Prey

Today, I finished watching “Prey,” the prequel in the “Predator” franchise, which came out on the 5^th on Hulu. I decided to watch this while exercising, and now I will let everyone know what I thought of this film.

1987’s “Predator” collaborated a team of one-line quoting mercenaries sent on a quick rescue mission in a rainforest in Central America. However, the numbers game and total amount of weaponry were no match for an invisibility-cloaked, high-tech alien. The film expanded our imaginations on what we considered hunters and prey combined in a sci-fi/horror package. The “Predator” franchise has taken so many turns, peaks, and valleys, to say the least. There was a stop in Los Angeles with 1990’s “Predator 2,” a set of crossover battles with “Aliens vs. Predator,” a sequel to the first film with “Predators,” and a virtual-present day sequel with 2018’s “The Predator.” Did everyone get all that information? The franchise has been looking to reclaim its original look of terror, suspense, and delicate campiness.

Dan Trachtenberg’s “Prey” has finally made that happen. It has a great coming-of-age story combined with the most appreciated theme of what made the first film great – the hung and chase. Murjani Rawls said in her review, “Sometimes you have to go back to the past to reclaim your essence.” The beginning of “Prey” tells everyone a simple message – “a long time ago. It said that a monster came here.” From there, we are taken back to 1719 within Comanche Nation. A teenage girl named Naru (Amber Midthunder) wants to be accepted as a hunter like her brother Taabe (Dakota Beavers). While stalking a deer, Naru sees so many lights in the sky – indeed, feeling this is a sign she’s ready for her Kuhataamia (rite of passage). The problem is that Taabe, their mother Aruka, played by Michelle Thrush, and male members of the tribe don’t think Naru is ready for that.

However, as a reoccurring story element throughout “Prey” would tell, appearances can be deceiving. Naru may not seem threatening at first, but she’s a tracking expert, has an eye for detail, and is constantly developing her hunting skills. However, members of her tribe dismiss strange footprints and animals who are killed in strange ways, Naru says to stay on the trail. The combination of Midthunder’s acting and the story from Patrick Aison and Trachtenberg makes audiences attention hooked on the character’s journey. Rawls said, “Prey provides nothing easy to Naru — there are growing pains you will witness in how tedious hunting can be. However, the callbacks from difficult situations Naru goes through making her triumph that much more meaningful. Midthunder switches between contemplation, quick wit, and undying resolve at the flip of a coin.”

For example, there’s a mud pit Naru almost sinks and climbs her way out. Rawls said, “That instance is put together with a grab-bag of skills that will eventually help her when she fights the Predator.” They feel natural to the story and even call back to the original 1987 film. A Predator-set film wouldn’t be anything without its outer-space villain. Rawls said, “Trachtenberg sets things in motion where an entity that overpowers the setting it jumps into is also learning. A motif shows a succession of food-chain situations, with animals displaying what happens when something not natural to that habitat is introduced.” “Prey” goes to give the answer about what people and the environment can do about it.

The dangers are not only from outer-space – another element of French soldiers comes into play. Thus, a hierarchy of who considers what is threatening or not constantly changes, giving an exciting layer to “Prey’s” story. The film could have quickly fallen for the one-on-one aspect. However, it decides to speak on gender roles, colonization, and how danger presents itself in the wild.

Rawls said, “The cinematography of Jeff Cutter expertly captures the lushness of the forest that makes you feel involved in the period piece.” Producer Jhane Myers, a member of the Comanche nation, helps elevate Prey with a great level of truth. Most of the cast are Native American or Canadian First Nation, to the feeling of inseparability feels much more powerful. Rawls said, “Sarah Schachner’s violin-ladened score heightens danger during moments of isolation and elevates the taste of victory when they come.”

Looking at the violence, “Prey” delivers when looking at the land of muskets and tomahawks. The fight scenes are fast, planned, and brutal – so goes the nature of survival. The determination of the human spirit is a universal story one could insert anywhere. Trachtenberg completely uses the 100 minutes allotted to him to return the “Predator” franchise to stable ground.

If you have Hulu, I highly recommend everyone to watch this. This is a welcome return to what made the first “Predator” movie a classic. Hands down, this is the best in the franchise since the first movie, and everyone says the same thing. If you love this franchise, don’t miss your chance to watch “Prey.” Check it out and have an enjoyable time.

