Franchises: Predator. Predator 2 (1990)

I found out that there was more than one Predator movie around the time I first watched the original film all the way back in 2000 when I looked it up in the TV Guide's appendix of what movies were playing that month. I also read about it in various books on science fiction movies, including some I could find in my high school's library, as well as from a cousin of mine who had actually seen it before he the original and had really liked it. Afterwards, I saw bits of it here and there but I didn't actually see the whole movie until it debuted on AMC in October of 2002. By that point, I knew the gist of the story: another Predator is stalking a very different type of jungle, the mean streets of Los Angeles, and the star is Danny Glover (whom I didn't know at the time) instead of Arnold Schwarzenegger. That, however, was about all I knew about the movie going in. I can't remember if I knew about the generally negative feelings towards the movie from most viewers when I first saw it (I'm fairly sure that I did, though) but, regardless, when I finally sat down and watched the movie, I thought it was a damn good sequel and a fun sci-fi/action flick just like the first one. My opinion on the flick is the same now as back then and, in addition, I don't get at all why Predator 2 is so despised. In fact, I was quite flabbergasted when I did learn that so many people crap all over this film for whatever reason. While I don't think it's quite as good as the original, I still find it to be one hell of a ride and a fun, action-packed sequel, one of the best you could actually hope for, in my opinion.

The year is 1997 and Los Angeles is suffering from both a major heat wave and an ongoing, ultra-violent turf war between Colombian and Jamaican drug cartels that has turned the city into a dangerous battlefield. During a massive shootout between the Colombians and the police, Lieutenant Mike Harrigan charges into the battle and manages to drive the Colombians back into their hideout but just as he and his partners, Detectives Danny Archuleta and Leona Cantrell, can pursue them, the Colombians are attacked and horrifically slaughtered by an unknown assailant. Afterward, Harrigan, much to his chagrin due to his stubborn, hot-headed nature, is told to cooperate with DEA agent Peter Keyes, who arrives to help stop the drug war. He's also introduced to a new recruit: Detective Jerry Lambert, a reckless, young hotshot. It's not long before several members of the Jamaican drug cartel are slaughtered by the same mysterious attacker and when Keyes threatens Harrigan to stay out of the investigation after the latter disobeys orders and enters the building housing the slaughtered drug dealers when he wasn't supposed to, he becomes even more suspicious of Keyes' real intentions. After Danny, who was also Harrigan's best friend, is murdered while investigating the crime scene, Harrigan becomes hell-bent on hunting down and killing the assailant himself. Before long, though, the remaining members of his core group are either killed or severely injured and Harrigan eventually learns that the killer is another member of the alien species that attacked Dutch's team in Central America ten years before. When Keyes' attempts to capture the Predator fail, it's up to Harrigan to stop the alien trophy hunter.

Replacing John McTiernan, who begged off this movie to do The Hunt for Red October, is Stephen Hopkins, whose filmography, much like McTiernan's, is rather hit or miss, although much more so in his case. The year before this, he directed A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, one of the weakest entries in that franchise and he also didn't score any points with that film's cast when he called them unprofessional behind their backs during the making of Predator 2. Other films of his include Blown Away, Judgment Night (both of which bombed), The Ghost and the Darkness, which is a pretty good adventure-horror film starring Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas, and his biggest hit, Lost in Space. Since the turn of the century, he's worked mainly in television on shows such as 24, Traffic, Californication, and Shameless, as well as an HBO original movie called The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, which won him an Emmy. Hopkins has made some bad movies but, overall, I feel that he can be a capable director with the right material and in my opinion, he did a fine job with Predator 2. Interesting thing about Hopkins is that he unknowingly made a complete ass out of himself live on Good Morning America when he very loudly told Ruben Blades to get back to work while Blades was doing an interview for the show. Not a very flattering way to make your American television debut. Hopkins eventually apologized for his behavior, though.

