirements to AVP-R as you do to Transformers, isn’t it odd how many similarities there are between the two, both movies start off fast before forgetting about their title characters, a young “hero” character who falls for the “Evil Jock Concubine”, a “Soldier” returning home, “ex-con” trying put their past behind them, clandestine government/military groups, although AVP-R’s stereotypes are a bit more fleshed out since it doesn’t possess Transformers’ special effects budget.

    I did noticed that Shane Salerno, who wrote the script for AVP-R, also worked on Micheal Bay’s Armageddon, hmmm.

  19. Oh man, I was looking forward to this movie, but after hearing about the pizza boy/hottie/jock triangle, I may just rent it. I didn’t realize this was written by John Hughes. As Josh mentioned earlier, they should have had the setting during the ‘Aliens’ timeline and include some Colonial Marines like the video games. Or even have the Predator ship crash in modern day Iraq or Afganistan (who doesn’t want to see Bin Laden get ripped up by a Xenomorph). I rather see a marine panic when running out of ammo instead of high school kids panicking when they run out of Clearasil. I think they should just have the Predators and the Aliens in a cage match at the UFC for the third movie (if there is one).

  20. I have not see the movie yet and now I’m not sure if I should. From what I heard from most of the reviews, the storyline suck ass and the human characters are forgettable. Fox needs to give the fans what they want and that is the motherfucking Colonial Marines fighting against the Aliens and the Predator in the future.

    As for John’s criticism of only having one Predator, one can argue it adds to the “badass-ness” of having one Predator taking on multiple Aliens. I read the Predator in this particular movie (refer as Wolf) is suppose to be the ultimate professional with extensive hunting experience so he doesn’t need help. It can also be argue that its in the Predator nature or code of honor to hunt alone since there is no sport in having a back-up.

    BTW John, the video review has no audio.

  21. As some folks may know, I hated the film. Let me address a few things.

    1) I was a bit confused in the opening. It does appear that Scar is on the table, and left unguarded as he was from the end of the first film. Some of it, in fact, is identical. But then I saw Predators carrying the jars and asked ‘Where did they get those huggers from?” The Predalien then takes them by surprise…if they mixed alien DNA with thier own, why not keep watch over..?

    Then I thought for a moment and said to myself, “Who cares, in the beginning of Alien3 we didn’t know how the facehuggers got onboard…it was never answered…besides, there might be an explanation…and there seemed to be one.

    It is a continuation from the previous film. The huggers in the jars are specimens captured around the whaling facility (a guess) but they are used to make a new gadget for the Preds…that blue liquid/Super Alien Acid that will dissolve any dead tissue, so it hides evidence of aliens and/or facehugger victims.

    It’s a nice thing, until the aliens are loose…then the Predy STOPS to cover it up. Again. And Again. That’s also why I had a problem with Predy skinning an (unarmed) human victim and hanging him up. Isn’t he after some aliens and the PredAlien? (I actually got blasted for this criticism on my little Facebook review)

    2) The film is about 86 minutes. It is set up just fine. But with all the cliches, character introductions, poorly written characters- one of whom is named Dallas and another is a loose rewriting of Ripley from Aliens. Why? Also of note, as Gio said, is that these “two” characters return home. The problem I had with naming a character named Dallas is that then I know he cannot die. His desendent will.

    The characters were, for the most part, badly written. Gio brings up the high school hottie and the evil jock boyfriend and his buddies. Why exactly did they beat up Pizza boy? Because he’s doing his job and had a witty comeback? Right then I wanted these guys to die. I didn’t care about them. There were cliched and…well, I was sympethic towards the young lass until there is a slight indication that she is also the school slut (Before fans harp on me for that, listen to what her “fired” boyfriend says on how he found her when he was looking for her, then ask, if he’s saying it to be mean, or is he saying that because he accurately predicted her behavior?) and the trailer showed her demise.

    The dopers get a cheap laugh from the audience. The audience also knows something about what happens to the town’s Cheech & Chong thanks to the trailer.

    3) The third act picks up some pace well. There is one flaw that Gio didn’t mention. I think it counts as a spoiler, so let’s just say you kind of “know” it wll happen a good twenty five minutes before it happens before the film ends.

    4) One Predator! Gone to avenge his friend!

    5) Here’s something Gio didn’t mention: the bad cinematography and the murky Pred vision. If the Pred has that much trouble, why can’t he adjust his sight?

    ******

    The problem with leaving the brain at the door:

    Alien wasn’t campy with dumbed down dialog.
    Aliens wasn’t stupid with dumb characters and dialog.
    Alien3 had some good things about it.