Thanks for joining in on today’s review. Stay tuned Friday for the finale of “Brad Pitt Month.”

The Predator

“The Predator,” which came out last month, knows how to suck you in.

Andrew Todd said in his review, “Kicking off with a bang in the middle of a space battle, an aggressive, semi-retro score soaring in the background, the latest installment of the sci-fi franchise is committed to showing more Predator-y action than any previous entry. Writer-director Shane Black’s ode to the 1987 original (in which he co-starred) uses its alien sports-hunters’ weird bodies and lethal technology in ways many have been waiting to see for over 30 years. Creative, bloody and often hilarious kills, new additions to Predator lore and a surprising quantity of cool sci-fi nonsense are thrown around with the glee of a fan let loose in a multimillion-dollar playground.”

The first time we see a Predator on Earth, it’s camouflaged, shown by a drop of blood that falls on its disguise from a severed victim hanging from the tree above. The action only becomes more graphic. Spines are torn, heads are decapitated, bodies are ripped, and there are Predator dogs and new, 11-foot Predator hybrids. Needless to say Predator fans, to a point that there are Predator fans this year, will love it. It’s the R-rated movie they’ve wanted for a long time, made by people who evidently wanted this movie.

“The Predator’s” story pulls together four storylines that crash halfway through. The major one is with sniper (Boyd Holbrook, so much talent that can’t tell a joke) who meets a Predator in the jungle, and is thrown with a group of “loonies” (Thomas Jane, Keegan-Michael Key, Alfie Allen, Trevante Rhodes and Augusto Aguilera) the military doesn’t want to deal with. Before being thrown to them, he mails a Predator machine to himself, which goes to his autistic son Rory, played by Jacob Tremblay, giving a serious role that doesn’t feel right for this movie. We also meet the alien-researching biologist Casey Bracket (an excellent Olivia Munn), brought to a military research project led by the inconsiderate, Nicorette-chewing Traeger (a scene-stealer Sterling K. Brown). Then there’s an enhanced Predator tracking a rogue member of its own kind. “The Predator” has a lot happening, and not everything goes with the same weight.

Depending on where you put it, this is the third, the fourth, or the sixth film in the Predator franchise, but technically, “The Predator” is some sort of midquel, referencing on the past films and referencing on franchise principles. Todd stated, “Its cast of twitchy, self-consciously idiosyncratic misfits (every one of whom is introduced via a signature prop or tic, which is as irritating as it is efficient) is far from the musclebound Bad Dudes of the original, though they’re still afforded more than a small dose of bro-y camaraderie.” The presence of a bigger, badder Predator looks knowingly, hilariously stupid. Even the characters are Predator fans, either because of scientific purposes or just because they’re awesome.

If anything, “The Predator’s” biggest problem as a sequel is trying too hard. Todd noted, “It’s definitely a Shane Black film, taking place at Halloween instead of his signature Christmas setting, and popping with colorful, comedic, cigar-chomping dialogue.” (A kid gets to say the F word, which is a joy.) However, while the fan service is kept low-key, this is not “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” the amount of in-jokes will either satisfy or annoy longtime fans. So many Schwarzenegger one-liners are reworded and thrown out there. Jake Busey plays the character his father created in “Predator 2.” At one point, a character skeptically asks, “Have you seen the new Predator?” Todd said, “All this stuff is fun, but at a certain point, the meta-comedy crosses the 22 Jump Street threshold.”

Sadly, those who have seen the new Predator won’t have anything held against them by saying “yes, and it’s got some problems.” Todd said, “The movie’s hacked-to-pieces pacing has the editorial grace of a wrist-blade through the neck.” The Predator-only story lacks any direction and doesn’t make a lot of sense, with characters having to say the silly complex goals of their alien enemies mainly so that the audience can follow along. While the cast may have started out as interesting, three-dimensional characters, so some are still extremely watchable, you get the feeling that their development is not finished. Todd noted, “Even the beat-by-beat editing is choppy as heck, with some sequences moving so quickly from gag to gag that it’s clear large chunks of connective tissue are straight-up missing. The movie culminates in a bizarre, sequel-baiting ending that is almost certain to disappoint many viewers, whether it actually generates a sequel or not.”

