muscular action with a testosterone overload

Rating: 9/10 (1 June 2006)

When Arnold Schwarzengger and his rescue team are coerced into rescuing a cabinet minister from the Cuban jungle, they find mutilated corpses and are eventually hunted down one by one by a vicious alien who's only pleasure in life is that of hunting and killing for sport. Schwarzenegger decides that running is not an option anymore and wills his men to fight back against the creature. When his entire team is killed in ever more gruesome circumstances by the unstoppable extra terrestrial he decides to take the fight back to the alien and a muscular bout of action ensues.
Director John Mctiernan has crafted a very streamlined and muscular action film here, and as such the film moves at a breakneck speed without pausing to ponder some of the implausibilities on show. The action is frenetic and nicely edited, and as the film progresses the tension begins to become unbearable. Here is one of the best action movies of the eighties, with some of the best effects from the pre-cgi era.
Shcwarzenegger proves one of his best performances here as the leader of the aforementioned rescue squad, and as well as obviously being very physically able he presents just the right mix of hard edged authority and wide eyed vulnerability when he realises that for once he is fighting against something that could best him in unarmed combat. The rest of his squad is split into the usual mix of stereotypes. There's the Indian chappie with the big knife who naively believes he can take on the predator and succeed, there's the cowboy who refers to himself as a 'sexual tyrannosaurus' and carries an extremely large mini-gun. And then there's Carl Weathers, who despite seeming to be an established military soldier manages to mess everything up on a constant basis, and willingly accepts a berating from one of Arnies men despite being ranked higher than him.
Plot wise, we don't gain much information on the Predator. Seen arriving in a spaceship at the beginning we know its an alien and we gather from the way it stalks the team and kills them one by one that it is a hunter. We see it rip the spine out of one of its victims and attach the skull to a belt around its waste, which again signifies a hunter celebrating a kill. When it is revealed that it only kills those who are armed we know it is killing for sport and in a fair kind of way. This is a link to a possible 'honour system' for the predator, although this is of course just as guess. We don't need to worry about specifics because when the team starts being killed one by one all we worry about is how the predator is going to perform a kill next.
The setting is probably the strongest part of the film. The huge and expansive jungle is suitably foreboding and provides a stunning atmosphere of dread to the film. Forget the romanticised jungle that is present in the hit TV show 'Lost' because after the soldiers spend five minutes in this jungle you already know that you wouldn't want to do the same. The enormous trees, bizarre sounds and threat of death by a giant alien is enough to put anyone off jungles for life.
The effects are top notch, with the Predators invisibility defence mechanism providing some impressive shimmering effects. The laser gun it has mounted to its shoulder might look puny in appearance but when it punches a huge hole in one of the marines' chests you'll treat it with more respect. On this note, it is fair to say that the combat in the film is some of the best around. The feeling of power is incredible, and it comes early on as the team single handedly destroys a base that seems to contain the entire Cuban army. The huge explosions aren't just superfluous as they seem to hit the audience with ferocious energy, and when the rescue team spots the Predator and opens fire you'll have to resist the urge to duck. All seven men open fire on the jungle in an awesome display of firepower that not only destroys a large portion of the jungle but in reality should really alert the entire country to the teams' presence considering how much noise is being made.
On a final note, the mano-a-mano conflict at the end between Arnie and the Predator is superb. Although people might be tempted to laugh at Arnie when he makes his impressively primal scream into the night, but considering his team is all dead and he's about to fight a heavily armed alien with nothing more than a bow and arrow and some mud for protection you realise hes got nothing to lose.
Overall this is one of the best action movies ever made, and the presence of only one female means that the masculine feel to the film isn't tainted and the action doesn't have to be softened or dumbed down (indeed, some of the gore is disturbing.) Forget the sequel and its poor quality because this is a superb film!!!