An Adrenaline Pumped and Testorerone Driven Action Film

Rating: 9/10 (10 May 2008)

Arnold Schwarzenegger is Dutch, the ultimate soldier, and Kevin Peter Hall is the Predator, the ultimate hunter species in the universe. This film is the result of these two fighting machines meeting up in the middle of the dense jungle of Central America. It is adrenaline pumped and full of testosterone driven action and simple characters. I mean that in a good way. There is not much doubt about the plot. It is a simple mission of extraction for the government with the usual red tape of it being something else, but what makes the film unique is the addition of the curve ball of the alien being who is invisible and slowly stalking and picking off each of the highly advanced commando unit.
It is here that the film has it's greatest strength as Arnold, at the peak of physical prowess goes up against the biggest and among the ugliest aliens you have seen. To have to highly powerful characters go at it fantastic for the film as it gets the most action as possible out of these two large hunters. The Predator relies on stealth for the majority of the film which give it the advantage for the ¾ of the film, but when Arnold is on his own and figures out the Predators weakness the roles are reversed for a bit of the ¼ part of the film where the playing field is evened.
John McTiernan does a great job balancing the views as he creates some suspense for the first half by not showing the creature itself but his silhouette in the jungle foliage behind its cloak of invisibility. He even shows quite a few shots from the point of view of the Predator who seemingly only sees in infrared which gets even worse when he takes off his mask toward the end.
The film is an action packed thrill ride, which has plenty of action and plenty of one liners from the ever marble mouthed Arnold who can say the line, "Get to the chopper!" like no other. None of the sequels can match this film for its action or even storyline as Predator 2 has a weaker hero and seemingly weaker Predator.