A concept as high as the Andromeda Galaxy, but you know what? It works.

Rating: Null/10 (10 August 2004)

Someone earlier mentioned that this film was an unofficial remake of "The Thing From Another World", a comment which inspired me to write about it, because I think that person is absolutely right. "The Thing," and its various knockoffs, including John Carpenter's superior sequel, had one major logical flaw that rendered its story overtly ridiculous: Why would an alien advanced enough to travel light years across space make its way to earth just to snarl and tear humans apart?
This movie is essentially a two-hour attempt to answer that question, and it does it very very well indeed. The alien travels great distances to kill for the same reason we do: the fun of it.
I'm reminded of the white big game hunters of the 19th century, who tested their machismo by shooting tigers while safely on top of elephants. The Predator may have a Victorian notion of "fair play," but it isn't about to play fair.
Pitting it against Arnold, Jesse Ventura and a bunch of other testosterone- and BO-fueled punch-junkies was something like genius. The whole "ubermench" mystique of action movies is completely knocked for six by a creature whose ideas of machismo are far older and more potent than they could ever conceive.
This movie begins poorly, but, as the cast is gradually narrowed down to two, and the mono-a-mono interspecies smackdown commences, the story tightens, the pace slows down and John McTiernan delivers one of the great action climaxes in film history.