Predator 2 (1990) Retrospective/Review

so why can't we see him defensive adaptations are astounding it's somehow able to bend like it's a perfect camouflage you admire the son of a [ __ ] not what he does Lieutenant for what he is for what he can give us a new era of Scientific Technology I've waited a lifetime for this and I'm not going to miss the chance [Music] live with hardcore I haven't seen it in your face it's like Dotty's hell down as Colombian and Jamaican drug feeds once again from the Streets of L.A into a slaughterhouse [Music] I've Seen It All Before I want some information about the one that's doing all the killing I uh how did they go they killed your people now man I think you know who he is I don't know who he is there's your killer wonderful pheromone signature left by his body ten years ago one of his kind stalked and eliminated an elite special forces crew in Central America there were two survivors other world life forms Iwo Jima Cambodia Beirut drawn by heat and conflict is on Safari there's no stopping what can be stopped oh kid in what can't be killed trophies as the game isn't a case you're the lion this is his jungle you can't see the eyes of the demon thank you right here [Music] Predator 2 exploded onto the big screen on the 21st of November 1990 in the USA and it didn't make its way to the UK until May of the following year costing in the region of 35 million dollars it would make around 57 million dollars worldwide at the box office making a lot less than the original 1987 movie with action star Arnold Schwarzenegger directed by Stephen Hopkins who had just come under the radar for his recent work on Elm Street part 5 which didn't do well critically that Stephen slick Direction had been highlighted making him a talent to keep an eye on by the time critics got to see Predator 2 a number of films that year had been criticized for being overly violent with Die Hard 2 and RoboCop 2. Predator 2 would receive the same complaints Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert both gave it the thumbs down Roger said as a high-tech Thriller it does the job but complained about the heavy use of foul language and wished they toned down the violence Jean said Danny Glover is a fine actor but you can't beat Schwarzenegger when it comes to going up against a monster like the Twitter he felt Predator 2 was a carbon copy of the first and it wasn't a pleasant film The Washington Post were far more positive saying it felt that it had the Dismal irony of rubber cop and the brooding fatalism of Blade Runner and they felt Glover brings an unusual depth to the action adventure and proves fiercely effective as the Predator's new Nemesis though the New York Times were less kind calling the film an unbeatable Contender for the most mindless and mean-spirited action film of the holiday season years later director Stephen Hopkins expressed his thoughts on Predator 2 saying it's so over the top I just sort of went for it and made the biggest boldest loudest movie I could make I was only 29 years old I was like a rampant child running around Los Angeles blowing the [ __ ] out of everything and making things as bloody as possible but if he shot it now he would film it completely different as his style as a director has changed considerably since the 1990s he felt the movie's failings at the box office was a result of Arnold not appearing in it which he expressed in the film's audio commentary the first week the box office numbers were good but come the following week the numbers had dropped off as word had spread about Arnold not making an appearance but also no star was on the poster with its focus on the Predator which may have turned off those who didn't really know much about the creature Predator 2 would of course have video games which will be discussed later and the film would be adapted into a two-part comic published by Dark Horse Comics upon the film's release which was probably more graphic than the movie The Predator would disappear from the big screen for 14 years and instead found life in comics and video games which maintain the character's strong fan base the Predator would eventually return in 2004 in the lackluster film Alien vs Predator and its sequel in 2007. despite those films getting generally negative reviews they made money so there was still life left in the Predator franchise and a new film arrived in 2010 which essentially was a direct sequel to the original and was a Richard of a familiar ground but fared far better than those AVP movies in 2018 Shane blacku appeared in the original film would direct and co-write the Predator despite the hype it was panned by the fans and critics with the series now in trouble many thought it was over for the franchise a prequel was produced called prey which set the story in the 1700s with the predator hunting a Native American which turned the series around receiving strong reviews from fans and critics alike in 1987 Predator would become a box office success and would find an even larger audience on home video Dark Horse Comics launched a comic series based on the character in 1989 the first issue set the predator in a city serving as a sequel to the film with duchy's Brother John who works as a detective facing up against the creature this series was titled Concrete