Year: 2008
Director: The Streuse Brothers
Screenplay: Shane Salerno
Starring:Steven Pasquale, Reiko Aylesworth, John Ortiz, Johnny Lewis, Ariel Gade, Kristen Hager
Note: This review is written without knowledge of Predator 2.
Maybe there's something wrong with me, I don't know. Usually I leave movies like this unamused and not entertained in the slightest. However with this....somehow I came out....enjoying it. I won't go into the whole "you gotta switch your brain off" shite that everyone says as an easy way out as they don't like to get into real debates about movies.
It is a dumb movie, things go boom, people die and it's got movie monsters from way better films running around. But something about the film was...watchable. Maybe because I've become a less venomous cinepile in the last few months, maybe because I felt the directors tried harder with this film than Paul W.S Anderson's effort or maybe it was because I spent most of my time in a sex coma from the night before (due to an expensive hotel weekend in London thanks gf). I don't know...but I came out of AVPR with an OK feeling....
In compassion to the first cross over movie then films a godsend. It has a better storyline for one. All that shit about pyramids in the Arctic is out (seriously what?) and the plot has been dumbed down even more to give the film a slightly more back to basics feel.
The story follows on from the original film in which a alien/predator hybrid is born and causes havoc on the ship in which it was born in. After a brief chase an attacking predator shoots the shit of it's own ship trying to destroy this thing and the ship lands in a small American town where nothing ever happens. A death toll ensues.
It doesn't have the suspense of Alien or the Carnage of Aliens or Predator. But for me for some reason The film did it for me. I think I liked it's sadistic edge. I read a review which complained about children and pregnant women dying in the film "sickening" was the word he used. But seriously At least it had some guts. These creatures are vicious killing machines I want no mercy...unlike the first AVP with "understanding Predators".
The acting isn't Brando worthy but it's bearable. It's not as painful as some might think. What you see is what you get and you get nobodies trying, something I like more than somebodies not trying.
The film is what it is, a bunch of killer xenomoprhs and alien hunters trying to killer each other with humans getting in the way. No coming of age rituals, no pyramids under snow, no bullet time face huggers, just carnage (although it is quite moderate carnage)
The human characters aren't particularly warm but engaging enough despite being quite flat. The action itself is not the pinnacle of the series but like I said before.....bullet tme face huggers...WTF.
I enjoyed the references to the original films and the action was passable and while I am guessing it might have been the sex coma that made me like this somewhat, I still took more from this than the original film it sequels.
BUT I CAN'T UNDERSTAND WHY! Maybe the dumbing down of cinema is finally getting to me or maybe I'm biding my time till There will be Blood. I silently cry in shame covered in my DVD's of better movies but hey everyone's allowed a guilty pleasure.
