It is interesting reading the reviews most rate this film as terrible, but they seem to miss the reasons why it isn't. They judge the film as a simple splatter-fest action horror which poorly delivers. But it is more than that. AVPR has a current of social commentary rather like a Romero Zombie film; in this case on terrorism and the Iraq war, and indeed on the lameness of most production line horror sequels. These are its redeeming elements. Yes the lighting is appalling, making the film impenetrably dark much of the time. Many of the scenes are just poor copies from the earlier films, most notably the - soldiers move in and are annihilated by ambushing aliens scene - taken straight from James Cameron's ‘Aliens’. Such scenes do not even come across as homages, but as business motivated duplicates since trying anything new in sequels is often considered unduly risky to profits. All in all, if you just want a lame action monster punch-up this serves, and there is nothing wrong with that provided you do not allow it to tarnish your respect for the earlier films. However, where this sequel is best is in its social reflection. The character Kelly O'Brien is a soldier returned from 'service'. It is not explicitly stated from where but it seems reasonable to assume from Iraq. Initially I thought this meant I was in store for sleazy pro-Iraq propaganda, but wait there. When the aliens begun overrunning the mythological typical American town and were making an enemy of O'Brien I was asking myself: "are these Aliens symbolic terrorists to be gung-ho taken out by our Iraqi heroine as a warning to you endless slimeballs who can't wait to invade the USA at every opportunity that we are ready for you, even down to the last man/woman?" Obviously I hoped such a stupid scenario was not the case and also I doubted this dumb movie would be capable of symbolism. Fortunately I was wrong, it is capable of double-edged symbolism. This clever script knew what I was thinking and threw it back in my face. These aliens are not symbolic terrorists it told me, because terrorists are not out to conquer every USA town every second of every day. The later scene where the alien battlers break into a store for weapons has two workers there ask them: "are we being invaded by terrorists? I knew it would happen one day." To this the heroes respond: "are you two stoned?" Stop being so mind-bogglingly stupid the film tells us all. If this sounds far fetched, one only needs to think of the recent Earth tremor here in the UK which many people thought was a terrorist attack on their politically irrelevant domestic houses. In the USA the situation is equally ridiculous, probably more so. The O'Brien character continues to overturn expectations of her position in the film. While driving an armoured personnel carrier to a given location under deceitful orders from above which will actually cause our heroes deaths this seeming Iraqi veteran stops the vehicle, stating to the others "I think the Colonel lied to us" to which she receives the reply "but the Government doesn't lie to us". After a brief debate the orders are disobeyed as deceitful and the vehicle is turned around. This is a powerful comment on the untrustworthiness of Government, the fallacy of the Iraq war, and the contempt for us peasants shown by those in charge of our societies. Good stuff for an expected dumb splatter-fest. Another interesting thread is a comment about the mind-numbing stupidity of characters in horror sequels. It has been stated that the teenagers were typically stupid, sex obsessed morons there only to be killed and we cannot wait to see this happen. Please kill them we cry. This has become way too common in splatter films. The characters have become so annoying we beg for them to be killed, and fortunately they are. The problem is it takes too long, and we are subject to this trash often until the final reel before they are thankfully dispatched. A nice meta-critique in AVPR has one of the irritating dick driven youths being told: "you're too stupid to talk, shut up" and he does. Rather than a reactionary load of drivel as would be expected. I thought this a nice reflection on what many of us are thinking from frame one so often in splatter sequels, and the AVPR scriptwriter agrees with us. This character is not there just to be killed, he is there to be ridiculed. Thank you for that.
So, overall AVPR has a few surprises not any more as I've given them away) and is miles better than the lacklustre AVP 1. See it if you want to, don't see it if you don't want to.
I think that it is entirely down to the fact that it rips off all the best elements of the earlier alien and predator films. It made it an enjoyable film. I'm looking forward to the next one.
Can anyone explain who that woman was at the end though? Call me stupid if i'm missing something obvious, but it seemed important to have her mentioned, but i'm at a loss to think why.
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Homer Simpson Quote #1 : "Here's to alcohol, the cause of—and solution to—all life's problems."
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I think they ruined it, the film was only good enough for one make of them both together, like theres only one make of freddie and jason, it had a great line, it left the mind wondering, they should have left it there. But nooo they cant they have to ruin it and bring a crappy film out , bad acting, bad story line, bad everything, the biggest mistake you can think of.