One of the biggest things I always hear people gripe about in this movie is the casting of Danny Glover as the lead, Lieutenant Mike Harrigan and their complaints are always the same: Glover sucks as an action hero and can't carry a film. I don't agree with that at all. I think Glover handles himself very well in this movie, managing to make Harrigan stubborn and hot-heated but, at the same time, far from hateful and annoying, which leads to me rooting for him throughout the entire movie. Sure, he disobeys orders constantly and is often in hot water with his superiors for it, not to mention that you learn he has the biggest felony record in the department due to his explosive temper, but it's all for a good cause: he wants to keep his city safe. His attitude is simply, "This is my town and nobody is going to tell me how to protect it." You really can't blame him for getting so angry whenever he's told to wait on something when the clock is ticking and especially when this guy Keyes comes out of nowhere, takes over the investigation he was in charge of, and blatantly threatens his life if he keeps interfering. Like Dutch, Harrigan is also very loyal to his core group, in particular his best buddy Danny and when he finds Danny's body, he swears revenge on his killer, despite his superiors once again telling him to stay out of it. I think Glover comes across as very intense and genuinely furious in the scene where he grabs Keyes by the collar of his suit jacket, informs him of his intentions, and warns him to stay out of his way before slamming him against the wall and smacking his hands together in a threatening gesture. One of Keyes' team members tells Harrigan that Keyes is, "The last person on Earth you wanna fuck with" but in that moment, I think it's obvious that Harrigan deserves that title more because I really do think he could have ripped Keyes in half there if he wanted to.

Like any action hero, Harrigan has some great lines, although they're not like Dutch's lines in the first movie, meaning that they're not the one-liners you hear from an unber-confident action star like Arnold. Instead, they're things you'd hear from a guy who knows he's in over his head and can't believe that it's only getting worse. One of the best is when he's told that he's going to have to play by the rules, to which he responds, "Which means you're cuttin' off my dick and shovin' it up my ass." Another good one is after Harrigan kills the leader of the Colombians, El Scorpio, at the beginning of the movie and when Leona asks where he is, Harrigan says, "He's out front having lunch," and also when Keyes tells Harrigan that the Predator comes to the slaughterhouse every couple of days to feed and he says, "Well I didn't think he was vegetarian." His best lines, though, come when he's battling and chasing the Predator. "Okay, pussy-face, it's your move," is a good one but I tend to laugh at the stuff he says when he's trying to climb down the side of the building after the Predator. "Just like falling off a log" and then when he drops his gun, he adds, "Like a thirty-story log. Damn." After a few minutes, he also says, "Maybe I'll get lucky and fall." He finally manages to tail the Predator into another building, only to find that he's gone down an elevator shaft, causing him freak out and say, "Holy Moses, not again! Shit! Why can't this guy stay on the ground?" Finally, when he manages to kill the Predator but is suddenly surrounded by a bunch of others, he just drops the disc weapon that he'd just used to kill the Predator and nonchalantly says, "Okay. Who's next?" I like that he knows he's screwed and decides to just go with it.

The Predator clearly views Harrigan as a worthy quarry from the start given how, in the movie's explosive opening sequence, he watches as he takes on a bunch of heavily armed Colombians by himself and manages to drive most of them back into their hideout. Afterward, the Predator observes Harrigan on the roof of the hideout, managing to get very close to him by using his camouflage, and then stalks him throughout the movie, watching him as he argues with his superior after the firefight with the Colombians, as he goes to meet with King Willie, the Jamaican drug lord, and when he visits Danny's grave. He also tries to screw with Harrigan at the cemetery by hanging this necklace that Danny wore on a tree branch, possibly trying to see how he would react as well as challenging him, as Hopkins himself apparently said on his commentary for the film. The Predator clearly wants Harrigan but when he finally battles him, he proves to be much more of a challenge than he anticipated, which is another thing I like about Glover's performance: he makes a Harrigan a real bad-ass. Right after the subway attack, Harrigan is constantly on the Predator's tail and when he finally gets a chance to take him on, he goes all-out, pumping him full of lead, slicing off his arm with his own weapon and stopping from destroying the city with his time bomb in the process, following him back to his ship, dueling with him, and ultimately killing him, again with his own weapon. A bunch of other Predators show up but, instead of killing Harrigan, they're so impressed with his ability to kill one of their own in a fair fight that the elder gives him an antique handgun as a trophy. In fact, if you think about it, Harrigan is the first one to actually kill a Predator with his own hands. Dutch did critically injure the Predator in the first movie but that one ultimately killed himself with his bomb, whereas Harrigan brought this one down himself. As you can see, I don't get at all why people have such a problem with Glover. He may seem like an unlikely action hero but I thought he did a very capable job here and actually stood up to the Predator in a believable way (but then again, what do I know?).

