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coming off of the original predator,predator 2 was released a mere 3 years after the first,the shortest span of any movie in the respective alien and predator series.well.. aside from avp and requiem, but we'll get to that series. it's hard to praise or criticize this movie,because it does so many great things with the predator mythoswhile at the same time doing just as many things wrong."it's your move" "shit happens"and for all it's cinematic prestidigations, basic flaws hold it back from becoming aswell remembered as it's predicessor.
even when predators, the third movie in theseries was finally made, not only did the writers ignore the eventsfrom the avp movies, but this one as well. the big thing that's strange to me,is that this movie decided to put the predator into a..cop drama. along with all the cliches you've come toexpect in that genre. "i don't roll over for anybody!especially the feds, without a goddamn good explanation!" but that's not to say that predator 2 is someforgotten embarrasment to the series,
it brought a lot of things to the table thatpredator fans take for granted now. so, without further adolet's dive into the urban jungle and take to the hunt. so right off the bat we're informed that thismovie takes place in los angeles, during the mystical futuristic year of 1997.this does give them the freedom to show that in this version of history..i mean.. the future.. that gangs have escalated into brutal militaristicforces, with gang violence tearing apart the citylike a war, which the characters have no problem pointingout to us.
"don't let this get out phil, but it's a fuckinwar down here." "we're not winning this war.""metro command is a war zone." "it has not been a nice day!" that brings us to our hero's introduction,mike harrigan played by none other than danny glover.a good choice of actor, as he can be very intimidatingand give subtle performances with a much more believable tone than arnold ever could.unfortunately though, the audience never gets to see him show off any real strength.that along with the sweaty detective clothes in my opinion makes him look much older,and even downright frail.
"the guy weighs about 190, 195 pounds. youcouldn't carry him up there." no shit? but i digress.he does pull of an impressive stunt to rescue the dying officersfrom the intro that we never see again, so we at least know he's crafty.and has a miniature armory in the trunk of his car,just like anybody in los angeles. and breaking off his door to avoid gettingshot through the windshield.. even though driving straight at them, theycould easily still shoot him anyway, mike gets the officers the cover they needto save the motorcycle cops.
further proving that he is the starring roleof the film, he announces his presense but still succeedsat ambushing the gangers remaining outside. "hey, assholes!" and of course amidst all the chaos, the officersrecieve clear orders to not engage in infiltration, but instead setup a secure perimiter. okay, let's play "direct this scene"where you at home get to guess what happens nextto mike an company!do they a - follow orders, preventing more people and police from becomingunneccicary casualties, b - ignore orders entirely, going in gunsblazing
while not securing the area at all, leadingto several unneccicary casualties that are fogotten momments later,or c - discover they are in "the matrix." "can't let you in there, hinamen's on hisway here" "hinamen can kiss my sweet ass! come on!""god damn it, go with him!" if you guessed b, you're right!and will never pass the police academy. upon entering, they find one of the drug lordsshooting wildly.. ohh, there goes officer bob.oh well, moving on mike follows him to the roof,where we get our first real reveal of the predator,only 9 minutes and 55 seconds into the film.
"aaaaagggggghhhh!"a few bullets later, it's mike on the roof with the predator.he notices it, and aims his gun directly at it. for unknown reasons, the predator decidesto just leave. i guess either he hit his killing quota forthe day, or didn't want the movie to be less than 15minutes, including credits. this scene also shows us one of mike's flaws,evidently he's afraid of heights. this would be an interesting addition to thecharacter, except.. well.. you'll see.the investigation inside continues,
and they find the rest of the gangers wereslaughtered with deadly precision. "they've been cut to pieces.""must be the jamaicans." "their style, but..""where the hell did they go?" but all that is cut short when the chief arrives,and is none too pleased with mr. harrigan's decisionto ignore his commands. "you're making me look bad.""i thought we had an understanding." "i put my ass on the line to get you here..""and all i expect is a little cooperation!" i know we're supposed to side with mike,but what about officer bob?
"third floor, officer down, we need backup!" chief didn't even bring that up, soi think he went rather light on him. a busy transition later,we are introduced to the crew back at the precinct,inlcuding jerry lambert, played by bill paxton. you know bill of course, from aliens.here, he's playing the hot shot newbie on the team,but as it's bill giving the performance it's actually pretty enjoyableand he looks like he's having a good time with it too. "and you know what she said without missinga beat?"
