Alien Hunter (2003)

Just perfect...

Fresh and Exciting

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Ho hum, where do I start - not a particularly good film and I was surprised to see James Spader in it at that stage in his career (if he'd made it in 1982 it would have been understandable!). The sound was bad, mumbled dialogue and the music was too loud compared to the speaking so it was hard to work out what they were saying half the time but as I'm not sure if that was the film's fault or the TV station's, I can't really blame that on the film.I won't go into detail about the plot as I've ticked 'spoilers' so assuming that mainly people who've already seen it will read this, however, the story could have been better - the whole 'women throwing themselves at James Spader' scenario was fairly unbelievable (even if they had been out there for 6 months already or were a fan of Boston Legal!) - if they'd skipped all of that it wouldn't have been missed by me. The Russian sub's role was another unbelievable storyline - would they really do that......I don't think so......they'd quarantine them all and study the illness and what better place to do it than in Antarctica!So to sum up - it could have been much better, it was an interesting plot, the acting was a bit dubious at times but I liked the little surprise at the end. I've seen worse but I've seen better (much better!).

'Alien Hunter' is your typical evil aliens with a twist kind of a movie, in which a research team located in Antarctica find an artifact transmitting a radio code from ice. So they call in a cryptologist Julian Rome (James Spader) to crack the code.AH isn't the sharpest nor the dullest knife in the drawer. It's main problem is, that it's basically too short for what it is and it fails to build up a tension in the key places. It's too short, because it too evident, that the characters stay very flat, though the movie tries to build up human relations between them. And because the characters stay meaningless, you care very little if they die or stay alive.The encounters between the humans and aliens are few and in between. The main issue soon becomes from a disease the alien is carrying, as it can't be let out to the world: it would kill everything.For what is it, 'Alien Hunter' is a decent film, with a decent cast, but that's all it really is.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!Someone once said something like "there are only ten basic plot lines". Now you notice I don't know who said it, why, when. etc. I don't even know if the correct number was 10. This piece of vaguely remembered trivia did come to mind after reading some of the reviews of "Alien Hunter". Yes, I would agree, there are more that a couple of similarities with such films as "Alien", "The Thing (1982 version), "Coccoon" and others. Does the use of proved and successful elements from great Sci-Fi make this well written, atmospherically haunting, and intelligent film a poor quality rip-off? I think not. Let me share with you why I believe "borrowing" elements of previous Sci-Fi winners makes "Alien Hunter" a very good film of this genre.First, I do admit that the title of this film does not bring about confidence in an aficionado of what I like to call "Speculative" Science/Horror films. A little imagination could have been used here.....maybe something upfront like "Alien Warning", or something sly and esoteric like "Prime Directive!". Even something as recycled and trite as "We Came in Peace" would have certainly brought more interest from the film's target audience than"Alien Hunter" That sounds like a stupid computer game title. Oh well, back to why I liked this film regardless of it's meaningless title.I love this genre of film and have since seeing at the age of six, "It Came From Beneath the Sea". at the Rialto Theater in Loveland, Colorado in 1951. I have made it one of my life's not so secret "guilty pleasures" to see not all ( I wish), but hundreds of films of this general type. From the excellent "Them" in 1954 to the recently seen DVD mess of a film, "Absolute Zero", a film so bad it never got a theatrical release. My point is......whether it's trips to mars by NASA, DNA sucking androids in Seattle, aliens in deep space or Wyoming, viral insanity from defense labs, volcanoes in New York, mind eating parasites in Toronto, plagues in London, giant leeches in Louisiana, mad scientists in the desert, killer bees in LA or computer viruses that kill you by getting into your brain synapses while your writing a review on IMDb.....IF THE FILM DOESN'T HAVE A GOOD STORY AND IF THAT STORY IS POORLY WRITTEN THE FILM WILL BE DOA! That said, it's fine that the writers place the story in the depths of an underground NASA lab in Antarctica in a howling days long blizzard. Sure it's been used before. But it works because of the interesting story line and believable dialog. They find an object under the ice. Done before? Of course. Yet this object means something different than past films in the "WHY" it's there. That comes from an intelligent and NOT USED before story line that hooks together "Roswell" and the contemporary story. Yes, the object contains an alien. Done so many times now you would think there wasn't another direction for this element to move towards. Yet there is a unique and haunting difference between this "coccoon" which contains the alien and past films where there is an object that falls from the skies and contains an alien.Why? It's called good writing. I could go on. People are infected. People fight each other. The big, bad U.S. Government knows all and must act to save the world. All done before, but many times.... done poorly. In this oddly named film all these elements come together differently because of a good back story, good, realistic dialog, reasonably good acting, effective editing and, for the most part, excellent CG.What I really LIKED......The disturbing and hauntingly claustrophobic underground station, with its endless round and darkly lit corridors and Star Trek "sliding entryways". Theunderground genetically altered and hydroponically grown corn fields, that through the magic of CG and the terror of a fleeing "infected"scientist, start turning black with infection and curl up in steaming black rot before your eyes. The opening sequence in Roswell primes you with an interesting and ultimately satisfying explanation for that curious and still mystifying event. I liked the Russian officers on the submarine. Although it;s hard to believe that submarine officers are always in "Dress Parade" uniforms. I liked the way they began to SWEATbefore the launch of the missile. I liked the suspense and terror of being underground with IT!, the alien. I liked the characters and the subplots Well done all around. All in all this is an excellent representative addition to the Sci-Fi genre. The writing makes this film. It does use many clichéd concepts, but it uses them WELL, with good dialog, acting CG and, to me, a satisfying ending. I know some reviewers felt there should have been more of an explanation of the future of the four survivors, but they want TOO much. Speculative Fiction shouldn't spell out EVERYTHING. Use your Imagination.7 stars out of 10 Recommended! Clive 13 in Denver, Colorado

In 1947, in New Mexico, a radio operator receives a signal following patterns and while investigating the occurrence, he vanishes. In the present days, the same signal is transmitted from a base in Malvinas Island to United States of America, and a satellite captures images of a unknown object in Antartic. The cryptologist Julien Rome (James Spader) is invited to investigate the mystery in the South Pole, and he flies to a research base. While a team tries to open a weird shell probably from the outer space, Julien solves the message, indeed a distress signal ordering not to open the case. The writer of "Alien Hunter" used parts of many sci-fi movies ("The Thing", "Predator", "Alien", "Contact", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", "X-Files", "Outbreak", "Alien Vs. Predator", just to list some of them), put them all in a mixer, but the result was a very disappointing low paced unoriginal collection of clichés. All the characters are non-charismatic, specially the nasty one performed by John Lynch, and James Spader does not have any chemistry with any woman. The performances are very "cold", and the actors and actresses seem to know that the movie is not good and do not show any enthusiasm. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "Contato Alienígena" ("Alien Contact")