Predator Review

Rating: 9/10

“ I liked the idea of starting out with an action-adventure, but then coming in with some horror and science fiction.”
-Apparently what Arnie said, according to Wikipedia, and as good a summation of the film as any.

So Today I turned on the TV and saw an old classic. Predator. A film made during the 80′s, a simpler time where people listened to a never ending stream of one hit wonders, a time of cocaine and cop shows, a time where large muscle bound men ran around killing everything using oversized weapons and impossible looking techniques (such as firing an M60, from the hip, and quite accurately at that), Predator was no exception to the rule (of cool) that prevailed through many of the action movies made during this glitzy pink neon lit period of memorable haircuts and awesome music.


*ahem*

So the movie starts off with the Predator’s ship jettisoning a pod into earth, which lands in South America. Arnie and his team of elite militairy badasses arrive in South America and are given a mission by Apollo Creed: find the missing presidential cabinet minister, and get the hell out of there. The story up until the Predator arrives is none to shabby, yet fairly forgettable. What makes the film interesting is how the presence of the Predator is shown, and felt, stalking the men, particularly through it’s cool looking thermal vision. That, and the action.

And this is one of the least awesome things you’ll see in the movie.

There is a metric crap-ton of action occurring on screen: bullets flying everywhere, explosions, hell even the minigun that would later be used in Terminator 2 makes its awesome début in this film, wielded by none other than Jessie Ventura himself. Not to mention Arnold. No matter what movie he’s in there’s bound to be some property destruction; the man’s a strangely accented bipedal wreaking ball, throwing killer puns left right and centre.

Then the Predator comes and kills Hawkins and Blain, causing everyone to do this:

Apparently* this scene is supposed to be de-constructing the usage of guns and weaponry as a solution to all man’s problems.
Try get that on the first viewing.

The team tries to kill the Predator but it picks them off, one by one, until only Arnold is left. Now before any of you cry “YOU’RE SPOILING THE MOVIE!” Please, you should know this already. Anyway Arnold ends up having one of the most awesome ‘Lock-and-load montages’ you’ll ever see in a film, covering himself in mud (no, it’s not that kind of movie) and preparing some comparatively primitive weapons to take on the Predator. The rest of the film is just so ridiculously badass you’ll have to watch it for yourself.

*Serious time now*

What I really like about the film, is the special effects. By using the simple power of the chroma key (an oft used effect in crappy 80′s music videos) the film makers were able to create the effect of the Predator’s active camouflage  Rather than have the Predator simply be ‘invisible’ i.e. off-screen  they filmed “Someone in a red suit” (wikipedia’s words, not mine) and then removed the red using chroma key techniques. After filming a second take(without actors) using a lens which was 30% wider and overlaying the two, the outline of the alien was created. This is such a powerful effect that it has been emulated in so many movies and video games which followed. The Predator’s glowing blood was an ingenious mix of glow stick fluid and *ahem* personal lubricant.

My blood is made of wha-? Noooooooooooooo!

The only effects that have really aged would be the sparks arcing electricity from the Predator’s suit and the final explosion at the end. To my understanding this is because they were all rotoscoped. Rotoscoping is a technique where the frames of a film are actually drawn on and painted (as far as I know), which, as awesome as it looks for making laser blasts and lightsabres, doesn't quite suit electrical arcs or explosions. That said, while the aforementioned effects have aged, they still look quite good, and I was too caught up in the action of the film to really care one way or another.

The Predator’s own vision was rendered via an “inframetrics thermal video scanner", whatever that is. In any case, the thermal vision looked really cool, and truly set the Predator apart from previous, and subsequent movie monsters; how many have been depicted with thermal vision?

The Predator itself still looks really great, having aged well unlike most man-in-a-suit movie monsters.

Like that guy

Designed by the late Stan Winston, movie prop master, everything about the Predator makes it look both sufficiently human and alien, an incredibly threatening blend, and a credible threat to Arnold. As difficult as it was for Kevin Peter Hall to move in the suit, he did so with enough grace and finesse that the creature’s actions are powerful and fluid. It’s really a testament to their creative skills when a ‘rubber suit monster’ like the Predator looks just as good now, as he did some twenty four years ago.

Special effects aside, the rest of the film is great. The cinematography captures both the actors facial/verbal, and physical performances, as well as all of the ensuing action. What’s more, it even helps to capture the largess of the jungle, and the danger the soldiers find themselves in, what with all the cuts to the Predator’s vision, and back to the the soldiers, who increasingly loose the bravado and swagger they came into the jungle with, along with their lives. All of this is reinforced by Alan Silvestri’s great musical score. While the music can be very similar to Silvestri’s previous work in Back to the Future, if anything, it makes the film seem even darker at times, and yet…Sometimes I can’t help thinking…

We need 1.21 gigawatts!

Sure the story isn't perfect; but it works well enough, the performances more than making up for the shortcomings. And while the logic wasn’t always sound (why didn't Arnie just throw away his guns when he realised the Predator wouldn't kill the unarmed Anna?) Predator’s still a great film. No, it’s more than that; Predator is: A relentless rip-snorting fest of badassary, a bullet filled ride capped off with cheesy puns, big guns, great one liners, and so much testosterone its manliness registers somewhere on the Richter scale . If you’re a fan of action movies, you should see this film. If you’re a fan of Arnie flicks, then by Zeus’es beard, if you haven’t seen Predator, then by the movie gods go watch this film!

*Source: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/predator-collectors-edition

P.S. GET TO DA CHOPPA!!!

Originally written for and posted on Comikkazee.
Posted on the 25th of June, 2012