Predator 2

Very undervalued sequel suffering because of the first films success.

Los Angeles is imploding with mayhem as gang wars fill the streets, an under pressure police force try to restore order, but both parties have another foe to worry about, a Predator is in town, and he's about to up the ante.

Gone is Arnold Schwarzenegger, gone is John McTiernan, and gone is the jungle setting, so following in the foot steps of the ultimate beefcake movie that was Preadtor 1987 was an unenviable task it seems. Yet I personally feel that Predator 2 stands up to scrutiny as a fine entry into the sci-fi/action genre. Locating it among the urban decay of L.A. works real well, and pitting the Predator against a tough grizzled (but hardly giganticus beefca...

When I was younger I always hated Predator 2. Rewatching it as an adult, I don't think it was fair how bad I thought it was. It's not that Predator 2 is crap, it's just that it's so much worse than the original (one of the 5 best movies ever made), that it comes across as such a massive disappointment. With fresh, or I guess more accurately, with more experienced eyes, I don't mind Predator 2 at all, there's actually a lot of stuff I like about it. It's still not a great movie to me, but I don't skip it when I'm doing a marathon like I would have once upon a time. It expands upon the Predator lore in some pretty cool ways, and the Jamaican Voodoo Posse inspired my Escher Necromunda gang, so I've wound up pretty 50/50 on the whole ...

So for the sequel, we swap an actual jungle for an urban one, and Arnie is replaced by Danny Glover. At least the baddie is the same - only this time, we immediately know what's going on and what to expect. Therein lies the problem: there is no suspense. A seriously B-list group of talent - Gary Busey ("Keyes") and Adam Baldwin ("Garber") amongst them, really help this descend quickly into a pit of mediocre special effects tinged with Glover's rather typical way of playing cop. It doesn't hang around, to be fair - there are plenty of combat scenes; and Sylvia Saunders ("Ruth") looks like she could be lethal with a broom, but by the end, I was fairly sure I was in the visitor's camp because this just isn't very good.