No one’s going to argue that Predator isn’t a classic.
You’re goddamn right it is.
Expertly directed, lots of stoicism, great effects (a bunch of which
still hold up), it’s spiritual, primal, inspirational and action…al. What about the sequel that came out three
years later though? Well I’m not gonna
fuck around here, it’s fucking badass.
The predator is in LA and he’s taking out gangbangers, crime
bosses and cops. Lieutenant Mike
Harrigan (Danny Glover (Pure Luck))
is on the trail to find out who the new player is. During the hunt he and his crew (Ruben Blades
(Color of Night), Maria Conchita
Alonso (Extreme Prejudice), Bill
Paxton (Near Dark)) keep crossing
paths with government operative Keyes (Gary Busey (Surviving the Game)) who’s also looking for the predator. The difference is Harrigan and co. want to
kill the sonuvabitch and Keyes wants to capture it to study.
I guess the overarching idea was we’ve already experienced
the predator in the jungle so it only makes sense to bring it to the concrete
jungle. And normally I’d be cautious
about transplanting any sort of monster from its original environment to the
big city (if the city isn’t where that monster usually hangs out). It doesn’t always work well. The Lost
World: Jurassic Park and Friday the
13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan are the two that
immediately come to mind where the creature/villain looks like a buffoon
strolling around crowded streets n’ shit.
But there are cases where it works marvelously. Aliens and Dawn of the Dead are prime
examples.
And you know what?
Add Predator 2 to that
list. Yes, a South American jungle makes
more sense for the whole concept of a caveman-esque desire to hunt and kill a
human. And while a city setting doesn’t
offer as much purity to that basic premise it does make things a bit more
complicated with all of the people, different locations, weapons available and
vehicles. But to be totally honest LA is
probably my favorite location for an action movie and it sure played on the ol’
heartstrings influencing my judgement.
Anyway, I don’t know if Harrigan is a real good cop but he’s
definitely a crazy one. He’s not afraid
to hang out the side of his car while speeding towards some scumbags in a
firefight and then skid that fucker sideways so others can use it for cover. That’s some suicidal shit. Sure, he plays by his own rules but I think
he takes it further than most other cops in action movies. The protocol for this type of character is
that when a bad guy comes after him he has to pull off an unorthodox procedure
in order to survive. Like Cobretti in Cobra goes on a car chase because the
bad guys initiate it, or Steven Seagal in [insert movie here] has to use Aikido
to take people down when they attack him.
Here Harrigan blatantly goes against orders constantly so he can proceed
with his investigation. It’s really
weird too considering he gives this speech to Bill Paxton towards the beginning
about being a team player which he clearly is not. I still like this character though because
he’s one tough bastard who can seriously go toe to toe with the predator
(Glover’s a pretty big dude).
When it comes to the action sequences it’s all about the
opening and the ending. To kick things
off we’re thrown in the middle of a Columbian gang/cop shootout already in
progress. The bad guys are winning too
with several cops down and everything in sight completely destroyed from the
scuffle. This scene is sorta like what you
would see in a spoof of action films.
Cop cars are blowing up in slow motion, the villains are out and out
evil with a giant room packed to the brim with guns and coke, our hero
(Harrigan) crashes into the frenzy and doesn’t think twice about pulling off
some insane shit to save the day, the news crews are ducking for cover telling
you it’s “Dante’s hell”, etc. Don’t get
me wrong, this opener is a total fucking spectacle and I love it. But at the same time it’s kinda extreme.
The ending I won’t go into too much but it goes on for a
while which is cool and they somehow manage to make Harrigan and the predator
look almost evenly matched. I really dig
how the location keeps changing too.
They start in a meat warehouse, then move to the rooftop, then an
apartment building and finally the predator’s spaceship. With all of these changes it helps to make
the movie feel bigger than it really is.
At times things can get a little muddy like the subway
sequence that’s done in all strobe light.
That’s fine for mood setting like in Alien
but when you’re supposed to know what’s happening in a fight scene it doesn’t
work. And the part where the predator
goes after the Jamaican drug lord is built up well but gets awkward when they
transition to the predator holding the dude’s decapitated head (I think you
need to see it to get it).
