Yeah, I concede that trading Arnold for Glover isn’t the most exciting thing in the world, but at least he wasn’t getting too old for this shit. The shit being predator hunting, cause instead of being stuck in the jungle with a bunch of sweaty, burly men, The Predator takes in the sights of Los Angeles this time around. I guess they kept trying to connect the movie to the first with saying now it’s an urban jungle instead of an actual jungle, but whatever. People who were going to see this movie didn’t give a shit about the setting, just that they can see some awesome predator action. This movie certainly delivers that.
This special effects-heavy science fiction sequel moves the action from the first film’s Amazon forest to the urban jungle of L.A. Danny Glover stars as Lt. Mike Harrigan, an LAPD detective baffled by his latest case, the ritualistic slaughter of several drug dealers by a devastating killer who leaves no traces. As Harrigan and his partners, Danny Archuletta (Ruben Blades), Leona Cantrell (Maria Conchita Alonso), and Jerry Lambert (Bill Paxton), try to figure out who or what killed the criminals, FBI investigator Stephen Keyes (Gary Busey) attempts to warn the team away from investigating further. When two of his team are killed in a particularly grisly way, Harrigan uncovers the truth — their quarry is an alien creature that hunts humans for sport. Attracted to violence, its latest choice of prey is gun-toting Jamaican drug dealers. Keyes and his team know all about the nasty extraterrestrial and its bloody pastime because they’ve been studying it for ten years, and they’ve come up with a possible means of dispatching the beast. When that plan backfires, however, it comes down to Harrigan and an extremely irritated otherworldly foe, slugging it out in a rooftop confrontation. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
GAME OVER MAN! GAME OVER! Crap wrong movie, but then again any movie that has Bill Paxton in it, I immediately will make that reference cause it was so ridiculous in Aliens that he will forever be known for that. That and Chet from Weird Science, which is another movie I need to talk about. Anyways, Predator 2, to be honest, will not come close to the greatness that is Predator. There is no way that it could ever stand toe to toe with Arnold, no way no how. So with that judgment in place, Predator 2 does certainly bring some lively action and an interesting “story” to the Predator cannon. It is still a wildly entertaining action movie with some sweet kills and multiple Predators!
You know, I do enjoy seeing two different approaches to Predator in terms of the main hero and how he tackles the stealthy predator. With Arnold, you get a lot more machismo and a lot more shirtless yelling, but Glover, you are getting a hardened street cop getting down and dirty with hunting down the killer. It’s his no rules attitude that makes him dangerous and unpredictable, also having a trunk full of weapons and body armor makes you a bad ass as well. Apparently street cops all have standard issue military equipment to quell Jamaican street gangs. With Glover leading a fairly strong cast, the action definitely is pretty intense with two different battles being waged between street gangs and the ample amount of predator kills. The shoot outs are intense as well as seeing Glover and the predator going mano a mano in a final showdown.
The pacing is quick enough, shuffling the audience from action set piece to set piece while still managing to expand the lore of the predator. But the biggest contribution that this movie made was a small shout out to the alien franchise where the trophy room has an alien skull. Thus spawning the shitty Alien versus Predator franchise. I will admit Requiem was halfway decent. Also Gary Busey in a non-crazy roll is always a welcomed sight. Predator 2 makes a lot of trade offs in terms of measuring up the biceps of the first movie, but then again you can’t really replicate the same success. This managed to be entertaining and have plenty action, which is really all we want from this sort of movie. The less that is said about the predators, the better. I like an ambiguous alien figure and Predator 2 managed to keep that going with some vague plot points and exposition. The mystique keeps going.
