In 2089, archaeologists Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway discover a star map in Scotland that matches others from several unconnected ancient cultures. They interpret this as an invitation from humanity's forerunners, the "Engineers". Peter Weyland, the elderly CEO of Weyland Corporation, funds an expedition aboard the scientific vessel Prometheus to follow the map to the distant moon LV-223. The ship's crew travels in stasis while the android David monitors their voyage. They arrive in December 2093. On the barren, mountainous surface, they find a large, artificial structure. Shortly after the Prometheus lands nearby, the crew heads out to explore it. Inside, they find what appears to be a shrine with a monolithic statue of a humanoid head, several metallic cylinders spread out around it, and the decapitated corpse of a large alien, whom they think is an Engineer. Shaw recovers its head. The crew doesn't find any other remains, and surmise that the facility was abandoned approximately 2,000 years earlier. Crew members Millburn and Fifield grow uncomfortable with the discoveries and attempt to return to the Prometheus, but get lost in the structure. The expedition is cut short when a storm forces the crew to return to the ship. David secretly takes a cylinder with him, while the rest in the shrine begin leaking a dark liquid. In the ship's lab, the Engineer's DNA is found to match that of humans. David investigates the cylinder he took and the dark liquid inside. He intentionally taints a drink with the liquid and gives it to the unsuspecting Holloway, who had stated he would do anything for answers. When the crew returns to the structure the next day, they find Milliburn's corpse and Fifield missing. Holloway sickens rapidly, and they rush back to the Prometheus. However, mission-director Meredith Vickers meets them at the airlock armed with a flamethrower, and refuses to let him back on board!

Despite being set in the Alien universe and described as a prequel, Prometheus has almost nothing to do with the Xenomorphs that appeared in the films released earlier in the series. While a Xenomorph-like creature appears in the film's epilogue, the sequence is arguably completely extraneous. The film is focused on and about much greater things, and due to that it is a thought-provoking film. For those expecting more of the same, this film may be frustrating, but it hits a lot of the same story beats and tropes in the Alien films, introduces us to new variations on the body horror theme, and is a strikingly thoughtful meditation on faith.

Where the film gets most interesting is in its parallel stories of how the human crew treat the artificial android David, and their quest to meet humankind's creators. While the film doesn't explicitly say it, we can infer a lot on how the Engineers would receive, respond to, and treat humankind from the way the human crew does the same to David. In turn, how he responds to that treatment and subtly or overtly undermines them is equally telling. Apparently some scenes with dialogue key to unlocking the film were cut from it, ostensibly for religious regions. However, the more nebulous film that we are left with is in some ways a stronger film, as it forces us to think and infer what the film doesn't explicitly say. However, the ultimate key to unravelling the film is the Prometheus myth itself.

Nevertheless, despite all the tragic things that happen in the film, it ends on a positive note as its coda rounds out the film's theme of faith, and leaves us intrigued at what the film's protagonists will discover and unearth next. It's just too bad that the Alien: Covenant sequel took this film's dangling story threads in a completely different direction as it incorporated more of the familiar Alien tropes.

In 2104, 11 years after the Prometheus expedition, the colonization ship Covenant is 7 years from reaching planet Origae-6, their destination. The ship is monitored by Walter, an advanced android model that physically resembles David, the android that was on the Prometheus. When a neutrino burst damages the ship, Walter reanimates the human crew of 15. The ship's captain, Jake Branson, is burned alive when his stasis pod malfunctions. While repairing the ship, the crew picks up a transmission of a human voice from a nearby planet, which appears notably more habitable than Origae-6. Despite the protests of Daniels, Branson's widow, that this new "perfect" planet is too good to be true, the new captain, Christopher Oram, decides that they will investigate it. With pilot Tennessee maintaining the Covenant in orbit, his wife Faris flies a lander to the planet's surface, where an expedition team tracks the transmission's signal to a crashed alien ship. Crewmembers Ledward and Hallett are infect by spores from fungus-like organisms. Oram's wife, Karine, helps the rapidly deteriorating Ledward back to the lander, where Faris quarantines both inside the med-bay. A Neomorph—a small, pale alien creature—bursts out of Ledward, killing him, and then mauls Karine to death. Faris tries to kill the creature with a shotgun, but triggers an explosion that kills her and destroys the lander. Nearby in the fields, another Neomorph bursts out of Hallett, killing him. The creature attacks the remaining crew, killing one more. The remaining crew kills one Neomorph before David, who survived the Prometheus mission, appears and scares off the other. David leads the surviving crew to a temple in a city full of dead humanoids. He assures them that they are safe there. David guides a pair up to the roof to attempt to radio the Covenant, but communications are blocked due to an ion storm in the upper atmosphere. Unbeknownst to them all, the remaining Neomorph has followed them to the city...

