A Good Film

Rating: Null/10 (16 August 2004)

From the first time I heard about this movie, I was wondering how the director would make it. I thought that he should've consulted both Ridley Scott and John McTiernan on how they put together their first films with respect to each creature, otherwise, it was as good as any other sci-fi horror thriller/adventure. The parts that intrigued me were the story behind why the Predators came back to Earth and hunted and how the characters got caught up in-between the two warring giants. This wasn't exactly an epic battle, though I agree with those that say there should've been more scenes and that the fights between the Aliens and the Predators could've been more in-depth. I was disappointed to see that of the three Predators sent down to the pyramid, that two of them got it right away upon entering into the pyramid, though this could be explained by the unblooded younglings' inexperience with their true prey, the Alien. Other aspects of the movie which were interesting to note was a scene in which the surviving Predator takes off its mask and is notably different from the Predators of previous films in that its eyes and mandibles were not quite what I remembered, otherwise, they were just as gnarly and kick-ass as their enemy the Alien, which was also expertly portrayed by the team that worked on them. The Alien for its part was all the more scarier in part because one never knew exactly when or where there would be a fight between the two warring factions, but it was somewhat predictable in the same light when humans were introduced into the fray. I rooted for the Predators because I like their history and where they come from, but respected the Aliens because of their cunning and ability to be unwittingly intelligent as one scene proved with an invisible unblooded Predator being speared from behind during its hunt of humans. I would recommend only seeing this movie if you are going to see it for what it portrays...a battle between Alien and Predator. It is true that while the humans in the movie are merely sideliners for the two warring factions, they seem to have a bigger role than that allowed or hinted at in the trailers.
I would recommend that for a second film, that all heads come together on how best to clean up a lot of the indescrepancies that seem to have made their appearance in this film, and also that this feature should be a 2 and 1/2 hour rated-R film with more time to develop a few meaningful characters, some with nothing to lose, and a whole bunch of Predators and Aliens duking it out well before the humans become involved. On a scale of 1 to 10, I give this movie an 8 because it doesn't deserve half the bad rap it gets and kudos to someone who actually paid attention and stayed true or attempted to, to the franchises of both films. The first thing that we should see in a sequel is the A's and P's duking it out long before there are unwitting humans who arrive, who then receive the ultimate meaning of losing in a war that's not theirs to begin with.
However, with a disappeared queen under hundreds of feet of ice water, a newly hatched breed of Predalien aboard the Predator ship, and a blooded human female who has "some" understanding of what she's received, I wonder what Fox will do with these three loose ends.