Not necessarily exactly what you might fear, but not really better

Rating: 5/10 (15 December 2010)

A pyramid(full of traps, adding to the already excessive amount of threat in this, further diminishing the effect of any of it) is discovered in the Arctic, beneath the ice. Of course, a team is sent to investigate. With them are a bunch of armed mercenaries, because who doesn't bring that to an archaeological dig site? We don't actually care about any of these flat, undeveloped and stereotypical characters, we're here for the titular creatures. So this is bogged down by poor dialog and an attempt at build-up(because Anderson, in spite of confusing surprising the audience with entertaining them, isn't a *complete* tard) until we see them, halfway through. And then there is a bit of hit-and-miss action(the genre this fits into, and the wrong one for both species this has plenty of "exciting" things and doesn't go for proper atmosphere as it should and things either come out of nowhere or are "cancelled out", so tension is wasted(when it's there) and pay-off is nonexistent) as this continues to be erratic in pace, and then it ends. At 85 minutes, the credits roll. We leave unsatisfied. This is filmed and edited fine enough, if there is an abundance of stylization(who thought these beings needed slow-mo?). As far as effects go, this does favor practical over CGI, and they do look nice. The concept is overly detailed for a single picture(and the exposition reveals far too much about the extraterrestrials(taking away the mystery that gives them a firm grip on our psyche) and we see them weak and overpowered to the extent that we are no longer scared of them), it doesn't hold up to even a little questioning(there haven't been sacrifices to the pyramid for hundreds of years, where did the "hosts" come from?), and at the end of the day, if you want fighting between Aliens and Predators the video games(actually, this plot could have worked in that medium) are what you want. Yeah, the comics aren't that great, either. There is disturbing content, mild bloody violence and brief strong language in this. The 2-Disc Extreme Edition DVD has a nifty raised cover and comes with two commentaries(#1: director, Henriksen and Sanaa Lathan it's interesting and fun, if you can ignore the dumb things she says. And #2: the FX guys, who have a very dry sense of humor and are funny if you like that), various documentaries(most I will review on their own pages here on the site), 9 minutes of Deleted Scenes with the option of hearing their thoughts over them, a 7 minute featurette about the ADI Workshop(not bad), galleries of storyboards and concept art, an Inside Look of several movies, a trailer and a teaser. I recommend this only to those who are desperate for a silver-screen match-up. 5/10