As both the sequel to2012's Prometheus and ostensibly the prequel to 1979's Alien, Alien: Covenant had some pretty big shoes to fill. In short, it doesn't. While it does an an admirable job of laying the foundation for as-yet unfilmed events that lead to what was depicted in Alien, it drops the ball when it comes to Prometheus's story. While it kind of continues that story, it isn't the parts asking or probing the great questions that Prometheus was starting to look at. Instead, it doubles down on how the Xenomorph was created. Disappointingly, the Engineers (or a sub-species of them) barely make any appearance in this film. Instead, the film is almost like a 'greatest hits' of the Alien franchise, replete with music emulating that of the first film. That's not to say that it is a bad film, just that it doesn't really add anything to the franchise other than rounding out some of the details in the progression to the Xenomorph as well as answering some of the questions about the "back goo" weapon introduced in Prometheus. The ending of the film, on the other hand, does have an unexpected twist, and hints at a great sequel. However, after 20th Century Fox was sold to Disney in 2019 and with a new stand-alone film due to be released a year from now (at the time of writing), it doesn't look like Dir. Scott will be given the opportunity to complete his vision for the prequel series.

That said, what the film gets right are the characters and word-building. The film is populated by finely skilled actors, and they are all given plenty of characterization to tell them apart from one another—unlike some of the other films in the Alien franchise—further helped as some of the actors are well-known outside the franchise. By and large, there aren't any false emotions, and what we see feels genuine. The highlight is Michael Fassbender, who plays double duty as both David and Walter. He gives one an American accent to help us differentiate with the British accent of the other, which in itself is remarkable. The virtuoso sequence where Fassbender's characters kiss is depicted so smoothly without any jarring cuts or janky CG effects, it is as much a showcase of the actor's abilities as it is the film's production values. While the film ultimately only shows a small sample of 'Planet 4', it does a wonderful job depicting it. Unlike most films, it delves pretty deep into the flora and fauna, showcased in David's horrific Frankenstein's laboratory. The sequences shot in that lab are truly the most alarming and stay with the viewer long after the film is over. Ultimately, the film may be a bit disappointing after seeing Prometheus or for those intimately familiar with the Alien franchise, but it does provide a collection of the best story beats in the franchise, filmed at a level better than we've ever seen them before by an auteur who fills in not only the scenery, but the very atmosphere itself.

I have a complaint, however, about how the Xenomorphs are being depicted—and it's not specifically aimed at this film, but the Aliens franchise itself. Ever since 1997's Alien Resurrection, the speed in which they evolve has been accelerated to the point that it has become absurd. While I concede that they are movie monsters in what amounts to be a nightmare, because it was either depicted or implied that significant time passes between impregnation, birth, and maturation to adult-size in the first three films, the accelerated speed in the latter ones is all the more jarring. While the speed from impregnation to birth is justified in the prequel films due to the Engineer's 'black goo' (though the most realistic depiction of what would happen is the rapid corruption and decomposition of the Engineer sub-species on 'Planet 4'), both the speed at which the Neomorphs and Xenomorphs in the last 4 films* evolved from chestburster to juvenile to adult size is ridiculous. What are they using to grow? Are they converting elements out of the air into their bodies? Again, I appreciate that they are set in a nightmare, but part of the fun of these films is the suspense, not the action. Paraphrasing Hitchcock, suspense is knowing that there is a time-bomb that could explode at any time, action is the explosion. The horror in the Aliens franchise has its roots in and ought to be the former, not the latter.

* I'm including both Aliens vs. Predator films, but not the Deacon from Prometheus, as that appears to have emerged fully grown.