"uh, no..""she said" "'i stabbed that son of a bitch plenty oftimes, he never died on me before!'" similar to hudson in aliens,bill presents us with an impressive range of emotionson what is generally considered a one dimensional character archetype. here we are introduced to gary busey,playing the role of peter keyes. the federal presense in the cop drama clichelineup, and gary does a good job presenting himas the douchebag you love to hate.
also, i'm not sure if it's intentional,but the name peter keyes is awfully similar to the keys of peter,as in st. peter, as in the pope and such..i'm not as high up on religion as i am on science,but it's interesting to see a man of his stature presentedwith a name that suggests things such as none on earth shall judge him, buti'm probably getting way off topic with this. we also spend more time getting to know othersupporting characters, danny and leona.danny is the long time buddy of mike, so.. well you know how that works in these kindof movies.
it's actually presented really well here though,their friendship comes off very natural, which helps the feel of the movie a lot.leona also shows off her character, in that she doesn't take crapand is pretty tough for a female lead. suprisingly she also is not shown fawningover anyone or even mentioning a relationship,which helps depict her as a very independant woman.overall, a very interesting character, despite not having the big star role of thefilm. so beyond fleshing out the roles,the main point of this scene is mike welcoming jerry into the team,with a few solemn words of wisdom.
"the door swings both ways.""that's it." "hey, kid.""welcome to the war." this sets us up perfectly for the segway into... "oooh...""ooooohhhhh..." "oooh! ahhh! ahhh! oooooh ooooaaaahhh!" (sex scene) well i guess the directer, mr. hopkinsdecided that if they were going to have an r rating,they were going to use it. "i can have naked women in this movie,i want a naked woman!"
but the sex is violently interruptedby a group of the jamacan voodoo posse. i hate when that kind of crap happens to me.but it turns out that having loud sex by a huge penthouse windowmust be a magnet for attention, because we get another appearance by the predator.and this time, we get to see him playing with all the new toys. he's got a ridiculously tight net launcher,razor sharp projectiles, and the now famed combi stick.that alone with the staple technologies he's carried overfrom the first film make for an impressive arsenal,and we haven't even listed every new
weapon at his disposal. the action is over fast,and we see that every news van in la has arrived at the scenebefore the police, as harrigan and his team pull up. "we were gonna go in there with our guys,but" "we were told on a radio transmission""nobody goes in there under any circumstances at all."(radio)"all units responding san pedro & 5th avenue""be advised, federal officers will handle investigation.""we didn't hear that, let's go."
what the hell is with this guy and not followingorders? the first time, sure,you could argue that it was a time sensitive situationand he got caught up in the momment. "if we let those bastards get dug in now,we'll have to level the building to get em out!" here.. if he wasn't supposed to enter,why'd he show up in the first place? the investigation wasn't his, correct?who the hell is running this precinct? well, when the team enters they findthe predator's trademark victims hanging around. the way the whole scene adds upclues the team in to the idea that it's not
eitherof the two big gangs' work. "shit, if the columbians did all this,then why'd they leave their boss ramone over there hangin' tenand his girlfriend naked on the floor?" "wasn't the columbians""our friend from the armory." "right.""we got a new player in town." they spy one of the interesting trinkets justmomments before "this is a restricted area!" you know,you could have gotten up there a lot faster if you weren't dragging those spotlights upthe stairs.
just sayin.peter and mike exchange words, in a none too friendly fashon. "you got a big nose.and you're sticking it too far in my business. now maybe you can hear this.the next time you cross me, you're gonna turn up missing." "who the hell are you keyes?""the last person in the world you wanna fuck with." who the hell are you? "the last person in the world you wanna
nevermind! the scene comes up to a closewith mike telling his old buddy danny that even though they've seen plenty,they'll come by together later to have a closer look at the scenethat has nothing to do with any investigation they're involved with. "we'll take a good look at that room. okay?""hey, wait for me." so let's play round 2 of "direct this scene"!how will danny handle this situation? will hea) wait up for mike and investigate as a team, as instructed,b) say fuck it and go home,
or c) head in alone and end up getting killed? (dan gets killed scene) oh, no! not the protaganist's longtime friend! "capitan...""danny and i came up together." "fifteen years on the fuckin' street!""whoever killed him's gonna pay, i'm gonna finish it!" so yeah, we're going pretty extremein the predictible cop drama plot points. but then again,it's not just a man and partner, it was a team of four.there are still people other than mike to
care about in this movie.leona and jerry both do the obvious thing to offer to help,and mike actually listens to them. that is refreshing, amidst the cliches piledinto this movie. together they figure out thatkeyes is after something much bigger than drug trafficking,and mike tells leona he wants to speak with king willie,the head of the jamacan voodoo posse. a transition later,mike and jerry are at a lab looking for clues. an air of secrecey surrounds keyes' investigation,but mike hands over the predator's weapon for analysis.
