Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem

This article is about the film. For the video game, see Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (video game)

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem
File:Avpredatorr.jpg Official poster for the film
Directed by	Colin Strause Greg Strause
Written by	Characters: Dan O'Bannon Ronald Shusett Jim Thomas John Thomas Screenplay: Shane Salerno
Produced by	John Davis Wyck Godfrey Walter Hill
Starring	Steven Pasquale Reiko Aylesworth John Ortiz
Cinematography	Daniel C. Pearl
Edited by	Dan Zimmerman
Music by	Brian Tyler
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release dates	United States: December 25, 2007 Australia: December 26, 2007 United Kingdom: January 18, 2008
Running time	Theatrical cut: 94 min. Unrated edition: 101 min.
Countries	United States Canada
Language	English
Budget	$40 million (close estimate)
Box office	$128,844,311 (worldwide)

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (also known as AVP:R) is the 2007 science fiction film sequel to 2004's Alien vs. Predator. Filming for the film began on September 25, 2006 in Vancouver with the Brothers Strause (Colin and Greg) directing the movie based on a screenplay by Shane Salerno. The film's lead roles are played by actors Steven Pasquale and Reiko Aylesworth.

The film is rated R for violence, gore and language unlike its much criticised predecessor which was given a PG-13 rating. The BBFC's classification decision for the movie is the same as the original (Rated 15), whilst the Australian OFLC rated the film MA, up on the original's M rating.

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem was released on December 25, 2007, and received negative response from film critics. Chris Hewitt of Empire called it an "early but strong contender for worst movie of 2008", while Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly felt it was a "B movie that truly earns its B." The film has a 15% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and 29 out of 100 at Metacritic. The film grossed $9.5 million on its opening day, and has since taken in a worldwide gross of $128 million as of February 23, 2008.

Plot

After the events of AvP: Alien vs. Predator, the body of a dead Predator ("Scar") erupts with an Alien chestburster on board a Predator mother ship. The Predburster quickly grows into a Predalien ("Chet"). Later she sneaks into a Predator scout ship, which was attached to the mother ship, and kills a Predator onboard it. In an attempt to kill Chet another Predator fires his plasma caster and inadvertently damages the hull of the ship, causing it to crash down into a forest landscape outside the town of Gunnison, Colorado. The last surviving Predator from the crash then activates a distress signal to the Predator Homeworld, just before he is killed by Chet.

A boy and his father who are hunting deer see the crash and go to investigate, but before they can raise the alarm, both are impregnated by Facehuggers that had escaped from the crashed ship. The distress signal reaches the Predator Homeworld and is answered by a veteran Predator ("Wolf"). He views a recording from the Predator's mask that caused the ship to crash-land. He watches how the Chet killed crew members leading to the ship's crash, and knows that Aliens are loose on Earth. He prepares his gear, selects a mask, and departs.

Meanwhile, ex-con Dallas Howard has returned to Gunnison after time served in prison. He is greeted by the town's sheriff, Eddie Morales. Ricky Howard, Dallas' brother, is jumped by bullies after delivering some pizzas to his love interest Jesse. One of the attackers, Jesse's boyfriend Dale, takes Ricky's keys and throws them into the sewer drain, forcing Ricky and his brother Dallas to look for them in the sewers. At this point, the hunting pair give birth to Chestbursters and a few more Facehuggers impregnate several homeless people in the sewers. Ricky catches sight of a Chestbuster and he and Dallas leave rattled after hearing a series of hisses and screeching; they also discover a shed skin of another Chestburster, which has grown into an Alien Warrior. Meanwhile, Kelly O'Brien comes home after serving her time in the U.S.army to an estranged daughter and waiting husband.

Wolf's ship arrives mere hours after the distress signal is received. He is tasked with eliminating the Aliens and destroying any evidence of the incident. He salvages equipment from the crashed ship and detonates the vessel to eliminate evidence. Among the salvage is a vial of blue, extremely corrosive liquid used to erase biological traces of Aliens and their victims. The local community searches in earnest for the father/son hunting pair, which Wolf manages to find first. He immediately uses the vial to remove evidence of the hunting pair. An officer comes across him as this happens, fleeing once he is discovered. Wolf skins him alive and hangs his dead body upside down from a tree top, which is found the next morning by Sheriff Morales.

Wolf locates the nearest area of possible contamination, the city sewer near the forest. He is ambushed by several Warriors, and after a brief fight in which he encounters Chet (the leader of the Alien infestation), the Warriors spread throughout the city through a hole in the sewers leading up into the streets, starting a rampage that eventually leads to the destruction of a nearby power plant, forcing the city into darkness.

