Up until the Marvel Cinematic Universe changed the face of cinema forever, crossover movies were usually viewed as a last resort for a pair of franchises that had started running on fumes.
Having been slowly slipping down the totem pole of cultural relevance for the better part of a decade, Hollywood decided to draw inspiration from comic books and video games by handing Paul W.S. Anderson the keys to the Alien vs. Predator kingdom.
While his battle of the extraterrestrial icons was hardly an all-time classic, it ended up looking like The Godfather in comparison to the diabolical second installment. Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem marked the directorial debut of The Brothers Strause, and their portentous preferred method of being credited was laughable given the amateurish product they cobbled together and threw onto the screen.
There are indeed Aliens and Predators in the film, but absolutely nothing else worth caring about. That’s only if you can see what the hell is going on, though, with the $40 million budget evidently not extending to splashing out on a light or two so that audiences could make out such things as the titular beasties, or anything at all for that matter.
There’s a substantial increase in violence and gore, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem is awful. A 12% Rotten Tomatoes score and 30% user rating was enough to send both properties into hibernation until their respective reinventions, but people are still putting themselves through the abject abomination.
As per FlixPatrol, the 20th Century Fox title has appeared out of nowhere on the Disney Plus most-watched charts, where it ranks as the 16th top title on the platform around the world, and we feel sorry for anyone who hit play.