"i pried this from danny's hands""this is what took him up into the rafters." "let me see.""we are now at 150,000 times normal magnification." "astonishing!""this material doesn't correspond to anything on the periodic table..." what the hell do you meanit doesn't correspond to anything on the periodic table?the manner in which elements are classified and identified on the periodic tablehas been used to predict the existance of elements in the past,and the range is quite large. where does it fit?you can get a good idea of it's properties
this way.*sigh* so much for science fiction. well, before the day is out mike heads downalone to see king willie, and like any awesomely powerful crime lord,he meets up with him alone in a filthy alleyway. willie's dialogue here is ominous,and helps to bring back the feeling of the indigenous stories from the first predator,about the demon that makes trophies of men. "i don't know who he is.....but i know where he is." "the other side!""what are you talking about?" "the spirit world, man!""you see?"
you had kfc?in all seriousness, i know well about chicken bones' use in divination,but the ones they use in this scene look like they came out of a crew member'slunch. no vertebre,no rib bones, just leg and wing bones. "this thing that's killing your people andmine, is from the other side!" so willie says a lot of creepy things,but offers little to no information and they part ways.
well i guess kfc divination isn't quite aseffective if you're suprised the predator has arrived.woah, woah now..he's got a sword? the head of a huge criminal organizationis going to fight the predator with a sword?! awesome, i can't wait to see this! ...you know, this crap is really startingto annoy me. well, after a short skull care and maintenanceinstructional video, we're back to the lab with jerry and leona. "the federal authorities erased everythingfrom the computer file
except for this.""part of a chemical test on a fragment of wood from the penthouse.""and it contained traces of cattle blood, and heavy traces of steriods.""i believe that whoever killed detective archuletta had recently been in a slaughterhouse." wait, why the hell would they erase absolutelyeverything, except the one clue?it might look insignifigant on it's own, but when there's no haystack,it's pretty damn easy to find the needle! well, the investigation has just had it'sfirst major break, but mike decides to take one himself,and check off another cliche for the cop drama
list.graveyard, check. picture, check.badge, check. playing taps,check. also, this little brat seems to be takingthe same lessons as mike when it comes to how to listen to authority, and manages to run into the predator justabout as quickly. oh shit, this just got real. actually, the predator takes the time to recognizethe gun is a toy and deactivates his weapon. so that explains it!in the opening scene,
mike was pointing a nerf gun at the predatorthe whole time. well, the kid does manage to teach the predatorone of it's most terrifying lines. "want some candy?" great going kid,now all the predator needs is a van with no windows.well, it's time for mike to head back when suddenly.. ...why the hell would the predator do that?well, moving on we find jerry and leona walking in the subwaytram, complaining about not being able to find aseat
while walking by several vacant seats,but this calm ride is cut short when an altercation erupts. "get the hell away from me!""i know how to use this thing!" "he's got a cap gun..""don't make me use this thing!" "and mine's bigger than yours! haha!""i'll take that!" "what the hell is that?" what? how the hell did the predator get therethat fast, and know that the people on that subway carhappen to all be armed? and when they drew their weapons?this is my big issue with this scene,
it's when it comes out full force thatthe predator in this movie is only sometimes behaving like the predator.this scene especially, it acts more like jason vorhees.well, after slaughtering everybody around him,the predator closes in on jerry. and here we see that the predator is alsobulletproof. "jesus christ, what the fuck are you?!""want some candy?" no, paxton! don't take the candy! so, they stop the trainand leona gets everyone to safety who wasn't already killed,then heads back to check on jerry.