Ricky and Dale (now Jesse's ex-boyfriend) are having another altercation over Jesse at the high-school's swimming pool. They don't get far before a Warrior shows up, killing Dale's two friends. After barely escaping with their lives, Ricky, Jesse and Dale manage to meet up with Eddie and Dallas. They head to a sporting shop for weapons, contacting the incoming National Guard; within minutes, however, the entire force is eliminated by Warriors. Kelly, having lost her husband and barely escaping a Warrior, arrives with her daughter Molly. They are forced to flee when Wolf arrives, attempting to destroy as many Warriors as he can. Dale is killed when a dead Warrior's acidic blood burns through his face. Wolf's dual plasma casters are damaged in the attack, but he is able to modify one into a handheld plasma pistol.

Meanwhile, as the small group attempts to escape the town, they make contact with Colonel Stevens, who radios that air evacuation will arrive at the town's center within half an hour. Kelly is unconvinced that there will be a rescue, as the town's center is overrun by Warriors and would be the wrong place to stage evacuation. The promise of rescue is in fact meant to keep the infestation focused on the survivors, allowing the town to be nuked. Eddie breaks from the group to join a small collection of fighting survivors who plan to wait at the center of town for evacuation, while the remainder of them make for the hospital in a National Guard Stryker as it is believed to have a helicopter. Unknown to them, the hospital is under attack and has become a hive for the Alien infestation - Chet's ability to implant multiple embryos into hosts allows the hive to be created within mere hours. A brief contact with a Warrior results in Jesse panicking and fleeing - she inadvertently runs into the path of one of Wolf's shurikens and is killed. Ricky retaliates, causing little damage, but the distraction causes Wolf to be knocked down an elevator shaft by a Warrior, dropping his plasma pistol. Ricky is impaled by Chet, but manages to survive the encounter as Chet is driven off. Dallas retrieves the plasma pistol as the group makes for the helicopter.

On the roof, Dallas stays behind briefly to fight off the Warriors with the plasma pistol, until he is cornered. Wolf appears only a moment later to brawl against the Warriors, leaving Dallas to escape just as Chet arrives and attacks Wolf. As the two extraterrestrials battle, the helicopter lifts off, carrying an injured Ricky, Dallas, Kelly and her daughter, just as an F-22 Raptor releases a nuclear device. Both Chet and Wolf mortally wound each other just as the small-scale tactical nuclear weapon detonates, destroying everyone and everything within its blast radius. The helicopter gets caught in the shock wave, and crash lands in a clearing.

Dallas wakes to find Kelly, Molly and Ricky still alive and outside the crashed craft. After hearing threatening noises, they find themselves surrounded by camouflaged soldiers. Dallas gives up the plasma pistol, while med-evac tends to his still injured brother; Kelly reassures her daughter that the monsters are finally gone.

The scene shifts elsewhere, to a corporate building in the U.S., where Colonel Stevens approaches Ms. Yutani. He opens the briefcase he is carrying to reveal the plasma pistol. Ms. Yutani states that the world is not ready for this new technology, while Colonel Stevens rhetorically asks "But this isn't for our world, is it Ms. Yutani?"

Cast

• Steven Pasquale as Dallas Howard
  
• Reiko Aylesworth as Kelly O'Brien
  
• John Ortiz as Sheriff Eddie Morales
  
• Johnny Lewis as Ricky Howard
  
• Ariel Gade as Molly O'Brien
  
• Kristen Hager as Jesse
  
• Sam Trammell as Tim O'Brien
  
• Robert Joy as Col. Stevens
  
• David Paetkau as Dale Collins
  
• Tom Woodruff, Jr. as the Predalien/"Chet"
  
• Ian Whyte as The Predator/"Wolf"
  

Production

Inspired by Terminator 2, brothers Colin and Greg Strause moved to Los Angeles to break into the movie business. After an unsuccessful attempt to find employment at ILM, the brothers worked on the X-Files movie and founded their own special effects company, Hydraulx. The company produced special effects for movies such as Volcano, Titanic, The Day After Tomorrow, Poseidon and 300, and the brothers began a career directing commercials and music videos. Colin believes Hydraulx secured a strong relationship with 20th Century Fox, who owns the Alien and Predator franchises.

The brothers unsuccessfully pitched an idea for the first Alien vs. Predator film, and Fox almost bought a movie titled Wolfenstein suggested by the brothers, "When the script came up for this movie, they thought we'd be perfect for it because it's an ambitious movie for the budget that they had and they knew that having our visual effects background was going to be a huge thing." The brothers were hired to direct the sequel to Alien vs. Predator in late spring 2006, and had limited time to start filming in the fall.

