Review of Predator (1987) by Francisco G — 23 Jul 2013

In an era where the macho movie heroes seemed to be growing as quickly as a fungus, Predator showed up and blew the testosterone bomb like few others. It should've had a sign saying "boys only" as a pride badge on it's chest.

In essence, this is another monster flick, set on a really cool and disorienting scenario, where the characters are picked off one by one, plain and simple. Then, obviously, there's a final clash between the bulkiest hero and our monster that doesn't make much sense, since our hero could've easily escaped sooner. But that would've been a really lame movie.

Predator stands out for having one of the coolest smart aliens in recent memory. The way this guy turns from a "ok, there's a monster lurking" to "holy fucking balls! SHOULDER CANNONS! AWESOME TECH THIS UGLY MOFO HAS!" is just too cool to be dismissed. Not just that, but pretty much every one-liner and joke sticks to your brain forever and ever, giving certain charisma to characters you don't spend much time with but that you remember exacly who they were after many years.

The way the movie transforms into guns blazing action, to stealth thriller is to be commendable as well, keeping nice surprises and tense bits right until the end.

Predator is another fantastic action flick from the 80s, that despite not being very original on it's premise, everything it did, it did so masterfully.