"oh god.." damn it, what is it with fox and killing billpaxton? and wouldn't you know it,the predator goes after leona too. oh, she's pregnant?well that explains it all! mike harrigan is pregnant.well, he shows up after all is said and done to find out what hapened. "doesn't make sense..""they were all armed." how the hell did you know that?well, the magic bulletproof predator apparently took it's time with getting it'strophy,
because mike has plenty of time to catch himin the act, and the big chase begins.the predator runs along the rooftops, while mike pursues on the street.it's an interesting scene, but is cut short by keyes' men?so i guess he's in the slaughterhouse district? well they must be using predator technologyif they knew where mike was before i even knew where mike was!apparently victorious in it's evasion, the predator shows off it's immortality somemore as it is struck by lightning.what the hell is it going to do next?
stop a jet by sticking it's butt in a turbine? "if it bleeds, we can kill it." well then you can't fucking kill this one!well, they bring mike into keyes' secret base, and he decides to...tell him everything.. i..i don't see why. or if he was fine with that,why not just tell him from the start? when did mike join the secret club? i..i don't know anymore. well, it turns out keyes has been trackingthe predator and wants to capture it to take it's technology.
"you admire the son of a bitch.""not what he does, lieutenant." "for what he is. for what he can give us." they have a big, intricite plan set upthat capitalizes on the predator's reliance on infared to see,and render themselves invisible to suprise this gives us the perfect chance to seeanother predator technology introduced in this movie,multiple vision settings on it's mask. well, so much for that plan.mike notices the problem, and escapes to go after the predator.the predator makes short work of the team, and takes out keyes with a no-look plasmablast.
okay, that was pretty awesome. mike runs in to fight the predator,and good for him, bullets work now!or at least long enough for mike to take it's mask off,and quote the first movie. "you're one uglymother ahhhh!!" "motherfucker!" the predator then shows it's discontent forplastic guns, and... what the? keyes again?are you sure they don't have predator technology yet?well, this gives us one of the more awesome
predator weapons,the smartdisk. well, i guess none from earth judged him.from this point on in the movie, it's one long confrontation between mike,and the predator. the action in this sequence is for the mostpart really awesome, but mike's character flaw, his fear of heights,seems to keep interrupting the action. it's not like he's ever failed to do anythingbecause of the fear, or even gets over it eventually.he always stops at the edges, and just brings the scene to a halt. well, the chase goes on until eventually,mike finds the predator's ship.
now this part, is really well done.it looks like nothing made on earth, and it's also the first cinematic hintthat the predators hunt things other than humans.such as.. xenomorphs. the battle escalates, in vicious melee combatwhere eventually mike bests the predator using it's own weapon,the smartdisk. though honestly,that wound doesn't look nearly as bad as the bullet wounds,or losing a hand, or.. getting struck by lightning....oh well.
mike soon finds himself surrounded by predators,and stands his ground. "okay, who's next?" they carry off their fallen comrade,and the elder respectfully gives mike a 18th century pistol. "1715?" well, that was nice of them.wait, this is an action movie. it can't end like this.the hero has to be running down a tunnel from a huge explosion. like that!topped off with a pull away into the sky shot,
and you've got your cliche action movie ending. so that's predator 2. how does it compareto the first? well, i complained that the expositionin the beginning of the original predator was downrightpointless by the end, and this movie doesn't have that problem,but it's action sequences aren't nearly as amazing as the first film.mike is a much more interesting character than dutch couldever hope to be, and while i like the supporting charactersthey aren't quite as strong as the ones from the original.the biggest flaw by far, in my opinion is
the predator itself.there are just too many inconsistancies and instanceswhere it doesn't behave like you would think the predator would. so for horror,the slower paced investigation and occasional jump scaresdo net it two ugly motherfuckers out of five, but mike's issue with heights tends to bringthe action scenes to a hault, right when they're getting reallygood. at best i'd give it four trophies out of fivefor action. overall, despite it's flaws,it's added so much to the predator mythos
that if you're a fan, or at least interestedin the series, you would be doing yourself a serious injusticeto pass this film up, reguardless of what cinematic sins it commits.it's still a great ride, and well worth your time. finally, i would like to thank everyone whosupported my videos while i've been infrequent in my updates.and don't worry, i'm hoping i'm gonna get my next review donewithin a week, very soon. i'm gonna try.and that review, will be alien vs predator. thank you all for watching, this has beendecker shado,
the internet personality with the best hair!