Another reason why I like Predator 2 is because it reminds me of when Gary Busey hadn't gone completely nuts and was making an absolute moron out of himself. Granted, this was the first film he did after his motorcycle accident, which no doubt caused him a lot of brain damage and probably led to his completely bizarre behavior nowadays, but this seems to have been before it really took its toll on him. In any case, I thought Busey did a good job as the mysterious Peter Keyes. He claims to be a DEA agent whose task force is trying to stop King Willie's drug empire from taking over the entire west coast but it's obvious from the get go that he's using that as a cover for something else, which is trying to capture the Predator. I do admit that his character is kind of a cliche since he wants to capture the Predator in order to use his technology to further American weapon development (where have we heard that before?) but still, it's Gary Busey, so it's entertaining nonetheless. When he threatens Harrigan and tells him that if he doesn't stop interfering with his investigation, he's going to turn up missing, you believe it because Busey does look crazy enough to make that happen (even more so, nowadays). You also got to love how he keeps cool after Harrigan has that heated conversation with him, calmly straightening up his collar and breathing easily. One of my favorite lines is when he tells Harrigan that the Predator is an alien hunter and, "He's on safari. The lions, the tigers, the bears... oh, my." That easily could have been a line that would just make you roll your eyes but Busey makes it awesome. I actually kind of wish Keyes that got to fight the Predator more before he finally kills him but oh, well. A little Busey goes a long way.

The one main character here that I'm not too keen on is Harrigan's longtime friend Danny (Ruben Blades). Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Danny and he is certainly a good friend of Harrigan's, keeping him from doing something stupid in front of the press and whatnot, but there's a moment with him after they find the slaughtered Jamaicans that always puzzles me. It's when Harrigan is telling Danny to keep out of sight and wait for him so they can check out the penthouse after Keyes' men have left but the whole time he's talking to him, Danny's acting weird. He doesn't look at Harrigan much, he constantly nods, and he keeps looking up, like he's not even listening to what Harrigan is telling him. In fact, I don't think he was listening because Harrigan tells him to wait for him but nope, he goes into the penthouse by himself and sure enough, gets killed by the Predator. I just find it hard to be completely sympathetic towards Danny when it's his own fault that he got killed and also that everything that happens to Harrigan for the rest of the movie is because of him. He should have waited. He's only in the movie at the very beginning so it's not a big gripe but that bit just sort of rubbed me the wrong way.

Even though she's not a major part of the movie, I do enjoy Maria Conchita Alonso as Leona, a tough, Hispanic woman who doesn't take crap from anybody, particularly from men. My favorite part with her is at the beginning when Jerry is trying to put the moves on her and she ultimately grabs his crotch, saying, "Try that cowboy shit with me, fucker, and you can kiss this goodbye." I just remember thinking, "Hell, yeah!" the first time I saw the movie. She does grow to care about Jerry, though, particularly during the subway battle with the Predator when Jerry loses his life and the only reason that the Predator doesn't kill her as well is because he sees through his thermal vision that she's pregnant, which comes completely out of nowhere, though. The obvious question there is, "Who's the father?", which you ultimately never get an answer to. I always kind of assumed that it was Danny because there was one point where the two of them seemed really frisky towards each other, as well as Leona telling Harrigan that she loved Danny too, but, again, it's never explained and you never see her again after she's taken to the hospital so it's a moo point. It's not a major issue at all but I do think that was a weak aspect of the script.

I know that with his character of Jerry Lambert, Bill Paxton is basically playing Hudson from Aliens again but I can't help but enjoy him (besides, Hudson was cool). I always find Paxton to be really fun to watch and this performance is no exception. Jerry is funny (even though his jokes are lame), has boundless energy (I like the moment where he makes a move on a woman at this bar by telling the guy who's dancing with her she's his sister and I also like when he tells sleazy reporter Tony Pope to back off of Harrigan), and I was sad when he got killed in the subway. Afterward, you even see a faraway shot of the Predator ripping his spine and skull out, which was so horrific that I had the same sentiments as Harrigan when he yelled, "Oh, Jerry!" At least he went out a hero, though. Not much else to say about Jerry other than it's just Paxton being a load of fun, as he usually is. (Interesting thing to think about: Paxton has been killed the Terminator, by an Alien, and by a Predator, three big sci-fi icons of the 70's and 80's. There should be a medal of honor for that.)

In his review of the movie, Leonard Maltin said that any movie with Morton Downey Jr. couldn't be at all classy and I guess he's right in that respect because this isn't a movie that you would call classy and Downey's character Tony Pope is one of the scummiest in both the Alien and Predator franchises for sure. Pope is an absolute parasite of a sleazy reporter, constantly giving the police crap for being "incompetent" about getting the drug war under control, harassing Harrigan every chance he gets, sneaking onto a crime scene to get some grisly footage that he actually shows on his TV shows, crying "police brutality" when Jerry forces him to back off of Harrigan, and so on. In other words, Downey is playing that same loud-mouthed, obnoxious persona he displayed on his real-life TV show. He's the sort of person you just love to hate and while he didn't annoy me that much, he is despicable enough to where it is satisfying when Harrigan punches him out, telling him, "Fuck you!"

