Rating:_*
Fans of the Aliens vs Predator sub-franchise will be relieved to learn that Colin and Greg Strause’s AVPR is only nominally a sequel to Paul WS Anderson’s original AVP – Alien vs Predator. Although it picks up where AVP left off, this is not a toned-down futuristic action movie, but a gory sci-fi/horror film featuring new incarnations of the extra-terrestrial monsters. Sadly, this semi-sequel is even more spasmodic and incoherent.

After a hybrid Predator-cum-Alien runs amok on a Predator spaceship, it crash-lands near a small American town. As the cross-fertilised “Predalien” slimes its way through the sewers, a battle-scarred Predator is sent to clean up the mess. Caught in the cross-fire between the alien antagonists are the disposable, wooden townsfolk – played by second-string actors from TV shows such as 24 and ER – whose sole function is to run around like headless chickens until they are gruesomely dispatched. The sheriff is ineffectual, so hopes rest with ex-con Dallas (Steve Pasquale), his semi-delinquent brother Ricky (Johnny Lewis), and an aggressively maternal Iraq War veteran, Kelly (Reiko Aylesworth) – a poor substitute for Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley.

The visceral horror is all too familiar and the ideas distinctly second-hand. Cinematographer Daniel Pearl, who shot the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre and the recent re-make, occasionally generates scares by hiding the creatures in dark shadows. But the visual effects-trained Strause brothers know that it’s all about the last waltz. So the mayhem inevitably culminates in a dance of death featuring the mutant, dreadlocked Predalien and a leaner, smarter Predator. Nigel Floyd
Opens on Fri Jan 25.