Movie review: Predator 2
I just finished watching Predator 2, with Danny Glover, as part of my “watch movies while doing cardio on the treadmill, so I don’t die of boredom” program. If you like to play “Cop-movie or Science-Fiction Cliche Bingo” (which I do) you’ll find it very enjoyable.
Glover pays a violent, renegade cop who is always in trouble with his boss – essentially the same character as Jack Slater in Last Action Hero. Only instead of drug lords (they’re getting killed too) he’s being stalked by one of the same species of aliens who went up against Arnold Swarzenegger in Predator. The baddies come to our planet to hunt for sport, and we’re the prey. They’re tremendously strong and agile, invisible when they want to be (which makes DARPA strategists drool, including the obnoxious government MIB who wants the alien’s technology), wear lightweight armor, and use sharp-edged but very advanced combat weaponry.
In a brutal, hand-to-hand battle at the end of the movie, Glover kills the alien, only to find himself surrounded by more aliens. One of the aliens hands him a pistol taken from somebody, according to its engraving, in 1715; they’ve been coming here a long time. Then he is allowed to leave while they blast off for their next adventure.
I thought humans couldn’t have been much sport back in the 1700’s; we had no way to see in nonvisible spectrums of light, had no armor to speak of, and only primitive weapons. So with our technological advances, we would be getting more interesting to the aliens as sport animals.
It also occurred to me that we routinely kill animals that don’t stand a chance against us. If you hunt deer with a high-powered rifle, I’ll observe that you like to spend time outside in the woods. When you hunt bears with a sword, I’ll start thinking that physical courage is involved.
Fun movie, but be warned there’s no intellectual content, and no non-cliche characters, but plenty of naughty words and a high body count if you clutch your pearls at that sort of thing.
I never saw Predator 2 (or 3,or 4, or Alien vs. Predator, or Mr. Predator Goes to Washington). I hate having to admit I watched the original.
I refer you back to me comments about Clint Eastwood, Hollywood, and movie-making in general.
I remember liking this movie, although I don’t remember why…
My assumption was that the aliens were more like your deer hunter with the telescopic scope – they were mostly there for the trophy, not for a mortal challenge. On that basis, this and the first movie make some sense.
Wasn’t the other point of the gun given to Glover that it could kill a predator with one shot or something? Or was it just a gift, I watched that movie a few years ago so I can’t remember too much from it.
of all the “always in trouble with his boss” cop characters you could have picked, you went with Jack Slater.
that, sir, was awesome. now I feel even badlier not having read this blog in a while.
Sorry for the late reply; I just found out my Gmail account has been misdirecting blog comments.
Gerry – totally agree on Eastwood, he is teh awesome. For less-than awesome movies, I have adopted the MST3K model of movie enjoyment. This is very useful as I watch Bulgarian action movies while doing cardio exercise.
Cujo359 – do you suppose that means we’re getting a different class of aliens now? Maybe it’s a reality show for the aliens back home, narrated by an alien Steve Erwin. Crikey!
Webs – it was just a gift, that was just an ordinary muzzle-loader pistol. My dad had one like it in his collection. They’re pretty low-energy, maybe 260 m/sec if the powder was very dry, packed well, shooter was lucky, etc.
Thanks dwfma! Maybe it’s time our local classic theater showed Last Action Hero. This week they showed Maltese Falcon and Citizen Kane, which is a bit highbrow for me.