Predator

Movie Name: Predator
Year of Release: 1987
Director: John McTiernan
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Bill Duke, Jesse Ventura, Sonny Landham, Richard Chaves, Elpidia Carrillo, R.G. Armstrong, Shane Black, Kevin Peter Hall
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 6
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Synopsis and Review:

John McTiernan's career really started to pick up with "Predator", following his debut "Nomads", which came out in 1985. The film also started a successful franchise, which lasts to this day (with 3 subsequent sequels, and 2 crossovers with the "Alien" franchise). The film follows the story of Dutch, a resilient and resourceful mercenary, who leads a small tight team of former army veterans, who get called to special assignments that are seemingly impossible to be sorted out by everyone else. This time around they're presented with a special mission, courtesy of a former colleague of Dutch, a colonel by the name of Dillon. A helicopter has crashed own in one of the jungles of South America, and the army wants to retrieve survivors. While the mission seems rather straightforward, the team very soon discovers there's more to it than what was originally described. They also realize there's something else at play in those jungles, something that is hunting and killing them systematically. Dutch and his team have to figure out a way to outsmart this foe and survive.

What has always been so consistent on the most successful films from John McTiernan's career, has been his ability to subvert the clichés of certain genres, and actually make films that while having some of the trappings of a particular genre, still manage to intelligently surpass it. That's the case with "Predator", which at a first glance, could have easily been dismissed as just another Rambo film, in yet another jungle, and yet, John McTiernan manages to avoid that path, also thanks to a clever script from Jim and John Thomas. The director also understands that in order to make the film resonate effectively with the audience, it has to be populated with characters, motivations, quirks, which give them a reasoning and motivation to exist in whatever scenario is being set in motion. And he manages to do so, with the group of characters being established just enough, to bluntly define the relationships between them all. Another smartly woven aspect to this film, is the fact that the villainous creature never truly shows its face until the last chapter of the film. Much like Ridley Scott's "Alien", the director cleverly keeps the menace hidden, building a progressive sense of trapping and lethal menace within the jungle, something that applies to all the characters. While Schwarzenegger is his habitual self, the supporting cast provides enough diversity to keep the film persistently engaging. The score from Alan Silvestri is solid, as is the cinematography from Donald McAlpine. Entertaining and always worth revisiting.