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Rating: 1 out of 5
Recently, Predator 2 dropped on Hulu, and I decided to watch the film all over again. It has been quite a while since I’ve seen this movie. From what I remembered, this movie was a blah of a sequel. First, it didn’t have Arnold and his massive gun show on the screen, along with all the famous one-liners that made the first one so popular. Let’s be real; quotes like “Get to the Chopper,” “Knock, Knock,” and “I ain’t got time to bleed” will forever stand in movie history. Predator has great pacing, intensity, and everything you want in an alien movie. Well, after watching Predator 2, the disappointment will be around you. Predator 2 is one of those films that you call “so bad it’s good.” Were there scenes that you enjoy? Yea. Is it over the top and completely throws out the premise of a beast killing from the shadows? Yes, it does.
Written by brothers Jim and John Thomas, directed by Stephen Hopkins. This film is apparently set ten years after the events of the first film in Los Angeles. Yep, the grand concrete city of Los Angeles. I guess New York wasn’t available. This time around, the Predator faces off against a disgruntled police officer and his allies. The film starts off with the infrared vision of the Predator. It seems to be in the jungle again when the camera pans up to show bright and sunny Los Angeles. The movie pops off quickly when we see two gangs in an all-out battle as news reporters try to give the news. Why try to do the report? The drug gangs are Columbians and Jamaicans. Lieutenant Mike Harrigan (Glover) drives in like a bat out of hell with that fancy sight gun. Why even own a car if you going to bust it up and then drive it into a gun battle? The Predator looks on from above as the scene goes in and out of infrared vision to a gunfight. The Columbians retreat to get some more weaponry from their freakin armory. Their armory is stacked to the fullest. How can you compete with that? Just then, the Predator burst down through the glass ceiling like the Kool-Aid man and kills everyone. That is one way to stop a battle as Harrigan rushes in and blasts everyone away to give his people time to move up. The Columbian gang leader manages to escape to the roof. Harrigan shoots the crazed gang leader and catches a glimpse of the camouflaged Predator but dismisses it due to the extreme heat and his acrophobia. Dude had his gun pointed and then was like, I’m losing it.
Harrigan is reprimanded by his superiors for his disobedience. He is introduced to Special Agent Peter Keyes (Busey), leader of a task force investigating the cartels, and Detective Jerry Lambert (Paxton), the newest member of Harrigan’s team. After all the, I don’t like you and stay out of my way and small talk, the movie seems to drag as the Predator then goes after the Jamaicans. Harrigan meets with Jamaican drug lord King Willie, a voodoo practitioner and having some major dreadlocks. King Willie tells Harrigan that the killer is supernatural and should prepare himself for battle against him. After Harrigan bounces, King Willie fights against the Predator and meets his end in an unspectacular fashion. The movie then goes from that to Keyes team trying to capture the Predator and the final battle.
Now, the film was okay, but it tried too hard to be series. This is where the movie freaking failed because you could see that it was terrible. First, the whole scene when Glover sees the necklaces and each spin he does, the camera moves in a dramatic fashion. Really? We didn’t need all that, and the whole scene with the Predator and boy was blah. Could’ve left that scene at home.
What was up with the subway scene? When the gang is harassing people, they come upon one bystander who pulls out a gun. The gang, in return, pulls out one, followed by the rest of the car pulling out guns. Does everyone in LA just have guns in their pockets? You know what happens? Gotta have the Predator burst through the train like the Kool-Aid man and attack and kill everyone with a gun. It seemed like the Predator was invincible because NO ONE could hit him with a bullet. Also, how the hell he gets from the gravesite all the way to a moving subway train? Why does he randomly kill people, and he isn’t even invisible? Also, what was Paxton’s character thinking in this whole scene? Dude straight up threw a golf ball at the Predator before dying. After that, The Predator takes his body, rips the dude’s entire spine out, and then stands on top of the building.
The film had two scenes worthy of some applause, maybe like two quick claps. The first one was when Keyes’ team sets up this elaborate plan and trap to capture the Predator. While in the warehouse, they pump stuff in the air to mess up the Predator’s vision. The only thing is, the Predator has many different visions and descends upon the team like Batman before killing them all. The other scene was the final battle between Harrigan and The Predator. We got to see a Xenomorph skull and some other Predators that seem even stronger than the one that Harrigan fought against. The scene was eerie with the orange lighting and the low-level fog.
One miss on this was the use of the Predator. In the first film, you hardly saw him and only his camouflage appearance. In this one, dude had no shame in showing himself at all to anyone. I guess what I liked about this Predator is that they added more weaponry to the alien. This time the creature got a spear, a flying disc, and a net gun. We even got a few more facial expressions of the Predator, especially when his arm was cut off.
The acting was so over the top bad that it wasn’t even worth watching anyone perform. Maybe because the movie was so bad, might as well not try. Glover was just all over the place being crazy. Paxton was the comedic relief, but it didn’t work at all. Busey tried to be that hard-ass government agent, but even that fell flat. Many of the characters were around one second and died the next.
Honestly, Predator 2 is a film that lacks so much in appeal and storytelling that it falls flat. It is all over the place. It is not a worthy successor of the original film. The only thing that made it worthwhile to watch is knowing that the Xenomorph is part of the same universe. When watching this film, you will need to get to the chopper just to escape the boredom.
