Paul WS Anderson did the AvP film, the same guy who did Event Horizon (and the Resident Evils). Whilst not exactly the same grade of actors or direction as Ridley Scott or Michael Fassbender, Event Horizon has Sam Neil and Lawrence Fishburne, and Resi Evil has Mila Jovovich (who also happens to be Paul WS Anderson's wife). As a filmmaker, he's not anywhere near "who?" as if people don't know or appreciate some of his work. Personally I think Event Horizon is one of the best non Alien Sci Fi/Horrors I've seen, and the Resi Evil films aren't too bad for a computer game crossed over to film franchise and whilst AVP isn't exactly great, it's not too bad, at least not as bad as AvP2.

Incidentally the AvP series wasn't classed as an official entry in either the Alien or Predator series as far as I know, it's a cross over. If anything put the Alien films into the ground it was the meddling Fox had in the direction of Alien3, the finality of Ripley's death, and the expectation Fox had that they could revive the Alien series with Alien Resurrection, which was based on a premise that was utter gash.

It also should be noted that in AvP there were several decent actors, including Lance Henrickson, who is one only two actos who has come up against an Alien, Terminator and Predator (Bill Paxton being the other), Ewen Bremner who was in Trainspotting, Colin Salmon has been in the Resi Evil films and a few James Bond films as well as various British TV series. Even Sanaa Lathan was in Blade, so these are not crap (who?) actors, they're more like the mortar of Hollywood, which is exactly where I would place Michelle Rodriguez, she's hardly a great actress, she has a niche, but lacks any great acting range.

Interesting point of note about Paul WS Anderson, is he's from the North East of England, which is where Ridley Scott and I'm from.