soooo close.....but yet...

Rating: 8/10 (22 December 2005)

Standing on its own merit, and not counting the previous Alien or Predator movies, this film succeeds quite well in a variety of areas. Don't get me wrong, I like the film, and found it entertaining. I especially enjoyed how the plot attempted to weave a bit of human history, such as the extinction of the Mayans, into the Predator mythos. I felt that the actors gave a good performance for the most part.
Yet, like many, I can't help but be stumped by the sudden and surprising complete personality change in Lance Hendrickson's character, Weyland. For the entire series he has been an obsessed megalomaniac with only one goal, capture Aliens to bring to earth for "The Company" bioweapon devision. He has gladly sacrificed entire ships of people to get what he wanted....and yet now he's somehow on some quest to save his soul and to make the "great discovery"? It's a complete personality flop for the character, and I must say that his character being portrayed as having no clue about the Aliens whatsoever, makes absolutely no sense at all.
Likewise, the film has a history, which this particular film seems to fall short of in a sense. Aliens have a gestation period, and true no one has ever stated just how long that is...in the film it was like the Aliens were being born as chest burster's in a matter of a few minutes, whereas in all previous films in the series, it took several hours at least for an alien to mature from the time of implantation to bursting out for the world to see. Sadly, that particular part of the film always comes across as being "rushed".
I did find it interesting that they kept true to form on just how deadly the aliens are. The film showed that in spades when the inexperienced Predator youth's were getting caught and sliced and diced up easily by them. Yet...something seems lacking, even for a young Predator going through a right of passage, you would think they would be somewhat better prepared for their foes. The first 2 Predators that go down, seem to have been killed way too easily by the Aliens.
It has never really been shown just how intelligent the Aliens are, but it does seem odd that they have the intelligence to go and free the Alien queen from her prison, by using the acid blood of one of their own...and yet these hunts have supposedly been going on for how long? It doesn't seem to add up, that they would never have attempted to free her previously using the same method.
That being said, I still find it an enjoyable movie to watch. I would even be willing to see a sequel, were it to ever happen. I doubt we will ever see Riply in the series again, but you never know. This particular film is leaps and bound better than either Alien 3 or Alien Resurrection. Honestly, prior to this, the 2nd movie...the one called Aliens, was the last good one in the series to me... Alien Resurrection has some great potential but it falls flat on its face....and comes across as something more comical than frightening.
Alien 3 was a bit better, but not by much. After the huge build up of the romance between Riply and Hicks in Aliens, and the huge story build up between Riply and Newt....killing them both off within the first couple of minutes in the movie makes absolutely no sense to me in Alien 3. It also seems to flop, that one solo alien, from a dog no less....is able to decimate an entire colony of hardened criminals with minimal effort.
If you can ever find it, there is a fan written script floating around the net called "The Survivors of Aliens" or something similar. It's well worth a read, and in my honest opinion, would have made a miraculous sequel to Aliens, far better than Alien 3 or Alien Resurrection ever did.