Film Review: Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)

Since the tantalising sequence near the end of Predator 2 in 1990, fans of Ridley Scott's Alien and John McTiernan's Predator had dreamed of a crossover that would unite these two titans of science fiction horror. When Paul W.S. Anderson finally delivered Alien vs Predator in 2004, it served as a brutal reminder of the proverb: be careful what you wish for. Despite being widely regarded as one of cinema's greatest disappointments, its modest box office returns inevitably spawned a sequel. Aliens vs Predator: Requiem, released in 2007, not only failed to redeem its predecessor but plunged both franchises into an abyss of mediocrity so profound that it has since been largely forgotten—a deliberate act of collective amnesia by studios and fans alike who recognise it as the embarrassing nadir of two legendary cinematic universes.

The film opens with a continuation of the previous instalment's cliffhanger: Predators departing Earth, oblivious to a facehugger lurking aboard their vessel. Within moments, an alien bursts from an infected Predator's chest, rapidly maturing into the monstrous 'Predalien'—a grotesque hybrid combining the worst attributes of both species. This abomination slaughters the crew and crashes the ship near Gunnison, Colorado, where it begins its campaign of terror. The creature's reproductive methods are particularly horrifying: local hunters and their children fall victim to facehuggers, only to have chestbursters erupt from their bodies in scenes of gratuitous violence. Meanwhile, on the Predator homeworld, a lone warrior known only as 'Wolf' (Ian White) embarks on a mission to eliminate the Predalien, treating humans as little more than collateral damage in his quest for honour.

Gunnison's overwhelmed Sheriff Eddie Morales (John Ortiz) finds himself thrust into a nightmare scenario as disappearances escalate into power failures and widespread carnage. He eventually joins forces with a disparate group of survivors: recently released convict Dallas Howard (Steven Pasquale), his teenage brother Ricky (Johnny Lewis), Ricky's girlfriend Jesse (Kristin Hager), ex-soldier Kelly O'Brien (Reiko Aylesworth) and her young daughter Molly (Ariel Gade). Their attempts to escape are hampered by disagreements over evacuation plans orchestrated by the suspicious Colonel Stevens (Robert Joy), whose military agenda appears more concerned with containment than rescue.

The producers clearly heeded criticisms of the first film's PG-13 rating, delivering an R-certified experience overflowing with graphic violence. Bodies are torn apart with visceral detail, while victims include precisely those characters typically spared in mainstream cinema—children and pregnant women meet particularly gruesome ends. For Alien franchise devotees, the film finally fulfils the long-held fantasy of xenomorphs invading Earth. Yet this concession to fan demands proves ultimately hollow, as the film's execution transforms what should have been a triumphant moment into a descent into darkness—both thematically and literally.

Directed by visual effects specialists Greg and Colin Strause, Requiem makes a catastrophic creative decision: almost every scene is shrouded in near-total darkness. The narrative conveniently features a power plant failure plunging Gunnison into blackness, while the predominantly nocturnal setting provides further justification for this visual approach. While undoubtedly cost-effective and helpful in securing the R rating by obscuring particularly graphic content from censors, this choice renders the film virtually incomprehensible. Even the climactic battle between the Predalien and Wolf becomes an indecipherable mess of shadows and poorly rendered CGI, leaving audiences unable to distinguish combatants or follow the action. What should have been a spectacular showcase of creature effects becomes a frustrating exercise in visual deprivation.

Shane Salerno's screenplay compounds these problems with characters so thinly drawn they might as well be cardboard cut-outs. Played predominantly by unknown actors, the human protagonists lack any discernible personality beyond their designated horror movie roles. Dallas is the obligatory tough guy with a hidden heart of gold; Ricky is the rebellious teenager; Jesse exists primarily to scream. Their suburban setting and the film's reliance on slasher movie tropes—teens making poor decisions, authority figures proving useless, survivors splitting up unnecessarily—transform what should be epic science fiction into a cheap, direct-to-video horror flick. Occasional references to the original Aliens and Predator films only serve to highlight the chasm between James Cameron's and John McTiernan's masterpieces and this pale imitation.

Despite grossing over $128 million worldwide against a modest $40 million budget, Requiem was universally rejected by critics and fans alike. Its commercial viability proved insufficient to overcome its artistic bankruptcy, forcing the Strause brothers to abandon plans for a third instalment. More significantly, when Ridley Scott returned to the Alien franchise with Prometheus in 2012, he deliberately excised the Alien vs Predator films from official canon—a tacit acknowledgment of their toxic legacy. This erasure was not merely pragmatic but necessary; to acknowledge Requiem as part of the Alien mythology would be to diminish the franchise's entire legacy.

What makes Aliens vs Predator: Requiem particularly unforgivable is not merely its technical incompetence or narrative poverty, but its fundamental misunderstanding of what made both franchises endure. Scott's Alien terrified through atmosphere and suggestion; Cameron's Aliens balanced spectacle with character depth; McTiernan's Predator combined military precision with primal horror. Requiem offers none of these qualities, substituting mood with murkiness, character with cliché, and tension with tedium. It reduces two of science fiction's most iconic creations to mindless killing machines in a story devoid of thematic weight or emotional resonance.

Today, Aliens vs Predator: Requiem occupies a peculiar space in cinematic history—as one of the most deliberately forgotten films of the early 21st century. Studios avoid mentioning it; fans pretend it never existed; even the directors have largely moved on to other projects. This collective amnesia is not merely deserved but necessary—a cultural immune response to a work so devoid of merit that its very existence threatens to contaminate the legacies it sought to celebrate.

RATING: 2/10 (-)

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