That last bit I don’t totally blame the filmmakers for
though. They had to keep cutting shit
out in order to attain an R rating and that’s always a tough pill to
swallow. Even still, this is a nasty
fuckin’ movie in terms of violence. Not
only do a lot of people die but most are killed in horrible ways. People are impaled with the predator’s spear,
a guy gets cut in half with the predator’s flying disc thingy, another gets
shot and then falls off a building, and one naked guy gets hung upside down and
stabbed through the chest with a knife. Hell, those last two aren’t even predator kills
but just regular human on human murders.
And the classic aftermath that the predator leaves behind with folks
hung upside down and stripped of their skin is the icing on the cake. What’s amazing is that this isn’t a gory film
at all. They give you just enough to get
the idea and then move on leaving behind a lasting impression.
This is also one of the hottest damn pictures I’ve ever
seen. It’s right up there with Body Heat and Falling Down. The sun looks
like it’s always blazing outside, there’s a yellowish tint that comes through
every once in a while and everyone has pit and/or back sweat stains. This was done on purpose though to make it
seem more like a scorching jungle and I think it’s also supposed to be a
reference to climate change (or global warming as it was commonly called back
then).
You might think the climate change thing is weird to throw
in your Predator sequel, and it is,
but that’s because even though this came out in 1990 the movie is actually set
in 1997. Why set it seven years into the
future? Who the fuck knows? It’s such an unnecessary touch that I can’t
help but respect and marvel at how inexplicable it is. I guess they felt that flashlights on the
guns and the nitrogen weapon that Keyes uses wouldn’t be believable in
1990? I dunno.
One aspect I really like about this movie that they
continued from the first is they put off showing the predator for as long as
possible. Showing only predator-vision
and its light bending invisible cloak was such a smart move. I think it adds a lot of tension and suspense
that wouldn’t be there if we kept seeing it uncloaked walking around all the
time. You get the feeling, again just
like the first movie, that there’s this monster constantly lurking out there but
it doesn’t exactly take center stage. The
story evolves to eventually become about the predator but it doesn’t start out
that way. At first it’s about trying to
stop gangs from taking over the city, then there’s the realization that
something else is going on and then the predator finally becomes the focus and
shines at the appropriate time. It’s
effective as hell.
Wisely the filmmakers decided to keep the main theme from
the first picture and also use Alan Silvestri (Eraser, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Father of the Bride Part II) again
to do the score. It sounds like a lot of
it is the same from the original but it’s a little hard to tell. It doesn’t really matter because new or old,
Silvestri’s music helps to elevate the material.
Stephen Hopkins directed this one. He had pretty much only done A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
before this which I guess was fine. All
the Elm Streets are fun but they blur
together for me. He does a great job
here with his clear and fast paced style.
The story is always moving forward and doesn’t lull really at all. They brought back the same writers from the
first installment (Jim and John Thomas) and that was a good choice. You can tell these guys understand what’s
going to work with this creature and what new touches can be added to keep
things somewhat fresh (new weapons, new environment, etc).
If you’ve been putting off seeing this because you’re a Predator 1 elitist or you heard it was
bad then I strongly encourage you to take a look. It’s a fucking blast. Over the top?
A little. But I think just enough
to be charming. Plus it’s early 90’s to
the goddamn max and that’s oodles of fucking charm in my opinion. It’s smarter than you’d probably think something
like this would be but at the same time it’s certainly on the dumber side of
the action spectrum. But really, it’s a
shame that this one got quietly swept under the carpet. Yea I know there’s no Arnie and it doesn’t
have McTiernan’s surgical precision but Danny Glover and Gary Busey tearin’ it
up on the grimy streets of LA ain’t half bad my friends.
One last thing, isn’t it pretty fucking crazy that Bill
Paxton has been in an Alien movie, a Predator movie and a Terminator movie?
Also, Predators
was alright but I’ll take this one any day of the week.
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