Tuesday, August 15, 2023

PREDATOR (1987)

A group of seven ultimate military badasses are sent into an unspecified South American jungle to rescue a foreign cabinet minister from a terrorist camp. Things don’t go as planned.

The best way to watch PREDATOR for the very first time would be to erase your memory and time-travel back to the late 1980’s as a 12-year-old boy. I remember watching it back then around that age and it blew my lil’ simpleton mind! A bunch of large badass super soldiers getting their asses kicked out it the deep jungle, lots of cool guns and large knives, wicked Predator-vision that looked like nothing I’d ever seen before, explosions, the word “motherfucker”, getting to the chopper. It’s was awesome! Nowadays, the whole thing is probably pretty tame (to new viewers) and the entire legacy of the film shit on by not just one or two lame additions to the series, but (as of 8/2022) six! I’m not even sure how it’s humanly possible to take a great movie with a cool, original story and then turn in 6 weak ass sequels, prequel and spin-offs, but they did.  You'd think at some point they would accidentally make a good movie...but nope.

Anyway, I’m rambling. The original Predator film is dated, but still badass and totally worth checking out even today. At least for fans of 1980’s action / sci fi.

Minor spoiler...I love the happy character end credit shots, but I really wish they had added one for the Predator himself. And a happy group shot with the Predator and the soldiers all hugging would have been hilarious.

Part 2 – Predator 2 (1990)
Part 3 – Predators (2010)
Part 4 – The Predator (2018)
Prequel - Prey (2022)
Alien crossover 1 - Alien vs. Predator (2004)
Alien crossover 2 - Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)