Jungle which would find itself turned into a crappy video game years later on the Xbox and PS2 20th Century Fox wanted a sequel to capitalize on the franchise and set their sights on releasing it in 1990. the writers of Predator Jim and John Thomas were again asked to write a sequel both writers already had a bunch of ideas the studio settled on the idea of having a predator in an urban jungle I don't know if the writers were inspired by the recent Comics but it made sense in terms of a sequel to move the setting to a large city to offer a new environment the eventual setting would be in Los Angeles in the near future where the city is being hit with a heat wave so the heat becomes this attractive setting for the creature to hunt when it arrive times it faces a city blighted by gang Warfare the script was then developed in just three weeks the writers didn't get much of a chance to develop the Predator's Origins and motives in the first film we got little bits of information here and there where the Predator wouldn't attack someone unarmed and were seeking the greatest prey the goal for their sequel would be to expand upon that showing the creature has been visiting the planet for centuries had hunted other creatures in the universe doesn't harm children as a larger arsenal of weapons and more than one Predator would make an appearance the writers had written in mind for a new character to battle the Predator but they would later team up with Arnold's character Dutch for the second half Arnold was approached to return but he wasn't happy with the city's setting and didn't like the script and by that point he had been offered to return as the Terminator for T2 Judgment Day a role he couldn't turn down the producers also wanted John McKinnon back to direct Predator 2 but after the success of Die Hard he's now asking price was out of their range and here had committed to The Hunt for Red October which was due out the same year as Predator 2. Stephen Hopkins had come to the attention of producer Joel Silva for his feature debuted dangerous game from 1987 and reached out to him with the opportunity to direct Predator 2 while he was working on Elm Street part 5. Stephen admitted he hadn't seen Predator he said at that stage I'd been living in Australia and had been working flat out and had never seen it I eventually saw it and then met with John mctinon who was working at Fox and I had a long chat with him about it and he was really helpful Joel wanted something mind-blowing huge and stylish for the direction of Predator 2. the script was not completely finished when Hopkins signed on and he was sent a 60 page mostly finished draft he worked closely with the writers on the script revisions and storyboarded the sequences they had written with Arnold out a number of actors were put forward to play the lead apparently Patrick Swayze was considered on the Blu-ray audio commentary for the film Stephen wanted Danny Glover for the lead of LAPD police officer Harrigan but some concerns were raised with Dany in the lead in regards to the international market as some wouldn't be happy with a black actor in the lead as that was the thinking at the time but Lethal Weapon 1 and 2 were very successful worldwide so Stephen didn't see it as an issue Joel Silver really fought for Dany to be cast and fox weren't sure they felt he hadn't stood out in the Lethal Weapon films but they were eventually persuaded as the film was set in a Latino future Stephen was allowed to have Maria Conchita Alonso and Ruben Blaze play supporting roles creating a diverse cast uncommon for big Blockbusters at the time for the cast it mostly consists of actors who have appeared in Joel Silver's recent Productions Danny Glover of course plays Lieutenant Mike Harrigan a stubborn guy and often is criticized by Superior officers for not obeying orders and finds himself being hunted by the Predator Dany would continue to face successful career appearing in Lethal Weapon 3 and 4 as most of us are aware he hasn't stopped acting and would appear recently in the Jumanji sequel the next level Gary Busey plays Sergeant agent Peter Keys posed as a DEA agent leading a special task force investigating a drug conspiracy as a cover for his attempts to capture the Predator the character was originally written for Arnold's character Dutch but once he declined the role it was Rewritten as a different character Gary hadn't acted for over a year due to a nasty motorcycle accident in December 1988 and had to take a year out to recover if you watch the behind the scenes interviews with him he kind of stays in character and is mad as a parrot singer Ruben Blaze plays Detective Danny Archuleta a member of harrigan's team and his close friend and becomes the first of the team to be killed by the Predator Reuben has continued as a singer and as an actor for many years appearing in many TV shows and films and is seen as an icon in Panama where he was born the late Morton Downey Jr plays Tony Pope at the host of the TV show hardcore which covers the news throughout the city and he plays on The Sensational making him unliked by the police force Morton had his own show during the 80s a bit like the Jerry Springer Show come late April of 1989 he was involved in an incident in a San Francisco International Airport