The commercial space tug Nostromo is returning to Earth hauling an ore refinery processing millions of tons of ore. Detecting a transmission from a nearby moon, the ship's computer, Mother, awakens its seven-member crew from stasis. Per company policy requiring any potential distress signal be investigated, they land on the moon. Captain Dallas, Executive Officer Kane, and Navigator Lambert set out to investigate the signal, while Warrant Officer Ripley, Science Officer Ash, and Parker and Brett, the ship's engineers, remain with the ship. The trio discovers that the signal originates from a derelict alien ship. Upon entering it, they lose contact with the Nostromo. Ripley deciphers part of the transmission, and determines that it's a warning. However, she cannot relay the information to her crew-mates. Inside the derelict, Kane discovers a chamber containing hundreds of large, egg-like objects. When he touches one, a creature springs out, penetrates his helmet, and attaches itself to his face. Dallas and Lambert carry the unconscious Kane back to the Nostromo. As the acting senior officer, Ripley refuses to let them aboard, citing quarantine regulations, but Ash overrides her decision and lets them inside. After carefully examining the creature and what it's doing to Kane, they attempt to remove it. As Ash makes an exploratory cut on one of the creature's digits, an extremely corrosive acidic blood spills out and melts through the floor. The crew races to follow the liquid as it melts through multiple levels—their greatest fear being damage to the ship's outer pressure hull!

It should come as no surprise that this is a great movie, seeing that it spawned the Alien franchise! What the film gets right is the less-is-more approach when it comes to the title creature, and presenting a group of people going about their regular jobs—replete with all the "office politics" that come with it—being interrupted by an encounter with an unknown, and extremely hostile organism. Perhaps the best thing is that the title works on multiple levels: the alien(ated) relationships between the coworkers, the alien environment on the ship and the moon, and of course, the alien creature. What's most compelling about this film is the intellectual curiosity exhibited by the crew, largely by Kane and Ash, and the aloof attitude toward the job exhibited by Dallas, Parker and Brett. The former merely wanting to quickly finish his assignment and get back home, and the latter pair wanting a larger cut of the profits. Due to that, one feels that a version of the film without the Xenomorph may be just as intriguing, as Dir. Scott has done such a wonderful job at world-building and investing such great characterization into the people in his film.

However, the highlight of the film is the Xenomorph: ranging from its unknown life cycle, its unclear origins, and the inhumane corporate instructions to acquire a specimen at any cost! The film presents many enigmas, and is all the more scary because it doesn't give any hints or suggestions to unlock them or otherwise answer the film's many mysteries. The film is also laden with important details hidden in apparently banal throwaway lines. Take, for example, the crew's response to the discovery of an alien spaceship and its long-dead alien pilot. While they don't directly say it, their response implies that this is not the first intelligent alien species that humans have encountered as they spread into the galaxy. Another example is what's on Ash's computer screens when Ripley talks to him in his lab. Is that an embryo? Ash quickly changes the topic and deactivates the screens, as we learn the real reason why Ripley came to talk to him: he intruded into her fiefdom in the company hierarchy! The best part of the film—and what ratchets the film's suspense and horror up to sublime heights—is that not only does the Xenomorph's bio-mechanical body seamlessly blend into the mechanical walls of the ship, it is constantly evolving and changing its shape. Perhaps this film's greatest feat is never giving the audience a clear view of the creature, even in the film's final moments when it is in full view and fully-lit by bright-white rocket exhaust!

Ellen Ripley has been in stasis for 57 years aboard the escape shuttle when she is intercepted and revived. On Earth, it is hard for her to return to normal life as she struggles with recurring nightmares. During the subsequent inquiry by her Weyland-Yutani employers and relevant governmental agencies into the destruction of the Nostromo, Ripley is confronted by officials that are skeptical about her claim of alien eggs in a derelict ship on the LV-426 moon. She is alarmed to hear that the moon is now the site of a terraforming colony. Some time later, after contact is lost with the colony, Weyland-Yutani representative Carter Burke and Colonial Marine Lt. Gorman ask Ripley to accompany them on a mission to investigate the colony. She initially declines, but after another nightmare-filled night, she agrees on the condition that they exterminate the creatures. Ripley is introduced to the Colonial Marines on the spaceship Sulaco, but is immediately distrustful of their android Bishop. A dropship delivers the expedition to the surface of LV-426, where they find the ravaged colony and two live alien facehuggers in containment tanks, but no colonists or their remains except for a traumatized young girl nicknamed Newt. The team soon detects all of the colonists' personal data transmitters beneath a nearby fusion-powered atmosphere processing station. They drive over to the station in the armoured personnel carrier (APC), and the marines dismounted to head down to the lowest levels on foot. Nearing the transmission source, they enter into an unearthly landscape, as the corridors are covered in alien secretions. At the centre of it, the Marines find dead facehuggers alongside the cocooned remains of the colonists. Shortly after discovering a still-living colonist, an alien infant bursts from her chest. The marines instinctively kill it, but they soon hear rustling and detect movement steadily approaching from all directions. They can't see what's causing it, and the inexperienced Gorman is at a loss. All hell breaks loose. When Gorman panics, Ripley takes control of the APC and drives it toward the marines, who are being overwhelmed as they attempt to retreat!

