Aww man, how'd they screw THIS up?

Rating: 5/10 (8 May 2006)

After sitting through this flick, I couldn't help but think that with all of the drafts that Fox supposedly went through before green-lighting this, they could've put a bit more of a story into it.
It has a nice concept, Predators use the Aliens as hunting game for training in an underground pyramid which shifts its structure very ten minutes... but after the set-up is done, so is the plot development.
Casting Lance Henrikson as Weyland (Bishop) was a nice touch, but there isn't really much to the character other than being a disease-stricken tycoon who wants to leave his mark by discovering the Aztec/Egyptian tomb underneath Antarctica.
Sanna Lathan (Blade's Ma) is okay as the lead, but ultimately not very engaging. The only other characters that stand out are Spud from Trainspotting and some hunky Italian anthropologist. Mostly because their accents are so thick, it's sometimes hard to understand what they're saying.
The creature FX are nicely done, although the unmasked Predator looks kinda rubbery compared to the original.
The set design was the star of the show, however.
That's never a good sign when the stuff in the background is what's best about a production.
All in all, the main problem I had with the movie was instead of it being a tense thriller like it's two originators, it wound up being a dull action flick geared toward teenagers who were probably in their cribs when both the Alien and Predator films were in their prime.
What's even more frustrating is reading a recent interview with James Cameron who stated that after this last film was made, neither he, nor Ridley Scott have any desire to return for an Alien sequel, (which was in the planning stages.)
Cameron stated that he felt that the team-up of the Alien and the Predator films cheapened the franchises, likening it to that of a crappy Abbott and Costello meets Whoever the F@*k.
To cap it off, the final shot, (which should be an amazing revelation) had me actually laughing out loud.
Like the rest of the movie, nice idea, but real bad execution.
Mark another one down for Paul W.S. Anderson.