Alien Hunter (2003)

The movie opens up in the 50s with an encounter between a man and what appear to be aliens in the desert setting.  Then the movie quickly moves to the future where we are introduced to Julian Rome, played by James Spader.  He is a scientist and linguist (hey didn’t he already do that in Star Gate?) that used to work for SETI.  He is called in by some colleagues that have found a strange object in the ice of the South Pole that seems to be giving off some strange signals.  After he arrives at the isolated facility where the object has been transported things get very strange.  Especially after he finally translates the signal and realizes that it is warning them to not open what they not think is some sort of escape pod. Which of course they do right as he runs into the room telling them not to! 

This is an interesting movie because several times I thought I had it figured out, but in the end I really didn’t.  I fully expected this to be a low budget rip off of something like the Thing, with the creature escaping and terrorizing the scientists.  I mean they already had James Spader basically playing the same character from Star Gate, so is it really that much of a leap?  But as the story unfolds it takes some interesting turns and doesn’t end up being a creature feature at all.  Now I don’t what to ruin what is a pretty neat sci-fi movie so I can’t say much more than that.  But I will warn everyone that while I enjoyed the movie for what it was, it does tend to be a bit slow like most straight science fiction movies.  There is a creature, but it isn’t directly the enemy. This movie is more about the characters and the decisions they make.  So I guess basically what I’m trying to get across is that the movie might be boring to some viewers.

While this isn’t a creature feature there are a couple of aliens that do show up.  They are realized nicely on the screen, in spite of what I think had to be a limited budget.  In fact other than a couple of instances of bad CGI the entire movie is pretty well made with effects that are decent.  This includes several “melting” people that while CGI are actually very cool and memorable shots.  Getting back to the aliens they aren’t perfect, but when shown in close-ups look great.  They do get in trouble when they try and show them walking or standing.  But again I give them props for pulling off things as well as they did. 

While not the greatest movie that I’ve ever seen I can’t really rip on Alien Hunter that badly.  It is an interesting science fiction movie that I’ll probably not ever watch again, but wasn’t a waste of my time.  That can’t be said of many of the movies I sit thru, so I give this one some props.  I wouldn’t spend a lot of money on it, but it is worth a rental for sure.  Or if you are lucky you can get a copy from Big Lots for $3 like I did.

2 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2010 John Shatzer