Aliens is one of, if not the best sequel ever. In many ways, it is superior to the original. However, due to its composition, some parts of it are weaker, as the film spends far less time dabbling in the enigmas inherent to the Aliens franchise, such as where the Xenomorph originally came from, let alone why it was ostensibly being transported in great number in the belly of the derelict (1979's Alien). That said, the film is an evolution. While it hits a lot of the same story beats—e.g. dubious company orders, and a double-crossing character—it reshuffles the order, and turns many of them on their head. Where Alien was more suspense-horror that employed a constantly evolving creature that blended perfectly into the bowls of the ship, Aliens is more action-suspense, with a lot of the horror stemming from the sheer number of Xenomorphs, and the almost complete ineffectiveness of the marine's tactics and firepower. The best thing about Aliens, however, is the wonderful characterization it imbues in its cast. It invests in its characters so well that we fully understand why Ripley, for example, would ever choose to face the Xenomorph again, let alone willingly choose to head deep into their nest all by herself!

This film has held up surprisingly well over the decades. It has that good old movie magic in spades, and is all the more impressive for being made before the era of CG—with one occasionally wondering how they filmed some of the visual effects sequences practically! While the use of grainy and unclear video footage is initially jarring, the lack of crisp detail works in the films favour. This is most apparent in the marines initial foray into the Xenomorph's nest, but is also effective at enhancing the overall believability of the numerous miniatures used throughout the film. I also liked the subtle details, such as the upturned suit collar jackets in the inquiry sequence. The additional scenes restored in the "Special Edition" are wonderful additions for fans of the movie (my favourite has the nostalgia-inducing mid-80's plastic tricycle riding down the corridors of the colony, complete with Weyland-Yutani stickers on it!)—though I can see the merits in cutting them to improve the pacing, suspension and tension in the film. It is also hilarious seeing Mac McDonald as the leader of the colonists, particularly because I'm used to seeing him as the bumbling and clumsy Captain Hollister in the Red Dwarf TV show! Which brings up the highlight of the film: it is stuffed full of instantly memorable quotes and one liners, many of which are used to defuse the film's extraordinary tension. Aliens is infinitely quotable, and is well worth a viewing just for that. However, it's so much more. A must see!

Following the events of Aliens, an egg hatches aboard the Sulaco spaceship mid-transit, releasing a facehugger. A fire starts and the ship's computer launches an escape pod containing Ripley, Newt, Hicks, and the damaged android Bishop while they all remain in stasis. The pod crash-lands on Fiorina "Fury" 161, a planet with a maximum-security correctional facility. The inmates recover the crashed pod and its passengers. The facehugger, which stowed away in the pod, impregnates Spike, a dog owned by one of the inmates. Ripley is awakened by Clemens, the prison's chief medical officer, who informs her that she is the sole survivor. Ripley insists that Clemens perform an autopsy on Newt and that her and Hick's bodies be subsequently burned, fearing that Newt may be carrying a Xenomorph embryo. Despite protests from warden Harold Andrews and his assistant Francis "85" Aaron, the autopsy is conducted and no embryo is found. The funeral proceeds with spiritual leader Dillon delivering a speech as the deceased are cremated. Elsewhere in the prison, a quadrupedal Xenomorph bursts from the dog. In order to access the escape pod's flight data recorder, Ripley retrieves Bishop's remains from the prison's garbage dump. Re-activating him, he tells her that a facehugger came with them to Fiorina, and Weyland-Yutani Corporation is aware of it. The Xenomorph kills three prisoners, which mentally traumatizes another, who witnessed the attack. Ripley tells the warden about her previous Xenomorph encounters and suggests that everyone work together to hunt it down and kill it. However, the facility is without weapons. Their only hope is the rescue ship being sent for Ripley by Weyland-Yutani and is due to arrive in the next couple of days...