restroom in which she claimed to have been attacked by neo-nazis who'd painted a swastika on his face and attempted to shave his head but his story turned out to be false due to many inconsistencies in his story and it was seen as a ploy for attention and his reputation took a beating and his show was canceled singer Maria Conchita Alonso plays Detective Leona Cantrell Maria made her Hollywood film debut in Moscow on the Hudson in 1984 starring alongside Robin Williams and also starred in touch and go extreme prejudice and a favorite of many action fans The Running Man the late great Bill Paxton plays Detective Jerry Lambert an LAPD cop transferred from another Precinct into Metro command and has the nickname The Lone Ranger his role is often that of comic relief farming jokes left and right but is a pro when it comes to his job surprising his new teammates built a familiar face of the Sci-Fi genre having appeared in The Terminator aliens and now predator and sadly gets killed in all of them the late Kevin Peter Hall returns to play as the Predator Kevin was unsure about doing a sequel he revealed in an interview in starlog the experience making the first one was difficult due to the Heat and physical exhaustion making it he said it wasn't a pleasant experience wearing the suit and taking part in the action but once he read the script he said that he was hooked Peter liked that the Predator was younger less disciplined and more athletic Peter would be replaced for the finale as the Predator Gets half his arm cut off so they made use of a one-armed stunt man we have some familiar faces for the minor supporting roles with Robert Darby as deputy chief Phil heinemann Robert had just appeared in two big hit movies with die hard and Licensed to Kill the late Calvin Lockhart plays King Willy Steve Khan as sergeant Neil Riga Steve appeared in all of the Lethal Weapon films being Richard Donna's cousin he would often get supporting roles in his movies we have Adam Baldwin as agent Adam Garber a member of keys task force Adam was best known for Full Metal Jacket at the time he later appeared in Independence Day and would be the voice of Superman in Superman Doomsday and finally we have Kent McCord as Captain Brent Pilgrim harrigan's boss some will probably recognize him from airplane 2 out for justice and Return of the Living Dead Part 3. [Music] filming began in the later part of 1989 with the production split between location shooting mostly at night and Sound Stage filming Stephen Hopkins and his lighting director Peter Levy Wanted the movie to look like a western shot with a Dusty yellow look describing it like tobacco during the process of shooting in Downtown LA the locals weren't too happy with them filming for extended periods of time and making lots of noise so the crew would get bottles of piss thrown at them and even feces some of the shoots down the side streets they would discover large rats and even a couple of dead bodies hidden under the rubbish making it feel very unsafe for the crew for the set design production designer Lawrence Paul aimed for a kind of retrograde future that equals parts of Brazil and Blade Runner mixed in with modern day technology due to the heat Joel Silver suggested everyone would be wearing hats to keep the sun off them which also made it fall in line with its film Noir Vibes Lawrence Poole also said that the Apprentice ship he attempted a space vehicle unlike anything that had ever been designed before a snail-shaped vessel an interior that was both technological and reptilian where the creature and its ship blend and work together the main Predator was designed to look more urban and hip than its predecessor design changes included tribal ornamentation on the forehead which was made steeper and shallower brighter skin coloration and a greater number of fangs describing the new predator's design stand which instead the difference is is that it's a different individual their colors are different different parts of their characteristics their facial structure subtle differences Hopkins and Stan Winston thought it would be a great idea to feature the alien skull on the Predator's ship as a nod to the recent Alien vs Predator Comics but Fox thought it was distracting whereas Hopkins didn't see why he thought it supported the myth if you are going to go up against the most dangerous creatures in the universe there's one of them right there it survived being cut and would feature in the film but only quickly as it appeared far longer on screen in the original version doing the alien skull debate he was offered Alien 3 by Fox and he declined not wanting to go from Nightmare on Elm Street part 5 Predator 2 and then alien 3. he summed up they were being difficult with him because he turned down the directing duties on alien 3. as Danny Glover was a huge LA Lakers fan he managed to get some of the players to play the additional Predators at the end due to their height a number of years ago a video recording was leaked online with the Predators dancing around with Danny Glover while filming the finale of the film Stephen went to lunch and came back and was handed a VHS on it was the dance sequence as he went for lunch the Lakers grabbed a ghetto blaster and persuaded the visual effects guys to stay at lunchtime and set up