Where “The Predator” gets really strange, and though it’s most likely to be gutted in online forums, is in its thematic substance. Todd noted, “Central to the movie is the notion of machismo and its various causes and effects. The Loonies echo Schwarzenegger’s crew from the original film, but each is a subversion in some way, with PTSD a common thread through all of them.” Sadly, the movie itself is focused on giving kill after kill that its likable tries to challenge its manly look is buried under, sadly, manly look. Characters show hints at times, but the endless pace of the edit gets to suck us in before they can really show it.

The same could be said of the film’s two female characters: Munn’s Casey starts out cornered by men who don’t understand women, then becomes almost as tough as they are. Yvonne Strahovski’s character is just forgotten about halfway through. Munn’s character was just there to be a strong woman who can go up with the film’s men, but in here, it looks like we’re meant to laugh along with the men objectifying her. Todd noted, “Unfortunately, the scene that was cut due to featuring Black’s friend and real-life sex offender Steven Wilder may have actually mitigated some of these issues, serving as Munn’s character’s introduction and setting up important character attributes that in the finished cut appear out of nowhere.”

Finally, as you might think from a movie whose characters call themselves “loonies,” “The Predator” has a type of loaded relationship with mental illness. Todd said, “Beyond the jokes at disordered characters’ expense (the Tourette’s-focused of which I assume Black felt he could get away with, given he has Tourette’s himself), the chopped-up script grossly simplifies complex issues.” Maybe Black and co-writer Fred Dekker had more sensitivity in an earlier version, but the released version of “The Predator” has some cringeworthy crimes in today’s age. As predicted early on, Tremblay’s character’s autism isn’t just part of the character, but a plot point, with autism eventually said to be, as said by Munn’s character, “the next step on the evolutionary ladder.” Todd said, “That may have been intended to lift up a misunderstood condition, but it ultimately succeeds only in exacerbating the othering of it.” Added to another character wanting to kill himself being cast as heroic, it’s going to make discussion, and not in the movie’s favor.

Many of these problems won’t affect “The Predator’s” main audience, obviously. For the most part, this is a fun, demonstrative, R-rated film, and full of Shane Black-type jokes that mostly work and gore curbs that almost always do. Longtime fans of the franchise will get exactly what they’ve been wanting for years. However, the movie as a whole feels like it’s gone through endless cuts, filled with rewrites and edits into a formless, unclear mess. It just looks like, like the leftovers of a Predator kill, a formless, unclear mess with so many gnarly parts all around in it.

Despite the issues that I do acknowledge that it does have, it’s still a lot of fun and you should see it if it’s still playing in the theater. If not, you can wait for it on DVD and rent it, if you feel like you don’t want to see the film. Still, I think people who have waited eight years for another Predator movie will have an enjoyable time. However, if people end up not liking this film, I completely understand.

We have now finished talking about these franchises; wait until next week to see what films I will end “Halloween Month” off with.

Predators

After the underwhelming “Alien vs. Predator” franchise, it didn’t look like there was a need to revive either franchise. Apparently the Robert Rodriguez 2010 produced “Predators” shows there’s still something left in the series thanks to some powerful and explosive action.

A group of different soldiers are put on an island with no memory of how they saw themselves landing.

The mercenary (Adrien Brody) unwillingly finds himself leading this team consisted of an Israeli soldier (Alice Braga), a Russian soldier (Oleg Taktarov), a death row prisoner (Walton Goggins), a Sierra Leona private army fighter (Mahershala Ali), a Mexican drug lord (Danny Trejo), a Yakuza member (Louis Ozawa Changchien) and a doctor (Topher Grace).

Not long after they get their weapons and come up with a plan for leaving the island, the group sees they are hunted by a group of Predators looking to be their victims.

Jeffrey Lyles noted in his review, “Director Nimród Antal, who previously handled the horror/thriller Vacancy, takes a similar approach and follows the structure of the Arnold Schwarzenegger film with the Predators taking out the soldiers one by one.”

Lyles continued, “First-time screenwriters Alex Litvak and Michael Finch make a slight misstep in their setup as they make the characters a little too interesting and not the standard action movie fodder archetypes that you don’t care once they start getting killed. Instead, the film is written as a What If? episode of Lost where Jack and company learn that aliens are on the island in addition to polar bears.”