On paper, Alien ³ sounds great. However, the theatrical version is disappointing. The movie has hardly any Alien tropes or story beats. For example, there's no sequence building up to the release of a facehugger and the horror of seeing it latch onto someone—or something as it does in this film. Which leads into another problem: there doesn't seem to be much horror, or gradually building and sustained tension in this film. There are a bunch of jump scares, but overall there are very few moments of genuine chills. I appreciate that they were trying to do something new with this film, but oddly it doesn't work, and there's no feeling of novelty to it. Perhaps setting it in a dark and badly lit, sprawling facility wasn't the best choice, and something much more claustrophobic like a space tug (Alien) or the barricaded command centre of a colony (Aliens) better suits these films?

The film is also full of questionable aesthetic choices. While I liked the wide-open spaces in the foundry—a technological cathedral in certain respects—there is clearly not enough visual differentiation between the various characters. Only Ripley, the warden, his assistant, the spiritual leader, and the doctor are clearly defined. Everyone else just blends together. This is not like Alien with a lean cast of 7, or Aliens with an expansive cast in which everyone is given unique characteristics and visual designs. Oddly, despite being made 6 years after Aliens, the special effects seem to have taken a step backwards, and a lot of the shots of the Xenomorph appear fake due to bad compositing. I get that they were trying to depict the Xenomorph with more in-human movements, but Dir. Cameron achieved that spectacularly well all in-frame with only gymnasts and choice camera angles.

One thing that this film gets right is the alarming actions of the Weyland-Yutani company. However, the film only reenvisions the extents the company will go to, rather than delving further into its motivations or how the staff justify their inhumane choices. Apparently the film was a bit better in the Assembly Cut. Apparently it even had a stronger religious theme and some pointed things to say about that. From just the visuals of the alternative facehugger that was used in it, it is much creepier, too. Alas, the theatrical version wasn't very good, and the prime adjectives to describe it would be confusing and repetitive—not just of what was seen in the preceding movies, but also the overlong chase sequences that populate the climax of this film. Perhaps setting the film in an outer space monastery, as described in one of the earliest drafts, would have been better, or at least more novel and thought provoking than the prison colony Sci-Fi staple?

Two hundred years after Ellen Ripley died (1992's Alien³), military scientists led by Dr Wren on the space vessel USM Auriga create a clone of her, designated Ripley 8, using DNA from blood samples taken before her death. The Xenomorph queen's DNA has been combined with Ripley's, so the clone grows up with a Xenomorph embryo inside it. The scientists extract the embryo, raise it, and collect its eggs while keeping Ripley 8 alive for further study. As a result of the Xenomorph DNA inside her, the clone has enhanced strength and reflexes, acidic blood, and a psychic link with the Xenomorphs. Additionally, the Xenomorph's genetic memory gives the clone some of Ripley's memories. A group of mercenaries—consisting of leader Elygyn, first mate Christie, pilot Hillard, mechanic Vriess, muscle Johner, and young-woman-'playing'-pirate Call—arrive at the Auriga on their ship the Betty and deliver several abducted humans in stasis. The military scientists use the abductees as hosts, raising several adult Xenomorphs for study. The Betty crew soon encounters Ripley 8. Call recognizes her name. After a night of drinking with Johner and Christie, Call sneaks away and into the cell where Ripley 8 is being held and attempts to kill her. However, she is captured by Wren and his military escort. When Wren confronts Elygyn and his crew over Call's supposed 'terrorist' activities, the Xenomorphs take advantage of the distraction, break out of their cages, and start picking off the Auriga's personnel!

