aka AvPR
Movie Review by Dr Kuma
Starring: Reiko Aylesworth, Steven Pasquale, John Ortiz, Johnny Lewis
Directors: Colin Strause, Greg Strause
Back in the 40’s when Universal thought that their Monsters had lost their impact due to the real horrors of the WW2, they decided to put all their bad eggs into one basket and the “Monster Bash” began. These films such as House Of Dracula and House Of Frankenstein were big hits with the best of the bunch being Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman. Even this couldn’t save them and all the classic Monsters ended up as fall guys in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Although this may seem a little sad, that film is now seen as a classic, which is a word the most modern of Monster Bashes AVP2 will never be associated with. The only similarity between the classic A&C title and AVP2 is that they both make you laugh at moments you are supposed to be frightened. The sad thing here though is that the older film did that intentionally. Put it this way; here is a comparison of lines that brought the house down in these two films.
1) Lon Chaney to A&C:
“You don’t understand, I become a wolf when the moon comes out”
“Yeah, you and 20 million other guys”
2) The Hero of AVP2 to his bedraggled Sheriff after the town has been wiped out:
“We need to get some guns”
If this obvious statement wasn’t funny enough, that fact that they have broken into a pawn shop and the girl with the flashlight then says “Here’s some” as the torch lights up an entire armoury taking up an entire wall two feet from them hits the spot. The sad thing is – it’s not meant to be funny.
The main thing you glean from this film is that it takes about 20 minutes for the Predator to get from his planet to Earth, which is less time than it took my train to get me the 10 miles home after the screening. Makes you wonder why they haven’t been seen more often before, popping to Earth to get the Sunday papers.
Although the monsters are as impressive as ever, the fact that the Predators seem to have been interbreeding the Aliens with their own race (The main Alien had the Predators Deadlocks) it isn’t even mentioned. The brief shots of a test lab aboard the initial Predator Spaceship that crashes to Earth in the opening merely allude to the fact.
In this film Alien facehuggers are released in the said crash, and this even more evil creature – a hybrid Alien/Predator (?) is also released. When Daddy Predator receives data about the crash on his home planet, he jumps in his rocket and comes to Earth. Parking in a lake he finds the inhabitants of the town have become targets of the Aliens, who include the local sheriff, a young female soldier recently returned from Iraq and several other teens in T-shirts. Though the National Guard is called in, they are unable to stop the deadly creatures and a more deadly plan is set in motion….
Like many of its 50’s predecessors all the action is set in a small town cut off from modern society, the difference here is that in the age of mass communication this film possesses none of their charm. Although it rattles along at a brisk pace and is never boring after a well mounted opening it is only the surprises kept for its characters in the last reel that have given it an extra star.
Again, as in the first AVP, the stars of the film are the monsters themselves so let’s give them each one gold star for trying.
Dr Kuma’s verdict: One normally associates the word Requiem with a funeral or a death so perhaps it’s a rather fitting title as this really does ring the death knell for this particular series, which is a shame as the monsters themselves deserve so much more. Which one comes out best? That’s for you to see. It’s really a tale of two sequels and a sequel of a sequel. Originally Alien possessed one of the best sequels in science fiction film history, unlike Predator who’s second instalment was probably worse than this, which is really saying something….
This really is another big number two.