    Predator had characters who stood out as individuals.
    Predator 2 let us know the Predator a little more.

    They were both dumbed down as threats.

    Look. Take the Aliens and the Predator out of AvP2. Stick in any other creature and it’s a Sci-Fi channel reject.

  22. While i think they dropped the ball with the characters, and the dialogue, and the editing, and the lack of suspense, but everytime the Predators or Aliens were on screen, I was smirking. The music, sound effects, and look of the film were dead on with the notable entries in both franchises.

    Whats wrong with just one Predator? I had no trouble with that..

    I wish they had made AVP take place on LV-426 and had marines as the humans between, you know like the video game

  23. After reading this review and many others I am no longer looking forward to this movie. It’s too bad becuase I had really high hopes for this one.

    I just can’t believe that they don’t have enough sense to put out a quality story along with the great action/SFX. I’m sorry but what the f*ck is wrong with these people? Doesn’t anyone care about making good movies anymore?? I know for a fact that I could write a more compelling script that the garbage they puke up.

    Why they consistently put out movies for the fans that don’t appeal to the fans is beyond stupid.

    /rant

  24. I agree with your take John. The scenes with the Predator hunting the aliens were fun and made the movie watchable. Also the predator design, compared to the last film, was better and not slow and bulky looking like in the first one which was also a plus.

    But the human story lines just took you right out of it and made you ask yourself, wtf were they thinking?! It was so laughable at times. Instead of listening and being interested in what they were talking about I kept wondering how much longer till they get back to the predator already!

    I though the title of the movie was Aliens vs Predator. Not Aliens vs Predator vs Dawson’s fucking creek!

  25. John,

    I didn’t even finish reading your review before I had to comment about the fact that the “Predalien” was an accident rather than an experiment, but I see that someone has already pointed that out. It’s the only logical explanation. Carry on. :P

  26. John,

    Alright, after I had a little more coffee… I know they were holding there training (ritual) on Earth in the first AVP when I posted the comment… “Why go all the way to Earth to do this” but the Ship in the beginning of AVP:R clearly shows it in orbit and not coming to Earth. Anyway, would love to hear the real interpretation of the movie because it clearly doesn’t show this John. Not attacking you… I totally worship this site and your comment really caught me off guard since I never heard that interpretation of AVP:R… :) inquiring minds want to know…!!! :)

    Thanks a lot and have a great day,

    ~B

    PS. Have A Happy New Year!!!

  27. John,

    I’m sorry to say but whatever the co-directors told you, it sure doesn’t show that on the screen or maybe they changed there minds. Think about it… the last scene in the first AVP ends with the Predator on the table with the alien bursting out of his chest. Obviously, this is where AVP:R takes off. There not breeding new prey to hunt??? If they were, why go all the way to Earth to do this??? Wouldn’t there home world be the most obvious choice? Why leave the Predator on the table with no one to watch or guard??? And also, the lone Predator was sent to clean up the mess (burning all trace of the evidence with the acid) for know one to find. Of course, he didn’t do a good job of it but that was clearly what he was trying to do.

    He wasn’t there to hunt; didn’t see him collecting anything other than the weapons from the crashed ship. No trophies (skulls from any killed) or anything to suggest another day at the office. Anything that got in the way of cleaning up the mess he killed but again, cleaning up the mess; was so obvious on screen. You seem to be the Only One seeing it that way but hey, to each his own. I enjoyed it for what it was and it sure was a HELL of a lot BETTER than the first one!!! Thank goodness for that… :)
    Now, bring on the next chapter!!!

    Have a great day!

    ~B

  28. Couldn’t an argument be made that the filmakers were trying to do that with the human stories of the edgy pizza guy and the army mom and the ex-con? Were they not trying to make the viewer care about the characters before they meet up with their fates?

    Yes, but the problem is that they failed MISERABLY at making us give a damn about the characters. Any scene involving anyone not in latex makeup came across as utterly amateurish.

    This movie sucked worse than the last one… just in different ways. It was like watching someone else play a videogame. Monstrous plot holes, cheesy dialog, action that was indiscernible due to lousy lighting, rain and jumpy camera work. And that scene with the pregnant woman… that was just vile.

    If I hadn’t planned on reviewing it I would have walked out during the first 20 minutes. And please don’t give me that tired “it’s not supposed to be Citizen Kane” argument that is used to defend every single crap film. All you have to do is compare it to the original film in both franchises.

    My review is up on Screen Rant, where I give it 1/2 star out of 5.

    Vic

  29. Hey DJ Machismo,

    I’ll have to see if I can find that clip online since I saw it on TV.