The top-notch soldier method is plotting and could be an interesting action movie by itself without inserting any Predators. The biggest surprise is that Brody can play a realistic tough-guy.

With his thin build and scrawny face, Body doesn’t have that obvious leading man in the typical look of an action movie, but he sincerely proves worthy of this mission. Lyles mentioned, “You don’t get the sense that he’s “pretending to be a tough guy” and he instantly makes you accept him as a hard-edge mercenary.”

Though he was seen a lot in the film’s trailers, Laurence Fishburne has a fun, but overall too short cameo as Noland, a long-time survivor, of the Predator problem. Lyles said, “Sharp-eyed viewers will notice a few shot-outs to the Predators’ alien sparring partners throughout the film.”

The film’s setting looks great helped from principal filming done in Hawaii and though some of the special effects are a little weak and don’t have enough detail – stressing the film’s $40 million budget – Antal looked to smartly spend much of his supplies filming the action scenes, which are well done and clearly shot. Antal doesn’t get too visual over-editing and cutting the fights and the delectably basic method.

“Predators” doesn’t target for anything more than being a fun sci-fi and it really wins in that regard.

Unlike the last two movies in the franchise where the people were dealing with one Predator, this one has people go up against many Predators. I feel as though Robert Rodriguez was borrowing a page from James Cameron’s “Aliens” when he conceived this film. If you want a film that feels like it’s in the same vein as “Predator,” this film might give you that. You should still see it because, surprisingly, it’s a good movie. Especially with Adrien Brody saying Schwarzenegger’s line, “Come on, kill me. I’m here! Come on, do it now!” Although it’s not as well said as before, it’s still nice to hear that line.

Well everyone, there wasn’t another Predator movie for eight years, but before we get to that, I’m going back to the Alien franchise to talk about a couple of movies that take place in another universe. If you want to know what I thought about it, wait until next Monday for the next installment of this year’s “Halloween Month.”

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem

“Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem,” released in 2007, is not really a movie as much as it is just a bunch of shadowy figures moving fast across a screen. Mark Dujsik said in his review, “People might enjoy it more if it were run out of focus, because then they might be able to blame shoddy theater management for hiring an inept projectionist instead of realizing they just threw down too much money (anything over a dollar is too much in this case, by the way) to watch a movie by people who don't know how to make a movie.”

Dujsik continued by saying, “There's not a specific element of this movie I especially hate; it's kind of a collective thing.” The characters are not really cardboard cutouts, only there to be victims after saying a line or two of clichés. The monsters, once really scary (the aliens) or somewhat cool (the predators), are now just shouting blurs or really dark shadows that are not scary, cool, or, in so many ways, even visible. Dujsik said, “Speaking of bad lighting, the whole movie seems to have been lit by lighting bug behind a foggy window, and don't get me started on the editing, which makes it impossible not only to follow the action but also to realize that there is anything resembling action happening on screen.”

There’s a ship in a shape of a frog flying around Earth. It has predators, the dreadlocked villains that slaughtered humans and others, and one of them has an alien, H.R. Giger’s creations that bite, rip and bleed acid, burst out of its chest. Remember that part if you’re able to, because there will eventually be a predator/alien hybrid on the loose. The predators on the ship aren’t really smart with their heavy-impact weapons while flying in a sensitive ship that separates them from the vacuum of space, and the ship crashes in to the woods, where a hunter and his son, played by Kurt Max Runte and Liam James, find the crashed ship.

You might think the kid will need to see a psychiatrist after watching his dad’s arm sliced by acid and his dad’s face attacked by a face-hugging alien, but that’s only you realize the kid’s victimized as well. That’s when we see the seemingly unending array of expendable characters. There’s Dallas (Steve Pasquale), who is friends with the local sheriff (John Ortiz), and his brother Ricky (Johnny Lewis), who has a crush on or once dated Jesse (Kristen Hager). She also has friends, but they’re obviously dead from the beginning.

A large headed predator notices the security footage from the crashed ship and goes to Earth to find the aliens that have managed to escape. He looks around the dark forest for quite some time, and directors the Strause Brothers (Colin and Greg) fill the screen with countless trees that we can’t see what’s going on. They do a long, tedious turn up a tall tree twice, and we see the predator playing around with his weapons in a close-up.