the dry ice as they perform this dance number Steven thought it was genius Joel Silver was having issues on Die Hard 2 which was filming at the same time the film was going over budget and he was having big arguments with the heads of 20th Century Fox Predator two seemed to be going under the radar and fox didn't pay much attention to the production as Die Hard 2 was their major concern as it was predicted to be their biggest hit that year things got so heated between Joel and the studio he was thrown off the fox lot and he wasn't allowed to be there anymore he was finally allowed to come back into some of the sound mix on Predator 2 but his and the studio years working relationship had come to an end and Joel would jump ship to Warner Brothers after that [Music] in September 1990 the MPAA introduced a new rating of NC-17 which Predator 2 would be the first film to be slapped with having a strong rating such as this makes it difficult to market the movie Stephen felt they were trying to make a statement as Joel Silva was making a lot of big violent action films and Stephen had already had a run-in with them on Elm Street part 5 at one point they thought maybe they should go with a rating making the first film to have it but it was a choice the studio wasn't willing to make they had to go back to the MPAA multiple times to get the R rating Steven revealed at the end it was more to do with political conversations and the result was Tiny Cuts here and there some of the nudity was trimmed and hanging shots of the bodies were too long Steven said it was really that kind of boring stuff you could cut out so no big chunks of footage was removed just trims here and there to reduce its rating to an R once the film was finished Steven was done he didn't want to make Alien 3 he didn't want his career to be just directing sequels Joel had a falling out with Fox and Predator 2 didn't become the ship the studio wanted so Stephen felt no one expected there to be a predator 3 anytime soon [Music] for the film The Story it's in the future of 1997. good Lord Los Angeles is suffering from both a heat wave and an all-out war between the Colombian and Jamaican drug cartels a predator has arrived to hunt and is watching the police Jamaicans and Colombians observing who to hunt Lieutenant Harrigan grabs a car and charges through the Carnage and drives a Colombians back into their Hideout the Predator ambushes the Colombians causing a disturbance that prompts Harrigan and fellow detectives to defy orders and Enter The Hideout where they find the Colombians have been slaughtered within minutes of the attack one Colombian has survived and runs to the roof with Harrigan on the chase the Columbia spots the predator in his camouflage and then Harrigan takes him out before he shoots him Harrigan spots the predator and dismisses it as a consequence of the extreme heat back at the police station Harrigan is reprimanded by superiors whose Disobedience and introduced his special agent Peter Keys leader of a task force investigating the cartels and detective Jerry Lambert the newest member of harrigan's Team later that evening Jamaicans invade the Colombian drug lords Penthouse and murdered him before they are slaughtered by their Predator harrigan's team arrive on the scene and note the similarities between the current crime scene and the earlier Colombian Massacre until Keys team arrives and removes the bodies Archuleta returns to conduct a solo investigation finding one of the Predator's spear tips but a predator has been following his tracks and kills him as an enraged Harrigan vows to stop archuleta's killer forensic analysis reveal the spear tip is not composed of any known element on the periodic table Harrigan needs answers and meets with Jamaican drug lord King Willie who tells Harrigan that the Killer is Supernatural and that he should prepare himself for a battle against it Harrigan leaves before the Predator kills King Willy taking his head as a trophy tracing a lead indicating archuleta's killer had recently been in a slaughterhouse Harrigan arranges to meet his team at the warehouse District to investigate Leona and Jerry take the subway there but are ambushed by the Predator who cuts his way through the civilians and takes Lambert's head as another trophy Harrigan is losing his team game and the Predator is getting close and he is taken to meet Peter Keys as he knows the Predator is hunting Harrigan Petey Keys tells him it's an alien and they intend to trap it so they can harness its technology [Music] the same visual effects team would return for Predator 2 and would have nearly 700 visual effects shots to complete and it would be one of the last batch of movies that would use the old analog methods of visual effects before the move to digital compositing and computer animation the same process of having the Predator camouflaged was used with a performer in a red suit which made it easy to control optically the shots would be locked off and a motion control camera used to shoot multiple plates they often avoided using the Predator's dreadlocks as it became a nightmare to map them out but they do appear to make use of them a couple of times in the sequel these Subway sequence would make it tough for them to do the effects as the camera was on a shake box so