Maybe next time...

Rating: 7/10 (30 August 2005)

...they will get it right. Better than many angry fan-boys (myself included) would have you believe, it still isn't as good as it should have been.
Satalites pick a heat signature underneath the ice layer in the Antarctic. A research team arrives and accidentally unleashes the alien creatures contained within. Simutamniously, a pack of young predator hunters arrive to begin their initiation hunt into adulthood. 3 species, only one survivor.
The first, huge mistake the film makes is it's white-washed PG-13 rating. All four 'Alien' and both 'Preditor' films were pretty hard R-rated; so why ostracize the fans of the films in such a way? Answer: so that kids can't in too, even though it's a horror/action film that kids shouldn't be watching anyways.
Next up is the pacing of the film. Every one going to see this knows the deal with the aliens, knows the deal with the predators and knows that they are going to be fighting each other. So why spend the first 57 minutes of a 100 minute movie trying to wrap all the plot details in a mystery? Answer: actually, I don't have anything for that, there was just no reason for it. If you make a film called 'X vs. Y' you better not take 2/3 of the film for X and Y to start scrapping on each other.
Which finally brings up what the film does right; once the pointless exposition (which fails to ever explain that the predators are supposed to be teenagers) is over and the action kicks in the film shifts into high gear and zips along at a break neck pace. The first battle between the two malevolent ETs is a great bit of action violence; my only complaint with it is that it makes the dull first hour of the film look all the more dull by comparison. It does finally give you what you want, it just makes you wait a long time for it.
For the first hour of the film, it give it a 4, the last 40 minutes get an 8; ergo-
6/10