Alien Hunter

This is an exceptional Sci-Fi Network Production. Decent F/X and a story line that is not too far fetched to enjoy. A team of government scientists conducting botanical experiments at the South Pole stumble upon what is believed to be an extraterrestrial black box. After further examination and disregard for a decoded warning an alien tries to communicate. A terrific finale out of the ordinary. James Spader leads an apt cast that features:Leslie Stefanson, Janine Eser, Roy Dotrice, John Lynch and Keir Dullea. A don't miss for Sci-Fi fans.

James Spader plays a floppy haired "communications expert" who used to work for SETI. When a strange object is found in the Arctic he's sent out to a research station to investigate. Our floppy haired hero discovers that none other than his ex is there and she's hooked up with someone else with floppy hair. Luckily he's irresistible to women judging by the way they start flirting with him "I'm going for a shower, want to join me?" and "I work naked" being two of the most memorable lines. Male writer by any chance? Male writer with not a huge amount of experience writing for or having intercourse with women? I think so. It's kind of hard to buy into this guy as being a chick magnet especially when he titters like a nervous young girl being teased by her friends over someone she has a crush on.

He decodes a signal being broadcast from the thing and discovers it is a warning not to open the object up.

Unfortunately they've pretty much jimmied it open by this point and find an alien inside and the bad news is it doesn't have floppy hair, though it does seem drawn to Spaders so it's not all bad. They quickly switch the lights off so they can stumble around in the dark for a bit.

Alien Hunter isn't that bad, it obviously rips its best bits out of other movies and has only a couple of genuinely interesting ideas neither of which come to much. I totally agree with this movies current rating, a 5 seems fair as it has nothing new to show you but it's not terrible either.

And there's two guys with floppy hair at odds with each other and a nice spaceship, if that's your idea of a good movie you're going to love it - everyone else is going to quickly forget this one. What I can't understand though is why anyone would make this movie, it has no ambition and so many scenes seem to be time fillers. I wouldn't be surprised if parts of the script were simply titled "pointless dark stumbling scene 49" and none of the characters seem to show any emotions at all. And more to the point why are they growing GM crops in the Arctic in their underwear? Why does the scientist who is about to win a Nobel prize seem to know nothing whatsoever about science, including science related to plants when he's supposed to be the expert? We will never know..but you really won't care either.

Reading over the reviews for this film, I see that pretty much everyone agrees that while it's not an A+ Top Notch effort, it certainly isn't as bad as it could have been.

What's good about it:

1) James Spader (!), who's incredible in everything he's in. 2) Pretty good Visual Effects. 3) Nice Musical Score.

What's average:

1) The other performances. 2) The story (as many have pointed out, it's a mosaic of other movies).

What's monumental:

You will never see another movie in which the end credits has as many crew members with last names ending with the letter "v."

What's unforgivable:

The title! "Alien Hunter" is an absolutely terrible name. Surely they could have come up with something a little more enticing. It sounds like a reject Jean-Claude film title.

I'm still amazed that they were able to cast James Spader in this. I mean, JAMES SPADER!!! :)

Bored? Nothing else to watch or rent? Give this movie a try.

Just woke up on a Saturday morning and this movie was just beginning on SciFi... I'd seen the name before, but honestly did not expect much, specifically because of the name, it's terrible and does not describe this movie at all. So not expecting much, I was more than pleasantly surprised! I had no idea James Spader was in it and he played the role well, mainly because he didn't need to act much. The plot was similar to a number of other films as folks have mentioned, but sufficiently different enough to keep you guessing. For a made for TV movie, I thought it was well done and would recommend it to anybody who is looking for some decent scifi. While it would have been much better broadcast in HD (the channel was, the movie wasn't), it was good entertainment with which to start the weekend. Now if they'd just change that frackin' name...

I thought it was great. Yes, ripped off many films, but a good screenplay nonetheless (kept the film moving) and more importantly, a surprising ending. Not oscar material, but I'd give it thumbs up. The base was totally unrealistic however. "The Thing" base was more like what it would be. And the title "Alien Hunter"... totally for marketing. It should have been -- in fun sci-fi form -- "It came from Space" or something. Cause it wasn't about hunting an alien. The geneticist guy was too 1-dimensional. They should have slowly developped his attitude instead of making him an idiot from the start.