The Flick:Predator is one of those hybrid films, much like From Dusk Till Dawn. It tricks you into thinking it's a certain type of film, and then pulls the rug out from under your feet after you have already immersed yourself. Starting off as what seems like a possible continuation of Schwarzenegger's earlier film "Commando", a group of mercenaries head into the jungles of Mexico in order to rescue two captured soldiers. After a full on assault on the village where the prisoners are being held, and some amazing displays of gun porn, we learn that the mercenaries have been lied to, and that they are actually being used as pawns in a CIA mission to capture intelligence.
Up until this point, aside from a few very brief, unexplained segments of thermal vision, we're still fairly convinced that we're watching an action flick. It is about this time that we learn there's something going on that is not quite right. Strange deaths, weird sounds, and a few odd sightings throughout the jungle alert our team that there is something hunting them, and it might not be human.
Predator is tense as hell. Instead of focusing on the creature, it spends most of it's time building suspense. Some may see it as a popcorn action flick, but in my opinion, it's much deeper than that. It portrays perfectly, the paranoia one would feel being stalked by an unknown force in the jungle.
While "Predator" does spend a lot of it's time building up to the inevitable confrontation, it leaves plenty of room for amazing creature FX. It's hard to imagine that a film like "Predator" was nominated for an Oscar, that would never happen in this day and age. The FX are beautiful, and pop even more in this HD transfer. We're treated to an early piece of eye candy, when the mercs stumble upon three dead soldiers, hanging from a tree completely skinned.
The actual creature FX are mind blowing, especially when you consider that the film was made in 1987. Stan Winston created a very unique monster for this movie. So much so that it has spawned a sequel, a couple of mediocre spin-off crossovers with the Alien franchise, and now a "reboot" directed by Nimród Antal and produced by none other than Robert Rodriguez.
HD Video Quality:
I will be the first to admit that I didn't buy the earlier version of this disc. Knowing how fox is, I knew with a reboot on the horizon, that they would no doubt be double dipping this disc. I can't compare the quality of this transfer to that of the 2008 transfer. I will say, this is the best time I had watching "Predator" since the drive-in theater when I was a kid. Sadly, there are some issues with the picture. All of the background shots are beautiful. The Mexican jungles look amazing in this 1080p presentation. One thing that you'll no doubt notice though, is that there has been some software touch-ups done on peoples faces in an attempt to create details that were not present in the original source. When "Predator" was filmed, time and budget restraints caused them to use a certain stock of film that wouldn't require expensive lighting, opting for more natural light. What this does is create a film-grain look on the final product. It appears, in order to make this transfer seem as clear as possible, they've tried to do away with the grain via software editing, rather than cleaning up the actual film.
Suffice it to say, if you're upgrading from DVD, it's well worth the $15.00 price tag at Wal-Mart. If you picked up the earlier high-def disc, unless you're a collector with ADD, you may want to give it a skip. If this is your first time viewing "Predator" on the new media, you'll probably be impressed, regardless of the noticeable issues. One of the main problems is Carl Weathers face. It looks as if it's been touched up to the point that it is lacking all detail. You'll notice this problem on other peoples faces, but for some reason Weathers didn't transfer into the new media as well as other people. One of the first times I've ever seen an issue like that.
HD Sound Quality:
From what I can tell, there is no change in the audio track from the previous disc. We're treated with DTS-HD Master Audio, which sounds amazing. This disc will rock your system, particularly when the mercs assault the village. Crank it up, and with all the sounds of bullets whizzing around your living room, and explosions that knock the pictures off of your wall, you're sure to have complaints from your neighbors.
Extras:
One thing this disc does bring to the table that the original did not is extras. The first time around, fox released a completely vanilla disc, which was a total rip-off considering how much Blu-Rays cost in 2008. All of the features of the two disc DVD have been ported over to this Blu, and a couple of new extras just to sweeten the deal.
Extras Include:
● ALL-NEW Digital Restoration of Predator
● ALL-NEW Sneak Peak at Predators
● ALL-NEW “Evolution of the Species: Hunters of Extreme Perfection” Featurette
● Feature-Length Audio Commentary by John McTiernan
● Text Commentary by Historian Eric Lichtensfeld
● “If It Bleeds, We Can Kill It” Making-Of Documentary
● “Inside The Predator” Documentary
● Special Effects Featurettes
● Deleted Scenes and Outtakes
● Short Takes
● Theatrical Trailers
● Photo Galleries
● Predator Profile
The Verdict:
If you're like me, and you skipped the vanilla disc from 08, you might as well pick this disc up. At the low price of 15.00(Wal-Mart), it's not that steep of an investment. Sure, it has problems with the video quality, but it still looks far more beautiful than the DVD does, even upscaled.
If you picked the 2008 disc up, unless you just absolutely have to have those special features, I would give it a skip.
Fun Fact: Sonny Landham, who plays Billy in the film was actually a resident of my hometown, Ashland, KY for a long time. At some point he was actually running for some sort of local political office. I heard that he had become ill, and am not sure if he still resides here, or anywhere for that matter.
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