It was such a waste it managed to disappoint my 10 year old self when I first watched the movie, I was like what?
One Predator already dead ? And why did the Alien tail grew to that size to that scene and then it went back to normal afterwards? Oh well at least the leader with the cool mask will avenge his bro... oh he died too. We only have 1 Predator left, maybe there will still be some cool fight scenes anyway, oh he got a kill, nice but now he decided to just throw a self destruct and leave the pyramid after adopting the wannabe Ripley as a pet. Oh a Queen fight, nice combistick hit, and now movie is over.
I get what Anderson was trying to do with the 40-50+ minutes of waiting before action, since it worked for Aliens per example, but then the movie was over 2 hours and lots of action afterwards so it was worth the buildup. While for AVP you get a little of what you are waiting for as it ends fast.
Not just a waste of the Chopper character and its blades, which would be interested seeing in action, even if it was just versus the humans on the surface, if he was gonna be the first to die they could have make him kill the mercs with those blades, would explain those human skulls. But then PG-13 rating, we can't have Chopper slicing humans with those blades. No. We can't let kids see that. But also the chance of seeing some Predator teamwork.
When I first saw there was gonna be 3 predators, I though about how cool and interesting it would be to see them working and fighting together, but like it was done again in Predators, they seem to act separate and wait for their turn to die instead of hunting effectively cus plot, budget restrictions whatever.