    No, Wikipedia is not a good source… HOWEVER… there are other people who think it picks right up too. I was actually talking to another critic this morning about it who also believes avp2 picks up right at the end of avp1. But in the discussion, he noted himself the inconsistency with the Predator Ship heading TOWARDS earth at the start of the film instead of away from it. The testing labs on the ship, the fact that just 1 predator comes to get the PrediAlien… yadda yadda yadda.

    Having said that, you raise some great points and I need to hunt around and find that clip. :)

  30. Good review, and nice explaining the background of the birth of the Predalien.

    Personally, I really like the film. Yeah, characters are stereotypes and plot is cliche’, but overall I thought that the rated-R stuff did justice to show the type of sick bastards Aliens and Predator are. Considering the fact that the quality of the franchise is decreasing after each new movie, I thought this was as best of reminding us about the glory days as we’ll ever get. Sucks that only 1 Predator was involved, but at least this one kills ANYONE in his way!

    The big thing I like was how by the end of the movie, they restore the continuity of the first Alien movie, after killing off Bishop in the 1st AVP. Here’s a hint: there is a reason the first 3 Alien movies have the evil corporation named ‘Wayland-Yutani’.

    Overall, I think this is the best (which isn’t saying much) we may ever get to a decent mindless movie. If it breaks even in theaters, and the studio options for a 3rd movie, I think we need to go back into the future (at least after James Cameron’s Aliens). Its about time they get off Earth and rip the shit out of each other in an all out war in space!

  31. John, could you link to where the directors were saying that? Just curious as I’ve never seen it. Plus, there’s quite a lot out there saying otherwise…

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliens_vs._Predator:_Requiem

    “The film picks up immediately after the events of Alien vs. Predator. The Predator (‘Scar’), who was impregnated by a face hugger before being killed by an Alien Queen at the end of the first film, gives birth to a Predalien on board his clan’s ship. As the Predalien rampages through the ship, a Predator attempts to kill it with his plasma caster and inadvertently shoots a hole through the ship’s hull, causing it to crash in the forests outside of Gunnison, Colorado. The ship’s crew die either upon the crash or by the Predalien, which escapes. A boy and his father who are deer hunting see the crash and go to check it out. Both of them come across the wreckage of the ship- on board, several facehuggers escape from the damaged containment tubes and quickly impregnate them both.”

    Wikipedia may not be the most accurate website ever, but its usually fairly on with its synopsis.

  32. Hey Jordon,

    The problem here is that you’re comparing apples to oranges. These are two very different genres of films and thus have different needs.

    The characters in Hostel were the stars of the film. In Alien Vs Predator, they’re not supposed to be the stars. We weren’t there to see the humans… and we certainly don’t need to, or want to care about their fates. The axis of this film is, as the title says, Aliens vs Predators.

    You can’t apply the same rules or requirements to Silence of the Lambs as you do to Transformers. As here, with 2 totally different genres, you can’t expect, or require the same things from a Hostel film as you do from AVP.

  33. Oh common John are you kidding me?

    You didn’t know that there was going to be only 1 predator in this film??

    Since day 1 the directors said it will be just 1 predator. Also if you had seen the title carefully then it should have been obvious- alienS vs. predator.

    As for the movie i thought it was ok 6/10 for me.

  34. John-

    I do not claim to be an expert on the situation, but what was one of the primary reasons that you said Hostel 2 sucked?
    The lack of character development. You wanted to care about the characters and what happened to them. “And THEN I want to see a chisel through the thigh”.

    Something like that.

    Couldn’t an argument be made that the filmakers were trying to do that with the human stories of the edgy pizza guy and the army mom and the ex-con? Were they not trying to make the viewer care about the characters before they meet up with their fates?

    Granted, they chose the most hackneyed, stereotypical situations imaginable, but at least they “tried”.

    I’ve always respected you and your opinion, John, but this comes off as a bit hypocritical.

  35. Hey there DJ Machismo,

    No, the co-directors both talked about how this movie as NOTHING to do with the first one, and that the Predators are breeding the new Aliens. As you look around the ship, that’s why they have all the alien larvai in the jars.. they are experimenting and breeding the new breed.

    Also, if all the predators wanted to do was “stop” the Aliens… they would have sent more than just 1 guy. No, he went to hunt.

  36. You do realize that they didn’t breed the new Predalien themselves. That was the result of the first movie, a Predator who accidentally was made a host for an Alien, at the very end of the movie, they show the Predalien chestburster and then roll credits. The hunter in this movie comes to merely stop the Aliens from getting out of control.

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