Never a good sign that it's "uncut" and runs a total of 86 minutes including credits.
Still Fox sent off a free ticket so I'll be catching a matinee with one of my friends this week. And the R rating will keep the kiddies out for a change, which will be nice.
I have the very large suspicion that this is going to tank at the box-office because of the rating however.
ALIEN VS PREDATOR REQUIEM -- Not Even 90 Minutes
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AndyDursin
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Monterey Jack
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AndyDursin
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The trailers look to show Reiko mowing down hordes of aliens...so I agree I'm there.-
AndyDursin
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Lol...doesn't matter to me. I'm not sure why but I found AVP incredibly entertaining for what it was and will most likely find this one to be the same. It will be nice to go to a movie for once and be "brain-dead", as it were. I don't often see mindless entertainment, but that's what my expectation is for this film.AndyDursin wrote:Not screened for critics either...also never a good sign. I can't recall if the prior film was, I guess for a movie like this it doesn't much matter, but it can't be a sign of confidence.
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AndyDursin
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Doesn't sound promising. Without going too heavily into spoilers the reviews basically state the film is overboard with gore and is relentlessly, needlessly mean spirited -- particularly when it comes to pregnant women and children.
Sounds like a bottom of the barrel disaster but I've still got a free ticket so I'm going, but every review I've seen essentially states the film is a gutter-ball flop, explicitly violent and godawful -- and makes AVP (which I rather enjoyed along with Michael) look like a classic.
Sounds like a bottom of the barrel disaster but I've still got a free ticket so I'm going, but every review I've seen essentially states the film is a gutter-ball flop, explicitly violent and godawful -- and makes AVP (which I rather enjoyed along with Michael) look like a classic.
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AndyDursin
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This kind of sums up the reaction online...
"Oh, Salerno not only uses adults as Alien/Predator prey, but little kids, pregnant women strapped to hospital beds, and even throws in threatened newborns to satisfy his black heart.
Hey, I was as openly hostile as anyone toward the neutered PG-13 rating of “AVP,” but “Requiem” rides its R-rating to bleak horizons, replacing the escapism of the scares with puzzling hostility. The anger culminates in a conclusion that’s as reckless, cynical, and spineless as anything put onscreen this year; a middle-finger to the paying crowd."
http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?m ... viewer=404
"Oh, Salerno not only uses adults as Alien/Predator prey, but little kids, pregnant women strapped to hospital beds, and even throws in threatened newborns to satisfy his black heart.
Hey, I was as openly hostile as anyone toward the neutered PG-13 rating of “AVP,” but “Requiem” rides its R-rating to bleak horizons, replacing the escapism of the scares with puzzling hostility. The anger culminates in a conclusion that’s as reckless, cynical, and spineless as anything put onscreen this year; a middle-finger to the paying crowd."
http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?m ... viewer=404
Goodness gracious, that sounds bad. It sounds as gory and mean-spirited as what I've read about the SAW and HOSTEL films, which I could never in a million years sit through, and this disappoints me. You know, I used to sheepishly admit that I mostly enjoyed the first AVP, especially in its longer cut, more than ALIEN RESURRECTION, but maybe I should no longer be embarrassed. It at least had some grander ambitions in its Arctic settings and ancient history setup than AVPR which seems content to brutally tear apart the innocent.
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AndyDursin
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Sounds bad indeed -- I've also read they cut characters completely out of this version, which appeared in earlier cuts of the film! That would explain the running time.
On the other hand audience demand seems to be there -- took in nearly $10 million for 2nd place on Christmas day. That's a lot better than I expected!
On the other hand audience demand seems to be there -- took in nearly $10 million for 2nd place on Christmas day. That's a lot better than I expected!
Wow, I am quite shocked at the take, but counter-programming sometimes actually works, as opposed to GRINDHOUSE opening on Easter. I guess the studio could attempt to make this into a unforeseen trilogy, focused on Earth, with the last chapter perhaps jumping forward in time enough to include space travel. Who knows, I am probably trying to inject more intelligence into the series than the studio is willing to grant...
Okay- just saw it.
The times when Aliens and/or Predator weren't on the screen, I felt like I was watching a bad remake of a B-movie or a sub-par slasher film. It grated on my nerves.
However...once the Aliens and Predator upped the ante, I found myself really enjoying the movie. Yes, pregnant women do get Aliened. It is gross, and I can understand why people would get grossed out by it (the one scene in the hospital room made me feel squeamish).
