James Spader plays a cryptologist who is summoned to the Antarctic where a research station has uncovered something in the ice shelf that is emitting radio signals in a non-random pattern. As the ice melts around it, the scientists discover that it is some sort of alien pod. Too late, Spader decyphers the message which is telling them not to disturb the vessel.

This film takes a little bit from several other science fiction movies and blends the parts into a pretty weak story. There's nothing new here, but at least the filmmakers realize that and set about with providing simple entertainment.

You could do a lot worse at the video store.

Alien Hunter could've been much worse than it was. It is far from a perfect movie, with a terrible, misleading title, an unoriginal and derivative story, clichéd and poorly developed characters(in general) and a very cheesy script. However, it is edited quite nicely, and the special effects are well above average, sometimes even spectacular. The locations are great too, as is the stirring music score and the charismatic lead performance of James Spader. The rest of the performances aren't on the same level, but save for John Lynch they're not what I call non-descript either.

In a nutshell, flawed but reasonably entertaining film. 6/10 Bethany Cox

ALIEN HUNTER turns out to be nothing more than a low budget, TV-movie-style version of THE THING, with a bunch of no-name scientists (and James Spader, repeating his geek-guy STARGATE role) recovering a crashed UFO in the Antarctic and coming upon something decidedly unpleasant within.

The problem with this production is its look, which is completely unappealing throughout. The whole film is dark and dismal-looking, which makes for a pretty depressing watch. Combine this with the unoriginal plotting, clichéd script and by rote performances (aside from the reliable Spader) and you have an entirely disappointing movie. The low budget CGI effects also scupper whatever good intentions were buried here somewhere.

The ending offers something a little bit different to the norm, albeit in the form of something silly and entirely over the top. Never mind; with such a generic title as ALIEN HUNTER, what else was I expecting from this?