the effects team had the genius idea of placing red LED lights along the set to help them track the Predator so they can mat in the camouflage effect the most impressive sequence in the film and looks totally Flawless is the Predator walking towards King Willy the effect was achieved by having a camera on a dolly track that is underneath the water and controlled by a computer with copper tubing that had compressed air to make the water splash up to simulate the Predator walking then combined it with a performer walking in sync to make them line up there is zero matte lines and it's mind-blowing stuff especially without the use of a computer generated effects didn't have much time on the first film to develop the weapons in gear come the sequel they had the time to refine the designs of The Gauntlet and plasma cannon and they introduced new weapons for the Predator to use with a telescoping spear that could be extended a net that faster trap its victims and the net itself would cut into them the frisbee-like device called the smart weapon can track people want Stone and cut you in half the visual effects for Predator 2 still stand up really well today the team did an incredible job considering the technology at the time there's a couple of wobbly opticals near the end with the multiple Predators appearing out of camouflage but you are dealing with multiple effects plates and with dry ice at the bottom of the frame it becomes very difficult to hide the limitations of the chemical process but in all highly impressive work Alan Silvestri returns to compose the score to Predator 2 and brings back his themes from the original but brings on new musical cues and sounds to add an extra layer to the soundscape or the Predator Universe Alan had scored the first Predator film early on in his career and since then he had scored the Back to Future sequels Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the abyss in moving the Predator from the jungle to the city the original had more opportunities for suspense the music for the sequel goes way over the top with a mix of tribal drums with a Jamaican flavor and additional voices thrown into the queues to give the Predator a sound when he attacks an ape-like vocalizations to create a unique sound from the opening sequence the music is big and bombastic it's an amazing opening as the Predator 2 titles blast on screen and a score doesn't let up as the action kicks off in the streets and just continues as the war rages on into the Colombian hideout in the original film The Score would slow down for the characters to come together to figure out what's going on the sequel has that in areas but it's more concerned with just throwing everything at you to bring your score that is 90 action making it an exciting soundtrack to listen to I have lots of favorite tracks on the album but the most impressive is the Predator jumping down into the water and slowly walking towards King Willy it's menacing and just compliments the incredible visual effects to create the perfect moment in the film I've read some reviews over the years some some critics saying it's not as good as the original and recycles too much of the original themes yes Alan does bring back a lot of the same music which many sequels do to keep continuity Alan has been criticized before for repeating his music throughout a number of films he scored a judgment night in 1993 was supposed to be a Sim score but was rejected so he basically gave them a version of Predator 2. it's crazy how similar it sounds but like The Talented composer he is he reorchestrates those original themes for Predator 2 and uses them in refreshing ways and just amps up everything which would naturally happen with a sequel with Stephen Hopkins direction to just go crazy with the visuals the music follows suit the original Predator 2 soundtrack was released on CD when the film hit Cinemas containing about 45 minutes of music and the album covered the majority of the school Alan produced but many complained of the audio quality or the music sounding too quiet in areas sending perhaps too compressed or the mastering had the decibel levels too low this was all corrected in 2014 for two CD special edition album which expanded the score's running time to more than double the original included several alternative takes bonus cues and corrects the audio problems this limited edition as you can imagine is no longer in print and sells for high prices from secondhand sellers but you can sample most of the score on YouTube a wonderful moment from a few years ago has Hans Zimmer and Henry Jackman both geeking out and praising Alan silvestri's score to Predator 2 with Hans Zimmer saying it's one of the best action scores ever produced if you can find it at a good price it's one you need to add to your collection it's one of my favorite schools from Alan Silvestri [Music] Predator 2 would find its way to micro home computers and consoles from 1991 to 1992. First up we have the home computer versions produced by Arc development and published by imageworks these popped up on the Spectrum c64 amstrad CPC Atari St Amiga and MS-DOS this on-rail shooter has new players Danny Glover gunning down gang members and the Predator pops up now and again to cause some trouble the development of the game took about