There are lots of scenes of the predator playing with himself, which is really boring (and less disturbing) than it sounds. It’s all in close-up, we have no idea what’s going on, and it’s actually really nice compared to those people we see most of the time. Along with those morons, there’s Kelly (Reiko Aylesworth) who’s on leave to spend time with her husband (Sam Trammell) and daughter (Ariel Gade). Kelly is supposed to be the Ripley of this movie, but the big question is whether or not the Army will cover the cost of her daughter’s years of therapy. There are some other people, but they’ll be dead in their first or second scene. It’s best not to like them.

The movie has a lot of hatred for people, especially the audience. Dujsik said, “The dialogue is a cliché-o-rama, clearly written by some kind of script-generating software or a roomful of action-movie-obsessed monkeys (but credited to Shane Salerno), and in one particularly hilarious scene, the dialogue consists of five of these generic chestnuts in a row ("People are dying," The National Guard will be here soon," "Not soon enough," "I can't believe I'm doing this," and "This plan is stupid; let's leave town."). You might think I'm exaggerating, and I wish I were.”

There’s also a confusing line, “Let’s hope we’re both wrong,” which, given the context that the speaker and the receiver are looking for helicopters that is to rescue the people with them, means that the person hopes there are no helicopters and all of them die. Dujsik said, “Honestly, I'd be fine with that scenario.” Once we leave the forest, we get to watch the people, the aliens, the predators and the alien/predator hybrid go around a sewer, a power plant, a dark locker room, a hospital where the electricity is out - just so your filthy, unreadable visual experience is complete – a rooftop at night in the rain.

The fights are ridiculously filmed, and there’s just one scene in a maternity ward that turns the movie from being mean to being just completely bad for the sake of being cynical. “Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem” also has a climax where the characters outrun a nuclear shot in a helicopter, and it doesn’t even have the audacity to end there. I will do that right now.

Besides the creature effects, nothing is good in this movie, since their shot in a dark and incoherent way. The characters are awful and the movie just satisfied everyone’s complaint by making it R rated and increasing the violence and gore. If you had the sad fate of seeing the first movie, avoid the sequel at all cost. You will absolutely hate it. It should never be watched by anyone who loves these two franchises.

Now that we thankfully got those two cinematic abominations out of the way, check in on Friday where we look at the third installment of the “Predator franchise” in this year’s “Halloween Month.”

Alien vs. Predator

Paul W.S. Anderson directs this boring sci-fi action film. It doesn’t have any feelings for character or for how insane the story is made. Dennis Schwartz said in his review, “I had trouble trying to stay alert and often looked at my watch hoping it would end soon.” Twentieth Century Fox made the tagline “No matter who wins, we lose.” How true of a statement that is. Schwartz admitted, “I had no dog in this race, and couldn't care less what happened.” “Alien vs. Predator,” released in 2004, mockingly wants to bring money by having these famous creatures from two very popular franchises fight each other on ruling Earth. If anyone cares, this unoriginal film was shot in Prague.

The film is set in present time. Billionaire robotics industrialist Charles Weyland, played by Lance Henriksen, is dying but before he does he wants to do something he’ll always be remembered for. He gets that opportunity when he hears from people of an ancient pyramid buried in a bleak part of Antarctica. Weyland doesn’t waste any money and goes everywhere to recruit a great team of mountain climbers, drillers, scientists and archaeologists to be the first to go into a kingdom from a lost civilization predating humans.

The team is lead in the frozen area by top mountain climber Alexa Woods, played by Sanna Lathan, who is just as an agitated elementary teacher giving the job to one of her restless students. Some other team members to walk down below the ice are the Italian archaeologist Sebastian (Raoul Bova), muscleman Max Stafford (Colin Salmon), drill team leader Quinn (Carsten Norgaard) and, a gentle family man who tries to be more obnoxious than the drooling creatures in his short time on camera, the Scottish chemical scientist Graeme Miller (Ewen Bremner). Schwartz said, “The team not only discover ancient sarcophagus-es and hieroglyphics, but the pyramid's real purpose as a hunting ground for the Predators to attack the slimy Aliens in some sort of ridiculous ritual only addled filmmakers can think up. The poor humans are trapped in the pyramid as the doors shut like Attica during a prison riot.” Left to look after themselves the torn human skeletons and fossilized leftovers of the Xenomorph aliens that have burst out of their chests, the humans find themselves in serious trouble. The film’s best part is a huge fight between the Aliens and Predators, with the humans trying their best to escape. Many die, but everyone is so not caring that the killings are not even missed.

