Review of Predator 2 (1990) by Patrick B — 06 Jun 2011

Predator 2 starts in 'Los Angeles 1997' where Colombian & Jamaican gangs of drug dealers have turned the streets into a war zone with shoot outs & executions a seemingly daily occurrence. Lieutenant Michael Harrigan (Danny Glover) & his team, Danny Archuleta (Ruben Blades), Leona Cantrell (Maria Conchita Alonso) & new boy Jerry Lambert (Bill Paxton) are on the front line fighting against the terror these gangs bring to the streets. However there seems to be a new player in town, a new kind of killer loose, a killer without mercy, without motive, without discrimination & one who loves to kill. Harrigan & his team have nothing to go on except a spear head made from a material that is unknown on Earth & the sudden appearance of shadowy FBI figure Peter Keyes (Gary Busey) & his team of men who seem very interested in capturing whoever or whatever is responsible for these brutal killings. It's not long before Harrigan realises that what he is up against is not of this planet, it's the ultimate killing machine, it's the ultimate predator...

Directed by Stephen Hopkins I thought Predator 2 was a good solid sci-fi/horror/action film but was not as good as the original Predator (1987) which had the perfect blend of blood, guts, big guns, testosterone, one-liners, action & explosions. I cannot say the same for Predator 2, unfortunately. The script by Jim & John Thomas shifts the action from the jungles of Central America to the urban jungle of Los Angeles which is my first problem, I just thought that the hunter/prey situation worked so much better in the isolated harsh jungle than the sprawling city of Los Angeles. Danny Glover is no Arnold Schwarzenegger in the running around with a big gun blowing things up stakes & they just had to include the clichéd misguided scientist who wants to capture the predator so we can study it. Also, if these FEDS were so clever why did they leave the only piece of information that could lead Harrigan to them & the predator on the computer for that pathologist to find & yet manage to completely delete everything else? Having said that Predator 2 is a good film, it moves along at a nice pace, has one or two decent action scenes & provides solid entertainment.

Director Hopkins could have done a better job, for a start just having people randomly fire guns at nothing in particular is neither exciting or original & I actually thought the action scenes lacked a certain spark & seemed a little dull even down to an almost incomprehensible train sequence in which you can barely tell what's happening because it's set amidst flickering lights. Danny Glover looked a bit old & out of shape as well as he tries to do a Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon (1987), wasn't Glover purposely the old slow one in the Lethal Weapon films? Apparently Predator 2 was cut down to get a lower rating so don't expect buckets of blood or gore, there are some skinned bodies, a decapitated head, someone is cut with a razor wire net, people are impaled on spears & there are plenty of gunshot wounds but there's nothing here overly nasty.

Technically Predator 2 is great & has that big budget Hollwood polish to it, the special effects hold up well even today & the predator creature is just plain cool, isn't it? A lot of the original's music is reused here which also seemed out of place & inappropriate at times. Predator 2 has a fine cast which it wastes, Paxton is always watchable, Robert Davi is criminally underused although Conchita Alonso annoyed me with her hairstyle & irritating accent.

Predator 2 is a good film of that there is no doubt but I much prefer the original, it's as simple & straight forward as that. Definitely worth a watch though as I think most would enjoy it.