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem was filmed on a 52-day schedule in Vancouver. During filming breaks the brothers supervised visual effects work on 300, Shooter and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer by using in-house supervisors and a system called Mavis and Lucy, which let the brothers track, view and approve dailies. Colin estimates Hydraulx produced 460 of the 500 visual effects shots including the nuclear explosion which was created using Maya fluids and BA Volume Shader. The interior of the Predator ship was created using CGI, as the brothers felt it would be more cost effective than building a set. The visual effects team peaked at 110 people for several months and averaged 70, almost all of the entire Hydraulx staff.

Using their knowledge in visual effects and making use of principal photography, the brothers tried to film as much as they could on camera without resorting to CGI, Colin said "Other than the exterior spaceship shots, there are no pure CG shots". CGI was used for the Alien tails and inner-jaws, where as they required puppeteers and wire removal on previous movies. The main visual effects of the film included set design, a nuclear explosion, the Predator's ship crashing, and the Predator cloak, where Colin stated "We wanted to make sure it didn't look too digital".

Reception

Box office

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem was released in North America on December 25, 2007, in 2,563 theatres. The film grossed $9,515,615 on its opening day for an average of $3,707 per theatres, and was number ten at the box office. It grossed $5 million in Australia, $9 million in Japan and the United Kingdom, and $7 million in Russia for an international total of $86,288,761 . As of February 20, 2008, the film has taken in a domestic gross of $41,742,552 , and $128,031,313 worldwide. The film is the lowest grossing Alien film in the domestic box office, and is the second lowest grossing "Alien" film worldwide next to Alien, excluding the effect of inflation.

Reviews

As with its predecessor, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem was not screened for critics, although once able to view the film, the response was largely negative. Based on 61 reviews, the film scored a 15% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes, and 29 out of 100 at Metacritic, the worst for a film in the franchises. Chief criticisms of the film included acting, dialogue, cardboard characters, over-the-top gore, bad lighting, and "jumpy editing". However, a few critics praised the R-rating, as the previous film was PG-13, and stated it's a "fun B-movie".

Chris Hewitt of Empire called it an "early but strong contender for worst movie of 2008", while Stina Chyn of Film Threat felt the camerawork "is a smidge too shaky and the lighting/color design too dark for me to relish the Predator-on-Alien butt-kicking". Josh Rosenblatt of The Austin Chronicle dismissed the movie stating it was an "An orgy of mindless violence, a random collection of bloody bodies, alien misanthropy, and slobbering carnage designed to bore straight into the pleasure centers of 13-year-old boys and leave the rest of us wondering when the movies got so damn loud." The Hollywood Reporter contributor Kirk Honeycutt called it a "dull actioner that looks like a bad video game.

Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly felt it was a "B movie that truly earns its B", while The New York Times editor Neil Genzlinger stated "It may not be classic sci-fi like the original Alien, which it has in its DNA, but it’s a perfectly respectable next step in the series." Variety contributor Joe Leydon said it "Provides enough cheap thrills and modest suspense to shake a few shekels from genre fans before really blasting off as homevid product," and Ryan Stewart of Cinematical said he "can't recommend it as a good movie on its own merits, stocked as it is with cardboard cutout characters and a barely coherent plot, but it's miles more interesting than the last Alien vs. Predator film." Todd Gilchrist of IGN stated the film is "competently executed, occasionally scary and frequently fun to watch, no matter whether you choose to laugh at or with it."

BBC critic Mark Kermode's scathing review called the film "noisy, badly shot rubbish", "thicko video game science fiction" and suggested that "never has a movie had such an appropriate colon in the title".

Awards

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem was nominated for two Golden Raspberry awards in the fields of Worst Excuse for a Horror Movie and Worst Prequel or Sequel. The awards however, went to I Know Who Killed Me and Daddy Day Camp.

DVD release

Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem was released on DVD on April 15, 2008 in North America and will be released on May 12, 2008 in the United Kingdom. Fox Home Entertainment has announced a 1-disc rated (94 minutes) and unrated (101 minutes) and 2-disc unrated (101 minutes) versions of the film. The only extra material on the 1-disc edition will be an audio commentary by the directors and producer John Davis, and a second commentary by creature FX designers/creators Tom Woodruff Jr. and Alec Gillis.

The unrated edition includes the commentaries, along with five behind the scenes featurettes (Prepare for War: The Making of AVP-R, Fight to the Finish: The Making of AVP-R, AVP-R: The Nightmare Returns - Creating the Aliens, Crossbreed: The PredAlien, and Building the Predator Homeworld), multiple stills galleries on the creature design and sets, a digital copy download feature, and the AVP-R trailer). A Blu-ray release was also released on April 15. This release includes both cuts of the film seamlessly branched, all of the extra material above, along with an exclusive Weyland-Yutani archives picture-in-picture reference guide to the warring alien races.

External links

• Official Website
• Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem at IMDb
• Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem at Rotten Tomatoes
• Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem at Metacritic
• Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem at Box Office Mojo