Predator 2 (1990) Review

"Want some candy?"
-Predator



Lt. Mike Harrigan (Danny Glover) is a fearless Los Angeles police officer on the front-line of the war with various drug cartels.  After a brutal shootout, Mike and his team discovers some of the cartel was murdered by an unknown third party.  When a mysterious government team is brought in, led by Peter Keyes (Gary Busey), Mike becomes even more concerned about what is happening in his city and starts hunting the unknown killer only to discover it's from another world.  The Predator (Kevin Peter Hall) starts killing off members of Mike's team making the inevitable confrontation between the two fearless warriors personal.


What Works:

I think Predator 2 is a very underrated movie and I actually like it more than the original.  I know that's a hot take, but hear me out.  Mike Harrigan is a more interesting protagonist than Arnold Schwarzenegger's character in the original.  Dutch was just a standard tough guy.  Mike is a hot-head and has problems with authority.  The guy can't even pretend to give a crap about the politics of the situation.  He just dives in head-first to help solve the problem.  He ignores every authority figure in the movie to take on the Predator and I really enjoy that.  Danny Glover gives a memorable performance and it's fun to see him play the wild cop instead of the more by-the-book one he plays in Lethal Weapon.

We also get two solid performances from two of my favorite character actors.  The late Bill Paxton is one of my all-time favorite actors and he's great here even if he does get killed off too early.  He plays a wise-cracking guy, similar to his character in Aliens, but unlike that character, in this movie Paxton's character is actually a good cop and can get stuff done.  He's also much braver than his Aliens counterpart and faces the Predator head on.  It's a fun performance from a legendary actor.

We also get Gary Busey and his arguments with Danny Glover are a lot of fun.  I'm always up to have Busey in a movie and he delivers here, although he does get out-crazied by Glover, which is pretty unexpected.

I really enjoyed the opening sequence of the film.  Predator 2 throws us right into the action with an insane shoot-out.  Right away, the film establishes what a badass Mike Harrigan is as he drives his car through the shoot-out and leads an assault on the carter's hideout.  It's a great establishing scene for the film.

As goofy as it is, I enjoy the voodoo gang.  It reminds me of the James Bond movie Live and Let Die where the bad guy uses voodoo to scare people and keep them in line.  It's absurd and schlocky, but I enjoyed it more than having just a standard drug gang.

We also get the creepiest Predator moment in the series, which takes place during the subway fight.  As the Predator takes on Bill Paxton, he echoes the voice of a little kid he met earlier, "Want some candy?"  I find this really creepy and by far the most chilling moment of the series.

Finally, this film adds a little more to the mythos of the Predator and doesn't overdo it like the most recent film did.  We get to go inside the Predator's spaceship and see his wall of trophies.  I love the fact that the Predators take the skulls of worthy adversaries and getting to see it's not just humans on the wall, but xenomorphs as well, is very cool.  Plus, we get to see more of the Predator's respect for other warriors when the rest of the Predators let Mike live and even give him an antique gun as a trophy.  This stuff is what make Predators so interesting and it's awesome that we get more of it here than we did in the original.


What Sucks:

As in the first film, I really hate the heat vision the Predators use to hunt.  I hate the effect.  I hate looking at it.  I hate everything about it.  The idea itself is fine, I just don't like how it looks on screen.

The character of King Willie (Calvin Lockheart) is disappointing.  In the first half of the movie, he is really built up to be a super insane and feared character.  It turns out he's just kind of a weirdo who doesn't add anything to the plot.  The whole conversation between him and Mike doesn't really go anywhere.  I think it would have been cool to somehow have Willie join Mike's team.  What we got was definitely lackluster.

Finally, I don't love the flashing light effect used during the subway fight.  I get what they were going for, but it was a bit much and made it hard to tell what was happening.  Losing that effect or at least dialing it back would have gone a long way to make the scene scarier and the Bill Paxton/Predator showdown more intense.


Verdict:

Predator 2 gets a bad rap and I'm not sure why.  I say it's pretty much on par with the original film and I actually like this one slightly more.  It's got a solid protagonist, awesome supporting characters, a great opening sequence, a voodoo gang, and we get more insight into the Predators.  Sure, I don't love all the visual effects and King Willie was disappointing, but this movie has still got it going on.

 7/10: Good        

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