"Nothing like it has ever been on earth before."

Predator (1987): 5/10

Poster (c) 20th Century Fox

I suppose that all of these "versus" movies have some redeeming qualities to them. They make the average moviegoer go and see the original movies. Before Freddy vs. Jason came out, I rented Friday the 13. And for Alien vs. Predator, I rented both of those movies. Alien's DVD was broken, so I watched Predator instead. Expecting a pretty good action/sci-fi along the lines of The Terminator, I was excited to watch this movie, hoping-nay, knowing-that it would be better than Alien vs. Predator. Was I right? Sure, but not by much.

Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and his commandos are sent to a jungle in Central America to rescue others, discover that there's worse things at work there instead of random bad guys the army has to kill. It turns out that the title thing, who can become invisible at will, is stalking and killing all of them. Guess who's the last one alive who has to kill it?

The first 45 minutes of this film have nothing to do with the title being. Instead, it's this search-and-rescue mission that doesn't affect the outcome of the movie at all. Dutch and co. have to go in and kill a bunch of random people, the nationality doesn't matter, as long as they're not American. I suppose that's tolerable as long as the last hour is filled with thrills, gore, and fun. But considering what I just said, the last hour didn't have those things. Instead, what we have are a few, misplaced one-liners, a little generic action, followed by a lot of sitting around and talking. It's not even violent, it mainly consists of the cut-away kills that people don't like about the PG-13 action films. But when the people sit and talk, the dialogue isn't even interesting, it's a bunch of cursing and "Where's [name]?" Does anyone really care?

Not being alive in 1987, I can only assume that the special effects must have been spectacular for the time. Now, they look generic. The costume of the Predator's alright, but nothing to write home about. Definitely the best part of the movie are the POV shots taken from the Predator. He obviously sees in heat, and even I was amazed by those effects. They also play the continuity with that well, while every other possible continuity error occurs throughout the film. For instance, at one shot, Dutch is completely covered in mud. The next? Clean. To sum things all up, Predator is a sloppily made action movie that's made superior from its "versus" movie because of the view of the Predator. Save your time and money by looking online for some screenshots from the movie. You'll thank me.

Rated R for language and some violence.

Review Date: August 19, 2004