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 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?

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")