I went and saw Alien V Predator Requiem last night. Yes, on Christmas day. Not the way I would have preferred spending my Christmas but hey – I made my choice and I’ll live with it.
An interesting continuation on the Alien, Predator and Alien V Predator franchise; I won’t play spoiler here by giving away too many details but if you saw the first Alien V Predator and recall how it ended, this one picks up right where the first left off.
For me the most interesting thing about this movie isn’t the Alien or the Predator as I have seen both of those many times in different movies. No, for me the most interesting thing about this movie is how much of it was shot outside of my office and in my neighbourhood.
One of the central characters works at a place called Pizza One and this is a real Pizzeria called Pizza One. I eat there often as it is about 1 block from my office and they have a good pizza special; 3 slices and a can of pop for $5.00. Not too shabby.
There is a scene where one of the Aliens explodes out of the ground and I watched them blow up the street the night they shot that scene. I recall sitting atop of this fountain that night thinking that the explosion wasn’t very big but I knew that they would be adding some effects and boy did they ever. The street they blew up for that scene is right beside my office and just outside of the European Bakery, a Port Coquitlam fixture for about as long as I can remember.
They shot several scenes from this street and the Papa John’s Pizza is another shop right across the street from my office. Another location they shot was the “Town Center” scene and that is also right beside the Pizza One shop and a block from my office. I was at the shooting of that scene as well. I am here to say that the resulting traffic jam in that scene was added in. Having witnessed the shooting of that scene I have to say that when filming there sure is a lot of footage that winds up on the cutting room floor.
The woods and the lake scenes, right across from my older children’s High School. There is a helicopter shot where they are flying over the woods, again, right by my kid’s school. For those of you who know me, the woods scenery is typical for this part of the world and is awesome in its beauty. When I was growing up this was typical of the types me and my friends would play.
Lastly, when they were making this movie the production company often would use the entire parking lot behind my office for their trailers and staging areas. The office I am in has a balcony that over looked their entire operation. Very interesting how these productions can roll in and take over a small town and clear out again in less than 24 hours. Hats off to all of you who worked on this film; it was very entertaining on several levels.