Alien Resurrection is a return to form after the disastrous Alien³). It has all of the classic Alien tropes, with some turned on their heads to add novelty to the film. For example, the traitor in the protagonist's ranks turns out to be helpful to them, at least in terms of the greater picture. There are facehugger implantations, but when one gets Ripley 8 we see her ripping it to pieces as she rips it off of her face! And the obligatory chest burster sequence is used in an unexpectedly satisfactory karmic revenge. However, despite these moments of greatness, the film doesn't ever really come together. Instead, we get a confused story that's not really about anything—it barely holds up as a clothesline to string these memorably sequences together. Well, it seems to be trying to make a point about cloning, but that gets lost in the process of emphasizing the horror of cloning errors and the greater Xenomorph menace.

The Xenomorphs in this film look great, and filming them practically and in-frame really gives them a sense of plausibility (there are no stick models and bad compositing in this film). However, they are often covered in too much slime. It is practically gushing out of their mouths, and makes one wonder where the Xenomorphs are acquiring and storing so much liquid, as they drool constantly and excessively. The Xenomorphs themselves don't look too different from what we've seen before. Their nest-like structures, however, are depicted totally differently from what we saw in Alien (in the director's cut) and Aliens. The genius of the film though, is that these changes are plausibly due to a muddying of the Xenomorph DNA with human DNA due to the cloning process.

The best thing about the film—and the reason to see it —is Sigourney Weaver's performance as the human–Xenomorph hybrid Ripley 8. There are some scenes where her movements are downright creepy, and for large parts of the film, it's not clear how trustworthy she is, let alone where her loyalties lie. This film has many things going for it: character, setting, Xenomorph VFX budget; it's just a shame that the theatrical film's overall story is a letdown.

Vietnam War veteran Major Alan "Dutch" Schaefer and his military rescue team—Mac, Poncho, Blain, Billy, and Hawkins—are tasked with rescuing a foreign cabinet minister and his aide from insurgents in an unspecified central or South American country. CIA officer Al Dillon, a Vietnam War buddy of Dutch's, is assigned to accompany the team over Dutch's objections. En route, the team discovers the wreckage of a helicopter and three skinned corpses. Dutch identifies them as Green Berets that he knew and becomes suspicious of Dillion's intentions. The team reaches the guerrilla camp and witnesses the execution of a hostage. They mount an attack, killing most of the rebels and several Soviet intelligence officers. Dutch confronts Dillon, who reveals their true mission was to stop a planned Soviet-backed invasion and that the CIA sent the Green Berets weeks earlier for the same mission. The only surviving guerrilla, Anna, is captured. Learning that more rebels are coming, the team chooses to trek to the extraction point. They are followed by an entity employing a cloaking device and thermal imaging technology. A spooked Billy glimpses it, creating a situation where Anna attempts to escape. Hawkins catches her, but the entity attacks and kills him while sparing Anna. Dutch organizes a search party, but Blain is killed by the entity's plasma cannon. Enraged, Mac provokes everyone into blindly firing their weapons into the jungle, unknowingly wounding the entity. As the entity administers first-aid to itself, the commandos regroup and realize that they are being hunted. Dillon believes two or three guerrillas are responsible, but Billy is adamant that their pursuer is not even human!

Predator is a master class in action and building suspense. In retrospect, the story isn't very complex and isn't really about anything substantial. However, the plotting throws in enough misdirection and red herrings that we aren't really sure who the main antagonist is until it is all but too late for the military rescue team. When the true antagonist is fully revealed, it is equally breathtaking as it is shocking—dwarfing the film's star, for starters.

The film gets so many things right while it hits the action beats. Among others, it gives the characters a large range of easily identifiable features and quirks—largely without extraneous dialogue—making them all easily identifiable. It is also one of the few action films where the star is accurately depicted as a member of a team. The military rescue team's smooth raid on the guerrilla camp is one of the films highlights. However, above all else, the film gets the right tone and atmosphere, and successfully raises the tension to levels rarely seen in other films. A must see!

