My Review of "Predator"

Predator is the classic sci-fi, thriller, action movie that came out back in 1987. I loved this movie from the first time I saw it and I was curious how it would hold up today. It's a tough test because sci-fi has come a long way over the past few decades and so has special effects. Admittedly, I was a bit worried for this one.

The movie starts off mysteriously as a group of mercenaries are flying to an unknown location for the military. We know everyone knows each other quite well. When they finally land our main protagonist, Dutch, meets his old buddy Dillon. They have their iconic handshake and talk shop.

Apparently, Dillon had requested Dutch and his men to do this military extraction job. Unfortunately for everyone involved this job isn't quite as simple as they expect. Dutch soon finds out that Dillon had dispatched another group of militants to do the same job only to disappear.

When they get to the destination they find out what happened to the previous group and it's gruesome. They're shocked and appalled by what had happened to the previous group especially since they were just as skilled as they were.

What had happened to them wasn't of this world and they would soon discover how much of a problem they walked into very soon. Their job soon changes from extraction to surviving the night so that they can get extracted from the situation themselves.

Watching this back in the day I remember how badass everyone was. The one liners and the male machismo was through the roof. Today this stands the test of time. I still think everyone here is badass and everything is done in such a cool manner. Sure some of the special effects look quite dated but most of it was practical. The explosions, the predator costume and physical stunts look just as good today as it did back then.

There are of course some rational thought I had to leave out the front door when watching this. As an older person now my mind wants to rationalize everything in movies now and this is not a movie to do that. It's about an alien creature coming down to Earth to hunt people. That's already crazy... or is it?

Yeah you're going to have to leave your brain a little to really enjoy this movie. It is a big blockbuster movie after all. It's meant to be a popcorn flick that you just mindlessly enjoy.

I love the character interactions and the relationships that this movie builds. The best build up is how crazy this predator villain is in the movie. They really did a good job in developing the mythos and the fear instilled by our mercenaries for this alien beast. That's part of the fun and in some ways if you're watching this for the first time it could be considered a horror movie. The fact that these guys are the roughest and toughest and they become scared of this boogie monster makes the predator even more fearful.

They paced this storytelling throughout the movie very well. So it's not nonstop action. They take some time to develop everything and you really become invested in this movie.

Overall, I still had a great time with this one after all these years. The cast does a great job in breathing life in their characters and I love how they wrote in a lot of the cheesy lines in there too. This one is a classic for me and that's why I have to give it an 8 out of 10. I could