Schwartz rightfully ended his review by saying, “For the moviegoer, there was no escape from this humorless and uninspired space invasion B-film.”

This movie is really underwhelming. After such a build-up, it failed to give us what we expected in this boring movie. No memorable characters, nothing worth talking about, and having an overall quality of cheapness. I don’t think I heard anyone give a good remark about this film, besides the great action highlights, because the film was a disappointment. Especially since these franchises were R rated, this one gets a PG-13. I can see why people may look at that as a letdown, but this movie can be skipped and you don’t have to even watch this, especially if you think you will hate it.

Well everyone, I have some sad news. Unlike “Freddy vs. Jason,” where it left off with a possibility of a sequel that fell into development, this one actually got a sequel that did get made and released. This movie did leave off on a cliffhanger that would have said that there would be a sequel, and they actually followed through on that. If you want to know how well that one was compared to this boring film, look out on Wednesday to find out as we continue this year's “Halloween Month.”

Predator 2

Horror movies have more sequels than any other film genre, and for the most part the sequels are weak when looking at the original. However, there are exceptions. James Cameron’s “Aliens” actually has been said to be superior to Ridley Scott’s “Alien.” Film critics like Clive Barker say that 1935’s “The Bride of Frankenstein” as the first successful sequel. However, it’s really rare when a sequel is better than the original in every way.

“Predator 2,” released in 1990, may be one of those rare ones.

The original “Predator” starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as a soldier in Central America fighting against an alien murderer who is hunting down humans. Steve Newton mentioned in his review, “The best thing about John (Die Hard) McTiernan’s 1988 jungle actioner was definitely not the thespian talents of Arnie, nor those of his non-actor co-stars Carl Weathers and Jesse “The Body” Ventura.” It was the amazing make-up and special-effects of the Predator, things like its heat-sensitive field of vision and the way it camouflaged itself before it was going to kill a human.

All of the great special effects of the first film have become even better for “Predator 2,” and replacing Schwarzenegger’s one-note tough guy look we’ve got actors who can really act, mainly Danny Glover and Gary Busey. Along with the supporting cast of actor/musician Ruben Blades, Maria Conchita Alonso, Robert Davi and genre beloved Bill Paxton gives as well.

Newton noted, “Under the direction of Aussie Stephen Hopkins–who helmed A Nightmare on Elm Street 5 and filmed all the action sequences as second-unit director on Russell Mulcahy’s Highlander–the pieces come together for a horror/sci-fi gem that will please most action-oriented fans.”

Like the first movie, “Predator 2” takes place in a different type of jungle, the urban jungle of 1997 L.A., where drug gangs take over the dirty streets and deadly shoot-outs with the cops happen all the time. Newton said, “Glover plays Detective-Lieutenant Mike Harrigan, an effective but volatile crime-stopper who comes up against Federal Agent Peter Keyes (Busey) while on the trail of voodoo-practicing Jamaican pushers.”

Newton continued, “It seems that a lot of these dreadlocked baddies have been found skinned and gutted and hanging from ceilings like slaughtered deer–courtesy of the Predator and his arsenal of built-in weapons.”

When a handful of Harrigan’s men have the same result, his personal hatred takes him on a conflict path with both the Predator, played by Kevin Peter Hall, and Keyes, who’s been hunting the Predator for years and is crazy over taking it alive. Newton ended his review by saying, “The ensuing maelstrom of gory violence teeters on the brink of overkill, but Glover’s steady performance is the beacon that keeps Predator 2 from sinking.”

In actuality, I know that this film isn’t as good as the first, but I consider this to be one of those enjoyably bad movies that somehow makes it a good movie. I still say that people should watch it and see for themselves because they will have a fun, entertaining, hilarious time watching it, especially with the setting changing from a jungle in Africa to L.A. Just see it to know what I mean.