However...I enjoyed the movie. maybe that makes me weird or crazy, but I just really like the Alien and Predator concepts and I like watching them on screen. I also felt that the new Alien's ability to have offspring was interesting (though maybe just as gross as the Face Hugger)- much more so than RESURRECTION's contribution to these films. I see the Alien creature as something like an insect/virus who does nothing but replicate itself and kill without feeling- I love the premise of the creature and have loved it since I saw ALIEN. So I'm biased.
The movie gives nods (perhaps too many) to all the other films in the series (and films like it), including character names and "hopes fulfilled", and I admit that I liked that. There is even a shot towards the end of the film that pays 'homage" to the 'bush shot' in ALIEN- I hated it then and hated it now. Predator gets "geared up" like Ah-nuld did in films like COMMANDO; the little kid with the night vision goggles is reminiscent of JURASSIC PARK; the tank sequence is reminiscent of ALIENS; the waitress in the shop and the Alien reminded me of Ripley in ALIEN 3; etc. I don't want to give a ton away- I have a lot I could talk about.
So...I have to be honest and say I liked the film for what it was, even though it was gross. I'd love to see a third installment (highly likely) which shows the Alien homeworld (we get to see Predator's homeworld in this one). Maybe it was because I set the bar so low, but I didn't walk out of there feeling like it was as horrendous as that one review on the thread that was pasted. I mean, I guess I can see his/her point, but I just didn't feel that way walking out of the film. If there's subtext about government, war, Bush, terrorism, etc, I wasn't looking for it and didn't really care. So- don't be too hard on me...
The times when Aliens and/or Predator weren't on the screen, I felt like I was watching a bad remake of a B-movie or a sub-par slasher film. It grated on my nerves.
However...once the Aliens and Predator upped the ante, I found myself really enjoying the movie. Yes, pregnant women do get Aliened. It is gross, and I can understand why people would get grossed out by it (the one scene in the hospital room made me feel squeamish).
However...I enjoyed the movie. maybe that makes me weird or crazy, but I just really like the Alien and Predator concepts and I like watching them on screen. I also felt that the new Alien's ability to have offspring was interesting (though maybe just as gross as the Face Hugger)- much more so than RESURRECTION's contribution to these films. I see the Alien creature as something like an insect/virus who does nothing but replicate itself and kill without feeling- I love the premise of the creature and have loved it since I saw ALIEN. So I'm biased.
The movie gives nods (perhaps too many) to all the other films in the series (and films like it), including character names and "hopes fulfilled", and I admit that I liked that. There is even a shot towards the end of the film that pays 'homage" to the 'bush shot' in ALIEN- I hated it then and hated it now. Predator gets "geared up" like Ah-nuld did in films like COMMANDO; the little kid with the night vision goggles is reminiscent of JURASSIC PARK; the tank sequence is reminiscent of ALIENS; the waitress in the shop and the Alien reminded me of Ripley in ALIEN 3; etc. I don't want to give a ton away- I have a lot I could talk about.
So...I have to be honest and say I liked the film for what it was, even though it was gross. I'd love to see a third installment (highly likely) which shows the Alien homeworld (we get to see Predator's homeworld in this one). Maybe it was because I set the bar so low, but I didn't walk out of there feeling like it was as horrendous as that one review on the thread that was pasted. I mean, I guess I can see his/her point, but I just didn't feel that way walking out of the film. If there's subtext about government, war, Bush, terrorism, etc, I wasn't looking for it and didn't really care. So- don't be too hard on me...
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AndyDursin
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I was going to see it yesterday but opted, with my friend's push, to see SWEENEY TODD instead. I'm sure I made the right call, though I still want to see AVP 2.
On the other hand, I noticed the movie took a sharp downward trend after opening day. Could be one of those deals where the movie made its cash on the first day and then that's it.
On the other hand, I noticed the movie took a sharp downward trend after opening day. Could be one of those deals where the movie made its cash on the first day and then that's it.
In looking at the AVP films as just part of the ALIEN franchise, it continues the feeling that each new chapter is somehow making amends for the one before it. ALIEN 3 was disliked by so many people that Fox felt ALIEN RESURRECTION could make amends by adding in more of the aliens, action with big guns and more colorful cast of characters. And yet again, it failed for most audiences and so everything stalled once again. Then came AVP, both a prequel to the ALIEN films and a sequel to PREDATOR 2, and it made amends for what were perceived failures in ALIEN RESURRECTION by giving us Lance Henrikson and the Alien Queen from ALIENS, plus another large cast and Earth-based setting (which some fans had been asking for). And even though it made more money than RESURRECTION, it was still seen as a failure, often due to the PG-13 rating, which really never bothered me. And now, AVP-R seems to make amends once more by producing an overly gory, angry, mean-spirited film whose only goal was to achieve an R rating. Goal achieved, but what was lost in the process?
