Welcome To The Jungle

Rating: 8/10 (30 January 2006)

One of the most popular sci-fi/military movies ever, Predator has stood as a crowd favorite for many years. By combining a great cast, awesome action and effects along with an interesting feeling of suspense, Predator has earned itself a place among classic sci-fi movies that has, with a bit of help from the Alien movies one way or another, inspired many movie directors and producers but has been tough to top.
Predator is set in the place that the military are best suited for: the big, vast and deep jungle of Central America. Major "Dutch", played by Arnold Schwarzenegger leads a squad of commandos into the jungle to investigate mysterious disturbances, and being set up for another mission along the way. But they quickly realize that they are being hunted by what they cannot see, what they fear is the death of them, the Predator.
While the plot of Predator may not seem much more than what you'd get out of your typical action flick it actually keeps you interested. This is all done thanks to the real star of the film, the Predator itself. The viewers, along with the commandos slowly learn what exactly the Predator is, how it acts and what they plan to do to stop it. Deaths are lost along the way however, until only Dutch and a young female hostage are left alive.
Before the viewer gets the awful pleasure of watching each commando die one at a time they get acquainted with that very commando. It's how the viewer gets some form of connection with each of these beefy and dirty commandos that gives the movie a unique kind of feeling to it. Part of the connection that the viewer will get with certain actors varies from how they love the way they create humor or how they are impacted from the loss of a friend in the jungle. I might make the movie sound cheesy and sleezy but you have to watch it to understand what I mean.
But it's not just passion for commandos that Predator tosses at the audience, no, it's more than that. There is a good share of action sequences in Predator to kick up some excitement for the audience. Most of the action in Predator involves our friend the Predator himself, and mostly as the commandos hopelessly attempt to mow him down with their guns. By the time the Predator does show his true form the viewer might be a little freaked by how ugly his face is, but glancing into his face can be frightening at first too.
Not everything in Predator is perfect though. For one, some parts in the movie do drag on a bit and do diminish some of suspense gained in the movie. There are also a couple of moments the movie could've gone without, like the girl in movie could've been cut for some more assassination kills among the commandos. But Predator does its job in making these flaws seem less serious to its real score and they don't do much to flaw the movie.
The love that this movie has received is well-deserved. By the end of a long struggle through the jungle against the Predator one has to wonder what it could've been like had they been Dutch fighting the Predator and fighting for his life. Fortunately that's what movies are for and Predator comes as good as they should be.