ALIENS vs. PREDATOR: REQUIEM Deserves a Rewatch

ALIENS vs. PREDATOR: REQUIEM is not as bad as everyone says.

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem 2007

Sure, the lighting is too dark, and the characters aren't that fully fleshed, but I've sat through far worse films. Let me break down why REQUIEM is actually really good, why people don't like it, and why ALIEN: ROMULUS owes REQUIEM  credit.

REQUIEM is an homage to the entire ALIEN and PREDATOR series up to that point. Right from the opening credits, we hear the famous sound effects of both films to let us know it's going to be heavy on the homage tip. Even the opening titles that appear in Cameron's ALIENS and end with an explosion like the nuke that blows up the city in the third act all make a return.

REQUIEM isn't just a sequel to its predecessor; it's a new beginning. I think that's because it doesn't mention the ancient pyramids or anything to do with the mythology of Anderson's film, that audiences resisted it. They had followed Anderson's story and were expecting something that connected REQUIEM to it, something worthy. 

But all we got was a Predalien.

Don't get me wrong. The Predalien is different. But REQUIEM basically ignores the previous movie and starts over as if it didn't exist. 

We see the small town of Gunnison, Colorado--the complete opposite of an epic setting. It's not about space exploration or military dominance or even buried pyramids. 

REQUIEM is about the nuclear family. It's about relationships and everyday scenarios.

Enter the Predalien...

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem 2007

This monstrosity comes to small town, USA and creates fucking havoc. I don't think audiences were ready to see how much insane and repulsive shit the Predalien was going to unleash on your average American. The depravity sets people and critics back. 

But the nastiness of the Predalien is also, weirdly, what makes REQUIEM so unique. 

Never before have ALIEN audiences seen a creature that isn't a face hugger, act like a face hugger, and also kills victims, too. Up until that point, your average face hugger would die after it implants its seed. 

As unique as it is, it's the brutality of the Predalien that is hard to watch. It only impregnates already-pregnant women. The life cycle of the ALIEN franchise has lived and died by its ability to create new reproductive abilities in each film. 

Other than that, REQUIEM is a beat-by-beat story. Survivors must survive. Some get picked off. Some don't. The monsters die. The end.

But it's the homage of the movie that exists on a meta-commentary level, here. 

Like I said earlier, the SFX, score, character names (Dallas!), similar cinematography, and much more are all a perfect homage to the ALIEN and PREDATOR series. 

It doesn't feel forced...

like... ALIEN: ROMULUS.

Prometheus 2012

Everything about ROMULUS feels forced. From the bullshit plot of the Big Chap not dying at the end of the first film to the Black Goo in PROMETHEUS to the recreation of Ash and the fucking SFX used at weird times just to garner a "Hey, I remember that noise. It's from..." all of it feels forced.

But as much as I want to dump on Alvarez for it, I can't.

Cinema is dead. Original ideas are dead. All we see are sequels and requels. Hollywood is too scared to spend money to finance anything new. So, they make a sequel nobody asked for and overload it with memberberries and nostalgia.

That's the times we live in. And some people (not me) eat it up. They love it. They either don't get the references or they do like it. 

I don't. 

ROMULUS, I'll admit, had potential. But it was saturated with stupid callbacks. Nothing original. Not really. The Black Goo is the main primary MacGuffin again. I thought we were over that nonsense in ALIEN: COVENANT.

Anyways, ROMULUS was boring crap. REQUIEM was better.

THE WOLVERINE gets wrong what SPIDER-MAN 2 does right

The X-Men films are not without their flaws. Much of the dialogue is hokey. The CGI is questionable, and too many characters appear at once. It's difficult to focus on any one specific character. 

The Wolverine 2013

But James Mangold's 2013 THE WOLVERINE learns from those mistakes. 

THE WOLVERINE is a very compact, tight story. It has limited characters, and CGI only appears in the third act. 

But aside from the technical and plot issues, what THE WOLVERINE does exceptionally well is that it forces the Logan character to lose his healing factor to a certain degree. He still has it, though it is reduced in its power. Logan could always take multiple bullets and knives and whatever other superpower is used on him, and he would just shrug it off. 

Logan was unstoppable in prior movies. But as cool as that is, it's also a hindrance because there isn't any threat against him. He can do anything, and nobody can stop him.

The writers here strip away Logan's healing factor and force him to experience pain as it's normally felt by non-mutants.

However, I can't help but think they (the writers) missed the mark.

Having seen Sam Raimi's SPIDER-MAN 2 countless times, I must compare THE WOLVERINE to it because it mimics the same plot. Sort of.

Just as Logan loses his ability to heal his wounds, Peter Parker loses his Spidey mojo, too. Peter's loss of his powers is related to his love story with Mary Jane. She has found another man of interest since the first film. She's moved on. But Peter hasn't. It's because of Peter's desire to have her as his love interest that affects his abilities as Spider-Man.

He actually embraces his loss of powers at one point. Because he disregards his Spidey requirements to fight crime, he excels in college and finds happiness. He even saves a kid from a burning building.

Spider-Man 2 2004

Of course, he chooses to be Spider-Man when Doctor Octopus kidnaps MJ. It's a very powerful scene because Peter makes the choice.

Logan doesn't have that in THE WOLVERINE.

When he loses his healing factor, he doesn't experience life differently. So, when he gets his powers back, it doesn't feel missed or earned. There wasn't any doubt that Logan would still want his immortality, which acts as a curse just as much as it is a gift. There isn't any doubt from the audience that, of course, Logan would save the day again.

That's my only gripe with the story. 

The writers could have made it more difficult for Logan to decide to want his powers back. They could have shown how much he enjoyed being with Mariko as a non-mutant, something he could only have if he stayed as a non-mutant. So, when the time comes for him to remove those bugs in him, it would have made for a much more powerful scene.