In 1997, Los Angeles is suffering from a heat wave and a turf war between heavily armed Colombian and Jamaican drug cartels. A Predator watches a shootout between the police and the drug cartels, observing Lieutenant Michael R. Harrigan charge into the firefight to rescue two wounded officers and drive the Colombians back into their hideout. The Predator soon attacks the Colombians, causing a disturbance that prompts Harrigan and detectives Leona Cantrell and Danny Archuleta to defy orders and enter the hideout—where they find all but one of the Colombians dead. On the roof, Harrigan shoots the crazed gang leader and catches a glimpse of the optically-camouflaged Predator, but dismisses it as a mixture of the extreme heat and his fear of heights. At the police station, Harrigan is reprimanded by his superiors for his disobedience. He is then introduced to Special Agent Peter Keyes, leader of a task force investigating the cartels. Harrigan says he'll cooperate, but his subsequent actions suggest he doesn't trust Keyes. Later that evening, Jamaicans invade the Colombian drug lord's penthouse and kill him moments before they are attacked and killed by the Predator. Upon their arrival, Harrigan's team notes similarities between the current crime scene and the earlier Colombian massacre. However, when Keyes's team arrives, they are soon kicked out of the crime scene. Archuleta returns later that night to conduct a solo investigation, finding one of the Predator's spear tips. However, the creature attacks and kills him. As an enraged Harrigan vows to stop Archuleta's killer, forensic analysis reveals the spear tip is not composed of any known element on the periodic table! With next to no leads to go on, Harrigan goes to meet with Jamaican drug lord King Willie to hopefully find some new leads. Meanwhile, Keyes and his teams are closely monitoring Harrigan, as they have realized that the Predator has its eye on Harrigan, and is stalking him!

The sequel to 1987's Predator is jarring, as not only are no characters carried over from the first film, the setting and even the occupations of the human characters are entirely different. In some ways it is disappointing, but in many ways it is refreshingly original. Ultimately, the film builds on the events of Predator while also being able to stand on its own. It is equally memorable, however that is arguably for more gruesome reasons. This is not a film for children, in other words.

While both movies are "science-fiction action films", Predator is the more horrific one, as it adopts some of the tropes of a slasher film—not to mention the slowly dawning realization that an elite special forces team headed by Schwarzenegger is successfully being hunted by someone bigger and more powerful than they are! As Predator 2 is set in the urban jungle, it loses the "alieness" of the unfamiliar tropical jungle, and makes the Predator—even when using optical camouflage—easier to spot. That said, the film is an evolution with Keyes and his team employing tactics to not only track the Predator, but also conceal themselves from it with their own form of "optical camouflage".

The highlight of the film is Danny Glover's Harrigan. Harrigan's job is essentially the same as Sergeant Murtaugh's in the Lethal Weapon series, however Glover has produced characters that are strikingly different. That, though, is not enough to save the film, as the Predator in it is a mishmash of the skilled stalker from the first film and someone who takes unnecessary risks arguably simply to move the plot forward. It's not quite as intelligent as the initial film, in other words. That said, if you are a fan of the series, the film can't be missed, as it evolves and further expands the titular character's race.

Royce awakens to find himself free-falling into an unfamiliar jungle. At the last moment, his parachute automatically opens. Upon landing, he meets several other people who arrived in the same way: Mexican cartel enforcer Cuchillo, Spetsnaz soldier Nikolai, IDF sniper Isabelle, RUF officer Mombasa, San Quentin death row inmate Stans, Yakuza enforcer Hanzo, and physician Edwin. The group follows Royce, whom Isabelle suspects is a former black ops soldier turned mercenary. At various points in the jungle they come across a strange monument, empty cages, and deadfall traps set by a deceased Green Beret. Reaching higher ground, they find themselves staring at an alien sky and realize that they are not on Earth. After surviving an attack from a pack of quadrupedal alien beasts, Royce deduces they are on a moon used as a game preserve, where humans and other species are hunted. Cuchillo is killed, and his body is used to lure the survivors into a trap, which they avoid. The group follows the beasts' tracks to a camp and find a captive Predator strung up on another strange monument. The groups hunters, three larger Predators known as "Tracker", "Berserker" and "Falconer", attack the group, killing Mombasa while the others escape. Isabelle recognizes the Predator as matching the description of a similar creature that killed a special ops team in 1987 in Guatemala, but was defeated by a single survivor. The group encounters Ronald Noland, a solitary US Air Calvary soldier who has survived on the moon for "ten seasons" by hiding and scavenging from the Predators and their victims. He takes the group to his hideout and explains what he understands about the so-called game preserve. However, the strain of his existence has driven Noland mad, and he is a less than reliable ally with the three Predators still hunting Royce and the others.

