When PREDATOR came out in 1987, Arnie was already a huge action star following CONAN, TERMINATOR and COMMANDO, but the movie introduced an equally enduring character in the form of the ruthless, dreadlocked, alien hunter that is the predator. A creature that can make itself virtually invisible, while being able to trace its prey by its heat signature, it is practically indestructible, except by Arnie, of course. The film's popularity came from the fact that it was a big, dumb action movie of the hunter and the hunted. No pretence of character development or clever dialogue, it was all about survival in the jungle.
Following the success of the first PREDATOR movie, a young, up-and-coming filmmaker from Texas, Robert Rodriguez, was hired to write a screenplay for the sequel. His rampant imagination made the film prohibitively expensive and it was shelved, for 20 years. Now, one sequel and a couple of tag-team matches with the Aliens later, and those super hunters are back, with Rodriguez as producer.
The story sticks to the formula of the first film with a bunch of warriors being parachuted into a jungle, except this disparate gang of renegade killers have no idea where they are, nor how they got there. They soon discover that they are very far from home and it is a battle for survival against the merciless predators who have brought them in for sport.
Although the gang is made up of diverse range stereotypical characters: a mercenary played by Adrien Brody, who does an impressive job taking over Arnie's lead role, especially given Brody's previous roles; a female Israeli sniper (Brazilian actress Alice Braga from I AM LEGEND); an enforcer for a Mexican drug cartel (Rodriguez regular, Danny Trejo); a Russian Special Forces soldier (the massive, mixed martial arts champion Oleg Taktarov); a Sierra Leone death squad member (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali – The 4400), a death row mass-murderer, armed only with a prison shiv (Walton Goggins); barefooted, besuited Yakuza enforcer (Louis Ozawa Changchien); a doctor with apparently no fighting skills whatsoever (Topher Grace – SPIDER-MAN) and a survivor from a previous hunt (Laurence Fishburne – THE MATRIX, CSI). You know most of them aren't going to survive and none of them trust each other, so it is just a matter of going along for the gory ride and seeing how and when they will be dispatched.
There is no pretence to allegory or social commentary, although it may be able to invent some if you wanted. However, amongst all the carnage there are moments of gallows humour and occasional pop culture references, such as referring to the original movie, or subtler things The Ride of the Valkyries playing in the background when Fishburne arrives (the music was used in APOCALYPSE NOW, which was Fishburne's first movie). The set pieces and special effects are a marked improvement over the original, although the film does use plenty of practical effects, especially for the Predators.
Basically, this is an upgraded version of the original big, dumb action movie, with a smaller, smarter hero and some surprises at the end, and sometimes you don't need much more from a movie.
The DVD release looks good, but the review copy was sent was a bit light on special features, with just a motion comic (neither comic nor animation) that explains one of the crucial scenes. There was not even a commentary track, although it does include a digital copy to download. There is two-disc DVD that includes commentaries and featurettes, plus the digital copy. However, if special features are your thing then you have to get the Blu-ray, which includes a stack of featurettes on predators, loads of motion comics and extended and deleted scenes. Or you can go the whole hog and get the triple-play Blu-ray/DVD/Digital download. These certainly seem the way to go at the moment in terms of value for money.
PREDATORS is released on November 1 by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and can be ordered from Play and all good retailers.
We have three copies of PREDATORS on DVD to give away. Click on the link below to enter the competition.
