Dom Robinson reviews
Aliens Vs Predator: Special Edition
In space, no one can hear you scream. On Earth, it won't matter.
Distributed by
DVD: 
Blu-Ray:
Alien & Predator Ultimate Collection:
Producers:
John Davis, David Giler and Walter Hill
Screenplay:
Music :
Cast :
Dallas Howard: Steven Pasquale
Kelly O'Brien: Reiko Aylesworth
Sheriff Eddie Morales: John Ortis
Ricky Howard: Johnny Lewis
Molly O'Brien: Ariel Gade
Jesse: Kristen Hager
Tim: Sam Trammell
Col. Stevens: Robert Joy
Dale Collins: David Paetkau
Alien: Tom Woodruff Jr
Predator: Ian Whyte
All the Alien films before this one have been great in their own way... even Alien3
and I was very impressed with
Alien Vs Predator when it came to delivering the entertainment
and packing it with a punch.
So, once again, out comes another sequel to a successful franchise and once again the papers slaughtered it. But, you're
not going to see Wittgenstein, here, you're watching a piece of action/sci-fi fun. And if you want something that delivers
the visuals and the audio, plus the fun and entertainment, all in big fuck-off punches, then you'd think Alien Vs Predator:
Requiem would be right up your street!
It is still a lot of fun in many places, but the two main problems are that you know which of the main characters
will survive without too much thought and there's far too much of it in darkly-lit scenes (hence why there's only one
picture - above - I could find to use in this review) so half the time when
the Predator is trying to slaughter several aliens at once (rather than just the main one as in the previous film),
you can barely make out a lot of what's going on, especially as the camera jumps about far too much as well. You
can see slashing and explosions and hear it all, but... it just doesn't involve you as much this time round.
The premise here is that, an alien has just hatched out of the body of a Predator while on board the craft of the latter.
However, that makes the new baby a Predalien, which should make for a tougher opponent when a Predator goes out to track
it down and get rid of it. But whereas AvP took place in an alien world, this sequel is set on Earth and for a lot of the
time we have teen kids in peril instead of mercenaries, including Ricky (Johnny Lewis), Jesse (Kristen Hager)
and they're led by adults Dallas (Steven Pasquale), Kelly (Reiko Aylesworth - yes, hottie Michelle Dessler from
24) and Eddie the Sheriff (John Ortiz).
Hang on... there's a man called Dallas in the characters. Will that have some significance later? No, sorry, it doesn't. It's
a red herring. Shame.
Like AvP, this one's a 15-certificate but there's plenty of blood and gore when it counts. Some despatching takes
place just off-camera as one of the aliens discreetly tries to pop off a human, whether he's a general member of the
public or an army bloke, while the next moment might show you putting its mouth thing through the person's brain.
And these things don't discriminate between men, women or even children. They'll take anything that moves and breathes.
These aliens also have a nice new trick up their sleeve when it comes to impregnation, which I won't spoil here :)
As with the first movie, though, whereas that one ended with the alien and predator having a WWE-style fight, in this
one it happens all the time - and with multiple aliens, and does get just a little tiresome.
One thing I really liked about the way the previous film, was that after the huge explosion there was still the
main alien left to fight. This time round, there is a different twist which allows for a further sequel. Let's just
hope they hand the directing reins back to Paul WS Anderson. He managed it far better (and nowhere near as dark) as the
pair in charge here.
Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, the quality of the DVD is mostly excellent with some outstanding CGI sequences
early on. There are, however, a couple of fight scenes where the bitrate suffers, but mostly because it's too dark.
The sound, though, is never less than impressive with so many moments to select from to show off your sound system,
in Dolby Digital 5.1 (and see my comments towards the end about how a DTS 5.1 soundtrack has been overlooked for this
release).
The following lists the extras on the second disc, in addition to the commentaries on disc one (one from
directors Colin and Greg Strause with producer John Davis, the second from Creature Effects Designers Alec Gillis
and Tom Woodruff) and "Coming Soon" which is not-great-quality letterboxed trailers
for Jumper, Be Kind Rewind and Meet The Spartans.
There are eight featurettes plus stills galleries.
One thing we don't get? A trailer. And according to the BBFC, even though the film is a 15-certificate, there's an
18-rated trailer out there which would be interesting!
So, if you are a massive fan and need to know every last thing about either creature then these extras should be for you.
I do have an interest in them, but these featurettes could've used some trimming to make them more engaging.
Disc one begins with something that should have remained in the days of rental video: Trailers before the main feature.
This is what the 'extras' menu is for on DVDs! Thankfully, there's just one trailer: Shine a Light, the one about the
Rolling Stones tour.
The menus are neat with brief, subtle animation and sound, there are 28 chapters which is great for this running time
and there are subtitles in English for the hard of hearing as well as the two audio commentaries and there's also an
audio descriptive track. However, as that's in DD5.1 as well, this is surely just taking up space that a lovely DTS 5.1
soundtrack could have occupied, which is what we got to experience on the previous movie!
FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
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OVERALL
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Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2008.
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DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