This film is about as good as Predator 2, but not as good as the first movie. The two major elements that are missing are a sequence where we see a Predator performing medical aid on themself, and more importantly, the steadily growing sense of horror that pervades the first film. Perhaps this film's greatest flaw is that there wasn't anyone relatable among the main characters—only the Russian soldier comes close. Adrien Brody as the anti-hero was a refreshing change, and he played the opportunistic tendencies of the character just right. However, I especially didn't like the doctor's seemingly out-of-character switch near the end of the movie. It appeared to be totally arbitrary, with few if any warning signs, and begging the question: if he was such an opportunistic monster, why didn't he opportunize on the situation earlier and better? Given how out of place he felt among the other warriors and criminals, I would have found it much more enjoyable and intriguing if it turned out that he was working with the Predators to keep their injured prey alive just a bit longer to maximize the hunt, or something along those lines.

Nevertheless, I liked the basic concept of the movie—very nightmarish—and the second Predator race was a thought provoking addition to the mythology. In its own way it begins to explain why very few of the original Predator race have visited the Earth. That said, unlike Predator 2, this film doesn't evolve the basic premise of the first film or the human response to it. It is truly more of the same, with the humans going through the same motions.

There was some talk of a direct sequel or even a prequel to this film set on the hunting planet. As tempting as that would be, I think a film that explores the Predators who secretly abduct people from the Earth would be much more interesting. How do they get away with it, and how do they overcome their desire to bring back only the skin and bone remains as trophies? Nevertheless, if you liked the first film and want to see more of that, this film will be right up your alley.

In 2004, a satellite detects a heat bloom beneath the ice on an island about 1,700 km off the coast of Antarctica. Wealthy industrialist Charles Weyland discovers through thermal imaging that there is a pyramid buried 610 m beneath the ice on that island. He assembles a team of experts to investigate it, including archaeologists, linguists, mercenaries, and a mountaineering guide named Lex Woods. Terminally ill, Weyland desires to claim the discovery in his name. When the team arrives at an abandoned Norwegian whaling station on the island, they discover a newly made tunnel running directly form the ice's surface to the pyramid beneath. The team descends the tunnel and begins to explore the pyramid, soon finding evidence of an ancient civilization and what appears to be a sacrificial chamber filled with human skeletons. The team splits into two groups, with half staying to catalogue the sacrificial chamber, and the rest exploring deeper into the pyramid. Concurrently, three Predators arrive and kill the team members that remained on the surface in the whaling station. The Predators make their way down to the pyramid and arrive just as the exploring humans unwittingly activate the pyramid and are trapped inside it. The Xenomorph Queen in the pyramid's basement is awakened from cryogenic stasis and begins to produce eggs, which are automatically transported into the sacrificial chamber. The other group of humans find a cache of Predator shoulder blasters, and take them for later analysis. Detecting that, the Predators race into the pyramid to intercept the humans before the entire place is overrun by Xenomorphs!

When I first heard this film was in production, I hoped that it would a direct adaptation of the 1990's Dark Horse comic of the same name. Alas, it's the polar opposite of that wonderful story. The main thing that this film gets wrong is the setting: not only is it the present day Earth (aliens ought to be set in the distant future, no?), but also Antarctica—I thought the Predators only came to hunt during heat waves and abhor the cold?

That aside, the film is actually pretty good. Well, if you ignore the fact that there is almost no characterization. As for character arcs? They are virtually nonexistent. But those are not necessarily the reason why someone would want to see this movie. They want to see the Aliens and the Predators going at it with each other, and this film goes about that with panache. In some ways, the Aliens are treated better, as they are depicted as fairly intelligent, and outsmart their foes on more than one occasion. The Predators, on the other hand, aren't as menacing and horrifying as they were portrayed in Predator and Predator 2. That may be because they are being set up to turn into allies for the surviving humans, and need to be humanized and portrayed as fallible.

All that said, the best thing about this film is its depiction of the Alien Queen. I don't think we've been treated to such a raw display of fury as this film succeeds in doing. It's just a shame that the film doesn't invest in the characters enough for us to care whether they live or die in the climatic showdown. All in all, the film is utterly forgettable, but in a good way.

This flick is beyond bad. It's not even in the so-bad-it's-good category. It's just bad. Bad, bad, bad.

The only redeeming thing about the film is that it employed people in the Vancouver film industry.