Film Summary DLIII (Predator)


Is there anything as good as Predator. I know I've been talkin up the Alien series lately and with good reason. Alien is great, Aliens is fun and Alien 3 even has its points. But there's just something about the unadulterated bravado of Predator.

From it's ridiculous Macho acting too its minimal but surprisingly good set pieces.

It's just an all-around fun time. And a big Contender for why Aliens doesn't write that high on my favourite movies list.
Everything that aliens does well I think Predator does better.
It has more fun set-pieces, it's characters are more robust and amusing. (Least from an action point of view.) And I just love that that the story devolves into three different categories as the film progresses.
Starting out as a typical military action film progressing into a a military Squad movie where characters are pushed to their limits and picked off one by one before pumping itself out with a survival narrative involving Arnold Schwarzenegger playing the world's most ridiculous game of cat-and-mouse.

And, well that's it.
There's really nothing else to Predator the movie. It's not part of a bigger established world and there's no real backstory to the Predators themselves.
It's just a random creature that shows up in the middle of the Jungle and starts slaughtering people. And that's what makes this movie so freaking great. It doesn't have to get bogged down and pointless melodramas or weird continuity problems.

All it has to contend with now is a bunch of idiots 30 years after the fact nitpicking every little aspect of the movie.
For some reason those complaining internet review shows really love ripping into this movie particular.
The complaints are always the dumbest things.
''Why didn't the military men throw their weapons away once they realise the Predator was chasing them.''
Weld symbol; 'The Predator would kill them anyways.'
These guys already proved that they were killing machines after they destroy that whole fort filled with Vietnamese, Russians, Cuban, Spaniards and anybody else America deems to be their enemy. So in other words. The United Nations just lacking one country. They already went throw their test so the Predator going to slaughter them regardless.

There is one complaint that interests me. And that is whenever people bring up the character of 'Billy'. He's the tracking Soldier who designed at the end of the film to throw down his weapon, pull out a knife and face the alien head on.
Resulting in an instant death that we don't even get to see on the screen.
I think it's supposed to be built up as a hard intense moment where one Warrior faces down another and they do this again in the second movie. Both times it's just kind of comedic.
It's quite easily established that the Predator does not care.

In one regard he doesn't even turn off his cloaking.
I think I came to a conclusion on this.

The Panthers don't see a one-man battle against an inferior opponent as a noble or heroic gesture.
To Him it's just a foolish man wanting to throw their life away. Because at the end of the film Arnold Schwarzenegger nearly beat the Predator and wean the Predator gets back up he takes his mask off, shows Arnold his face and then fights him directly.
Even going so far as to eliminate his high-tech gun and cloaking device just so we can have a direct and bra with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Of course this is all depending on the idea that the Predators are a noble race. Which I'm a little dubious on.
They're willing to manipulate the situation and even cheat there way out of certain brawls if the opportunity arises.
Also they blow themselves up at the end of every fight if they lose. So they have a bit of spite to them if nothing else.
I guess you can make the excuse that they're covering up their tracks for technology, but I just can't see the Predators giving a darn about that.

Maybe we only seen one aspect of Predator society and the rest of the entire race is telling them; 'If you want to go out in a little Safari trip, you'll have to make sure that you don't leave your shotgun in the zoo with the monkeys. Okay.'

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