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.