The Predator looked like the perfect opponent for the Xenomorph alien, which didn’t take long for people to notice it. As early as 1990, the first “Alien vs. Predator” story appeared in the Dark Horse Presents comic series. Throughout the 90s, there were so many Alien vs. Predator merchandise, including comics, novels and video games. At the end of this movie, we see the Predator skull trophies on display, and one of them is a Xenomorph alien skull. It was the perfect set-up for a crossover, but not until 14 years later when the movie was finally made.

How did that crossover turn out? Well, you have wait until Monday when we look at it. Trust me, I’m not really looking forward to it either, but let’s just wait and see how it is. Now that I have talked about both of the “Alien” and “Predator” franchises, new it’s time to see how it was when they were brought together. Like I said, we will look at that Monday in the next entry of this year’s “Halloween Month.”

Predator

Before “The Expendables” were ever thought up of, director John McTiernan had the vision to cast a large amount of movie tough guys for a film that dealt with a group of armed force fighting an invisible murderer in the jungles of Central America. From Carl Weathers, Bill Duke, former wrestler Jesse “The Body” Ventura, Sonny Landham and the ever popular Arnold Schwarzenegger. “Predator” has a multinational of bulky guys and sweat that has one of the best casts of an action film ever. 1987 had one of the most unique and new action thrillers ever made.

Felix Vasquez said in his review, ““Predator” skirted the edges of B movie cheese to become an grade A science fiction actioner about a stealthy powerful alien foe who begins to systematically knock off threatening mercenaries that have just happened to interfere in its fight for survival in a foreign world when its ship crash lands in the jungles of Guatemala.” Just then Major Alan “Dutch” Schaefer (Schwarzenegger) is called in to the country with his platoon to rescue a hostage of local guerillas. However, nothing is what it looks like as most of the Guerillas have no clue why local American soldiers and pilots have appeared hung upside down and ripped of skin. While rescuing a hostage for their mission and trying to make it back to their check point they found for themselves that they’re all being tracked by something evil that looks like it has the upper hand in the fight and will stop at nothing to kill the platoon as victims in its deadly mission.

Despite that “Predator” had mixed reactions from critics has been one of the best fan favorite science fiction films of all time and for good reason. Vasquez said, “The film is teeming with enthusiasm and charm relying heavily on its cast to keep it moving along and they oblige two fold. Every character is allowed their own moment against the creature and in spite of failing fantastically to bring it to its knees learn what a true prey is like in the cruel jungles of this country.” Most of the film’s action scenes are still completely exciting and special, especially when looking at this as a film from the late eighties.

Vasquez mentioned, “The thermal imagery point of view shots along with the droning of the creature’s own technology is still a trademark genre facet on par with the Jaws theme and signals a moment in time where it promises to destroy anyone around it. What begins as a simple slash and grab film transforms in to a fight for survival as the soldiers soon figure out their tactics are pointless against this unseen foe and must try to re-build their own principles of self-preservation or die at the talons of this monster.” Director McTiernan smartly keeps the predator unclear by trees and its high-tech cloaking device that makes it something that’s kind of invincible and really aggressive, especially when its victim responds to its attacks.

Once the body count begins growing, the fight between man and predator increases to a nail-biting fight of intelligence between Dutch and this crab faced murderer, both who want to kill the other while gathering the benefits of war. Vasquez admitted, ““Predator” is a very testosterone laced action thriller with an enemy that was one of a kind back in the eighties and it still holds up as a prime piece of entertainment for anyone in the market for military roughnecks taking on an alien foe.” Even for a film made in 1987, John McTiernan’s action thriller still looks new and unique with great performances, a great cast, and a villain that would be copied for a long time and never really equal when looking at danger, aggression and a complete eye appeal.

Undeniably, this is one of the best action films of all time. If you haven’t seen it, go out and see it, this is a requirement. You have to see this film because you will absolutely love it and get engaged in the fight. Especially with great Schwarzenegger lines, like his famous, “GET TO THE CHOPPA!” Don’t miss your chance to see this movie.

Seeing how great of a movie this was, it seemed inevitable that they would decide to make a sequel to this movie. How is that compared to the first one? Find out Friday when we continue going through “Halloween Month.”