five months input from 20th Century Fox led to content restrictions upon the game as they had to approve all the graphics and disallow death and blood as Fox was aiming to market the game to a younger audience so they didn't want any killing the developers thought this was ridiculous so they had to think of a compromise the team came to the solution where characters fall over backwards and disappear when defeated as opposed to dying when released the game didn't fare that well with most reviewers being disappointed with it and complaining it was too hard especially on the 6 steam-bit computers and the gameplay being very repetitive come 1992 Predator 2 would arrive on The Game Gear Master System and Mega Drive handled This Time by teeny weeny games later renamed perfect entertainment and published by a claim the Mega Drive release would take on a different approach with a mix of top-down and an isometric Playing Field playing a lot like Smash TV and this time Fox didn't care about the violence as its far more graphic compared to the home computer counterparts the Mega Drive version I played when it came out and I loved it the non-stop action things exploding all the time failing to save the civilians and seeing their body parts fly past a camera as the Predator takes them out was hilarious and you could Breeze through it in about half an hour you just need to make sure you collect enough weapons for the final level as the constant attacks by the endless Predators can be tough defeating the emboss was super easy just standing to the left of him avoiding his projectiles made it a breeze the game was short but sweet The Game Gear version would be an auto scroller a bit like Gunsmoke and would be a straight pull to the Master System as they appear to have the same resolution the game would take on familiar Graphics levels appearing the same in design the last level however in the Predator's ship does seem to represent the look of the movie far better than the Mega Drive release and the music would be identical though not as good in quality to its 16-bit counterpart these 8-bit versions were fine but very average and pretty forgettable making the Mega Drive released the best version to play I like many Saw Predator 2 when I was too young and with it being a full-on 18 rated movie I loved it seeing movies such as this was so exciting as it gave you a sense of getting into trouble for watching it and it was so radically different to what you could watch at that age it made it special very much like my experience watching Predator 1 rubber cop 1 and 2 and the Alien films I don't recall renting the movie I don't think my dad would have got it from the rental store so it had to be a recording off TV and my close friend at the time had the movie channel on Sky satellite and a year after the film came out it was always on Sky of a cool singer promos for it non-stop now the film has often been regarded as underrated over the years but at the time people complained it didn't live up to expectations of the original it felt perhaps more mean-spirited and aggressive thus putting some people off for me the sequel does fit nicely next to the 1987 classic it has all the right elements in place but gets carried away and becomes a bit too over the top for it to be taken seriously as a teenager I kind of accepted that it wasn't as good as the Arnold film but the more I went back to it over the years I just found myself enjoying it more and more now the film is a killer opening act slam bam action that doesn't let up Hopkins direction is brilliant with their energetic MTV style of visual Flair and Mark goldblatt's slick editing creates a solid piece as the story unfolds Harrigan and his team start to put the pieces together on who was killing these gang members and Peter Key's suspicious involvement the introduction of this gang Warfare does fizzle out pretty quickly once King woolly is taken out the story shifts to focus on predator hunting so in terms of any real meat to the plot it sort of runs out of steam but the action is pretty constant to keep you distracted I always love it when films depict the near-distant future with it set in 1997 seven years from the film's release it's all down to the fact that Predators visit every decade and it's strange it's the only film in the franchise to have this future setting where the others had this contemporary setting aside from prey which goes backwards in time what it does to reflect the future is that they have these weird pistols with these laser sights cobbled on and computers that can talk that's kind of it and perhaps global warming has got worse hence why it's so bloody hot with everyone looking like a sweaty mess on screen I mean Bo and barbecue now the dialogue came under fire at the time for being foul-mouthed from the start the cursing is pretty constant but I found it quite funny but I can understand why it had been criticized using swear words all the time it seems a bit of a cheap way or say shortcut to avoid writing something perhaps more creative it does have this aggressive attitude throughout if people are not swearing they are shouting at the top of their lungs this kind of Falls in line with a mean-spirited tone the film has and falls into comparisons with Die Hard 2 and RoboCop 2 which are both