It's great that we still are intrigued and entertained by these famous creatures and want to see them in a successfully made picture, separate or together. I think what is needed now is the return of a director with vision. Scott, Cameron, Fincher and Jeunet all are directors with unique cinematic visions, even when the stories failed them in some cases (I appreciate some aspects of RESURRECTION, but I find it a difficult film to watch, especially with that awful human-alien child creature). Not that Fox has to bring in a big name director and the series might be far past the point of luring such talent, but someone who is new on the cinematic block with a distinct point of view might help provide more flair and memorability to another chapter in the series.
It's great that we still are intrigued and entertained by these famous creatures and want to see them in a successfully made picture, separate or together. I think what is needed now is the return of a director with vision. Scott, Cameron, Fincher and Jeunet all are directors with unique cinematic visions, even when the stories failed them in some cases (I appreciate some aspects of RESURRECTION, but I find it a difficult film to watch, especially with that awful human-alien child creature). Not that Fox has to bring in a big name director and the series might be far past the point of luring such talent, but someone who is new on the cinematic block with a distinct point of view might help provide more flair and memorability to another chapter in the series.
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AndyDursin
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I think they need to go back to basics and look at what drove ALIEN, and most especially ALIENS, as being the successful films they were -- and give us a real, direct sequel to those two movies.
The problem with the other two Alien sequels was simple: the movies were about Sigourney Weaver, not the aliens. Fox basically did all they could to kill off the franchise since ALIEN 3 and 4 were just massive mistakes on the part of the studio. Both films had developmental problems -- especially the third film -- and while Fincher made the most out of that pastiche script that he could, the film still stands, to me, as a failure and a direct result of too many cooks in the kitchen. RESURRECTION is an abomination that's even more unwatchable, wholly unpleasant, and unappealing. Nothing in that movie worked for me.
It's still frustrating that Fox couldn't continue on from what made Cameron's ALIENS so successful -- and that was taking Ridley Scott's vision, upping the ante and making it more of a horror-action film, but doing so in the same narrative universe as it were. The third and fourth movies feel like they have no connection whatsoever to their predecessors, and it's not in a good way either.
That's why AVP, at least to me, was an improvement on the disasters that were Alien 3 and 4 (and Predator 2, which was basically a dud as well IMO). It wasn't perfect but it was watchable, old-fashioned monster mash fun. Even if this movie is a hard R and is a lot more violent, I'm guessing it's still watchable enough.
But I want a real, honest-to-goodness sequel to ALIEN and ALIENS. They could bring back Sigourney, tell us all that 3 and 4 were bad dreams, and you know what -- I doubt any real fan of the series wouldn't accept that. Those sequels left a really awful taste in the mouth and were as audience unfriendly as they could have been.
Why they opted to go in another direction from ALIENS -- which was so successful and acclaimed and is basically a classic today -- when they went to do ALIEN 3 is a decision Fox has likely regretted to this day.
The problem with the other two Alien sequels was simple: the movies were about Sigourney Weaver, not the aliens. Fox basically did all they could to kill off the franchise since ALIEN 3 and 4 were just massive mistakes on the part of the studio. Both films had developmental problems -- especially the third film -- and while Fincher made the most out of that pastiche script that he could, the film still stands, to me, as a failure and a direct result of too many cooks in the kitchen. RESURRECTION is an abomination that's even more unwatchable, wholly unpleasant, and unappealing. Nothing in that movie worked for me.
It's still frustrating that Fox couldn't continue on from what made Cameron's ALIENS so successful -- and that was taking Ridley Scott's vision, upping the ante and making it more of a horror-action film, but doing so in the same narrative universe as it were. The third and fourth movies feel like they have no connection whatsoever to their predecessors, and it's not in a good way either.
That's why AVP, at least to me, was an improvement on the disasters that were Alien 3 and 4 (and Predator 2, which was basically a dud as well IMO). It wasn't perfect but it was watchable, old-fashioned monster mash fun. Even if this movie is a hard R and is a lot more violent, I'm guessing it's still watchable enough.
But I want a real, honest-to-goodness sequel to ALIEN and ALIENS. They could bring back Sigourney, tell us all that 3 and 4 were bad dreams, and you know what -- I doubt any real fan of the series wouldn't accept that. Those sequels left a really awful taste in the mouth and were as audience unfriendly as they could have been.
Why they opted to go in another direction from ALIENS -- which was so successful and acclaimed and is basically a classic today -- when they went to do ALIEN 3 is a decision Fox has likely regretted to this day.