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Flock, The
A new flock of Aliens and a Predator wreak havoc in a small Colorado town in this sequel directed by the Brothers Strause, Colin and Greg
Aliens Vs Predator Requiem picks up exactly where the shonky predecessor by crud-meister Paul WS Anderson left off. That Alien rumble-in-the-Antarctic ended with an impregnated Predator whisked off in a spaceship by its comrades. Despite all their experience and shiny, blinky technology, the Predators fail to notice a chestburster. In a succinct opening sequence, it grows into a formidable new 'Predalien' version of the Xenomorph, then causes the Predator spaceship to crash in the forests of Colorado, just outside the small town of Gunnison. From the wreckage escape both the new Alien and several facehuggers, which the over-confident Predators had in jars. First a father and son out hunting, then some local tramps, become incubators for a new batch of Aliens. Across the universe, a lone, veteran Predator (Whyte) receives a distress signal, gets tooled up and jumps in his spaceship to nip down to Earth. Meanwhile in Gunnison, the locals go about their business entirely unaware of the horrendous beasties heading their way. Local sheriff Eddie Gonzales (Ortiz) welcomes home old friend and ex-con Dallas (Pasquale). Dallas's younger brother Ricky (Lewis) has to contend with unfinished business with his ex Jesse (Hager), which aggrieves her current boyfriend Dale (Paetkau). And soldier Kelly (Aylesworth) comes home from Iraq to find her young daughter Molly (Gade) somewhat estranged. Screenwriter Shane Salerno tries to give this lot a bit of personality, but the early stages of the film are much stronger for the sense of gathering menace than for the back-stories of the humans, many of whom are just going to be fodder. Indeed, it feels much like a fairly standard horror movie (bolstered by a nice sense of Gunnison's isolation), with the mostly generic actors being gratuitously set up for a fall. The teens are especially tedious, so it's a relief when the Aliens start penetrating their skulls with their projectile tongues. As the Aliens start going about the business of eating and breeding, the Predator is trying to clean up the mess; the filmmakers nicknamed him 'Wolf' after Harvey Keitel's cleaner character in Pulp Fiction, which should give you some idea of his function. The Predator goes round with a vial of glowing blue gloop, disintegrating corpses. He's a clumsy sod though, getting spotted by a human early on, then struggling to keep up with the Alien infestation. Which is the main thrust of the narrative - can he keep a lid on it? Will he face off against the Predator-born Alien in a tangle of jaws and dreadlocks? (Of course he will). And can the humans fight back? The answer to that question involves the arrival of the National Guard and some action that harks back to Aliens - lots of fearful gunplay, not much success. Aliens isn't the only film from AVPR's duel heritage that is heavily referenced. A whiff of the primal horror of Alien is achieved, notably with some grim activities in the maternity ward of Gunnison's hospital. The maternal theme which ran through Ripley's story is suggested by Kelly's relationship with Molly. As for the Predator, well there are both forest and urban settings for the cleaner to sneak through and blunder about in, so that provides nods to both the Predator films, after a fashion. All of which is very well in terms of homage, but doesn't exactly invest the film with a great deal of originality. After the reasonable tension of the opening, it gives in to clich?? and familiarity. And even though this one doesn't involve Anderson, the denouement is very like that of his second trashy Resident Evil film. AVPR is marginally better than Anderson's 'At The Mountains Of Madness'-meets-WWE AVP exercise, and AVPR potentially sets the franchise up for a bigger 'Earth War' type scenario. It's still a stupendous squandering of the material though, considering AVPR has its origins in two of the best science-fiction films ever made. Verdict This feature directing debut from former visual effects men Colin and Greg is enjoyable enough in rudimentary tension/splatter/scrap terms, but it still doesn't live up to its heritage. |