aggressive with their use of foul language and having characters who are written to be just nasty people which can in some cases reduce the entertainment value but I don't think that naturally reflects the quality of Predator 2. despite the film having a lot of action doesn't quite match the level of excitement of John McKinnon's efforts it's not to say Hopkins is bad at action far from it his work as a second unit director on Highlander showcased he has a knack for it but after the Predator's encounter with the Jamaicans it doesn't quite hit the adrenaline pumping sequences of the 1987 film despite the sequel throwing everything at you the death of King William's cut short a Subway sequence though designed to be chaotic and confusing just results in a confusing sequence with the continuity seeming out of whack with the position of the character's location on the train I just felt the use of the strobe lights makes it difficult to watch and I just wished it was played out in a more simple fashion to keep the action more focused as keys and his team attempt to trap the Predator but fail to realize he can see them with the adjustments to his heat vision the sequence has a great setup but with the choice of shooting a lot of the action in close-ups it comes off again like the subway sequence a bit confusing and feels slow for what should be a fast and impactful sequence once Harrigan comes on the scene fully armed and with body armor things start to improve and it is a great Face-Off as he surprises the Predator with a few shotgun blasts to the chest as Harrigan chases the wounded Predator he manages to do some serious damage by cutting his arm off so he now has the advantage but in the original the action shifts to do something different we get to see Arnold use his wits to defeat the Predator by hiding his body heat and leading the Predator into a trap whereas Danny Glover's character Harrigan just gets into a punch-up and uses these smart discs to kill off the creature so it becomes this straightforward approach and honestly not as satisfying the Highlight for me at the time when I first saw it is the reveal of all the other Predators who have been watching I love seeing this glimpse of the expanded world of the Predator it leaves you wanting more but you are only given a taste of what could be explored in a follow-up but we never got that at the time during the 90s Predator 2 did a lot to expand on the world or this alien creature far more than the original pretty much all the games and comics I've brought the design of the ship and the new weapons that are introduced other movies in the series have taken on his ideas so it did a lot to really build upon the mythology of the Predator to create a more solid foundation where it introduces ideas that didn't feel out of place or unnecessary it all seemed a natural fit and progression of the universe and the character Predator 2 goes full comic book and loses some of the serious tone of the original and the sense of suspense that came with the hunt with its direction but a sequel offers bucket loads of action Gore humor and takes things up to 11. Danny Glover may not match the screen presence of Arnold Schwarzenegger but does bring a performance that brings a level of believability someone who doesn't seem scared or phased by the fact that he's battling an alien it's not to say Arnold's character was but we have a character in the sequel who seemed less of a superhero in strength and just wants to do his job and avenge his friends and goes above and beyond as we've seen more Predator films over the years people have come to see the merits of the 1990 sequel as the more modern movies got a few things wrong with the character all tone down the violence to a piece the studio to make more money with younger audiences though to be fair ADP Requiem did stick with the extreme violence but went too far bordering on bad taste Predator 2 stuck to its guns and was made to entertain adults it was a great time in cinema when we had harder 18 rated movies with big budgets that didn't feel sanitized they didn't hold back and reveled in their violence Predator 2 is certainly not a masterpiece or considered a sequel that is better than the original like The Godfather Part 2 or the Empire Strikes Back but it offers more of the same and then some but stumbles a few times with its script and perhaps a change of location takes away the suspense of being watched by the alien resulting in a less threatening presence of the Predator but there was no denying the film was really entertaining and at the end of the day that's good enough to make it a worthwhile sequel foreign if you enjoyed the video don't forget to hit the like button and click the Bell to be notified of my latest retrospectives and reviews big thanks to my patrons for supporting the channel if you want to get involved and gain early access to my content and exclusive videos then follow the link below [Music]

Channel: Oliver Harper

Views: 126,976

Keywords: predator 2 review, predator 2 making of, predator 2 retrospective, predator 2 1990, danny glover, alan silvestri, retrospective/review, oliver harper, oliver harper predator 2, oliver retrospective

Id: PxXjTceyKl4

Length: 35min 9sec (2109 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 29 2022