I was more surprised than anyone how much I liked it.

Rating: 8/10 (14 October 2005)

While I'm not at all a fan of the horror movie genre I did enjoy the Aliens movie series (except for number 3) scoring them as follows; Alien:7.5, Aliens: 8, Alien 3: 2,5, Alien 4: 7. As far as the Predator films are concerned, they weren't ever interesting enough for me to even care about but after the TV industry began broadcasting the original Predator concurrently and non-stop for what must be some unofficial record for most over-exposed movie, it began to grow on me but only as far as scoring it a 6 while the made for-TV-budgeted theatrical follow-up scores absolute zero.
So imagine how surprised I was to be recommending 'Alien vs Predator' to friends as a movie I really enjoyed throughout the half a dozen times I've caught it on cable this week. I found 'Alien Vs. Predator to be a compelling, entertaining film for several profoundly fascinating thoughtful story lines and plot twists that I felt had been glaringly ignored and overlooked by the viewing public.
Some leave a movie like 'Planet of the Apes' or '2001: A Space Odyssey' with the bewildered, disappointed sense that they've just walked out on a movie about monkeys run amok and in the same way movie reviewers and audiences alike while hoping for universal Armaegeddon in a long drawn-out battle between two of humankind's ghastliest of interplanetary foes, instead had to settle for something rather underwhelming by comparison.
I found the plot line where the only human survivor teams up with the surviving Predator against the Alien horde very clever and well done.
And finally, something that I was particularly struck by was the scene where the Predator performs some sort of victory ritual and then bows in subtle seemingly gracious appreciation for the human's effort for saving its life a profoundly original and sensitive gesture I would have never expected in a movie like this.