I always like seeing Robert Davi in a movie and even though he only has two scenes here as Captain Heinemann, I enjoyed his arguments with Harrigan and how he resents Harrigan's constantly disobeying his orders. Harrigan, in return, gets so mad at him at the beginning that he tries to attack him and Danny has to hold him back. Still, he must not hate Harrigan too much since, when Harrigan is faced with the possibility of losing his job over Danny's death, Heinemann goes somewhat easy on him and only warns him to start obeying orders. The only character in the movie that I don't really care for is Jamaican drug lord King Willie (Calvin Lockhart). He's only in one scene but to me, that scene is really pointless and serves no purpose in the plot whatsoever. All he does is tell Harrigan some vague mumbo jumbo about how the Predator is from "the other side" and as a result, when Harrigan leaves, he doesn't know any more about the Predator than he already did. Plus, I take a look at the way King Willie looks and talks and I think to myself, "This guy is a drug lord?" He looks and sounds more like a witch doctor (I know his men employ a voodoo ritual at one point but that's beside the point). Why would someone like him be interested in drugs? And finally, I don't get why the Predator bothers killing him, much less why he takes his head and turns his skull into a trophy. Did he really put up that much of a fight that his skull deserves being put on the Predator's mantle along with all of his other trophies? If you ask me, both this scene and the entire character could have been removed from the movie.

The scene with King Willie is an example of one of the problems that a lot of people seem to have with the movie: it isn't as well written as the original, a notion that I do kind of agree with. There are some few plotholes, such as Leona's aforementioned sudden pregnancy (she acts a little wobbly in the subway and mentions something about the heat getting to her but that's the closest thing you get to a buildup to her pregnancy) and exactly how the Predators managed to get their ship underneath an apartment building in the middle of the city with nobody knowing. I can't defend that and I do freely admit that they prove there are holes in the script. Apparently, though, both it and the initial film went through a few changes that would explain said holes. It seems that there was indeed a subplot that dealt with Leona's pregnancy but, for whatever reason (probably due to running time), it was cut from the final film. There was also a scene where Elpidia Carrillo briefly returned as Anna from the first movie in a scene where she's debriefed and describes the events of that film's events but it was cut as well (Carrillo, supposedly, does appear briefly on the video screen when Keyes is desribing the Predator's self-destruct device to Harrigan). The biggest change to the script, however, was the character of Peter Keyes. That was originally supposed to be Dutch but Arnold didn't like the idea of the movie being set in a city and decided not to do it, resulting in the character being rewritten as Keyes. You could even argue that the whole subplot with Keyes is unnecessary. Think about it: if you removed all of the stuff with Keyes and had the rest of the film play out as is to the final confrontation between Harrigan and the Predator, would it have affected the outcome? Not really. As great as Busey is in the movie, removing him could have easily made it much simpler without diminishing its impact. So, yes, the movie does have plot problems but I don't feel that they make it any less watchable.

Another criticism I often hear leveled against the movie is that L.A. isn't as compelling a setting as the jungle but, while I do agree that it isn't as atmospheric as the jungle and doesn't allow for as many quiet, tense moments like those in the original had, I think the city works in a different way. The Predators are drawn to heat and conflict and I don't think they could have picked a better location than L.A. around that time. I don't know if the city was really as bad as it's portrayed here (it could have been purposely made a little over the top for the sake of an action movie) but, in the context of the film, I think it's a perfect setting for the Predators to hunt dangerous game because this place is absolute hell on Earth. It's a dangerous warzone, with the Colombians and Jamaicans shooting the place up and the police virtually unable to maintain any semblance of order. You can also see how corrupted it is in general in the scene at the police station where it's absolutely crowded with a lot of people, most of them scum, and the police are just barely able to hold them back, as well as in the moments leading up to the Predator's attack on the subway where Leona and Jerry see an attempted mugging and just about everybody on the train has some sort of a firearm. The only place that's peaceful is, ironically, the cemetery and even then, there's a kid who's playing with a toy gun. Not only are half of the people scum but the city itself just looks unpleasant. You can tell that it's very polluted, with streets and such that are filthy and graffiti everywhere. One part that really makes me cringe is when Harrigan gets into the limo with the Jamaicans who are going to take him to see King Willie. That limo is so choked with cigarette and marijuana fumes and smoke that I wouldn't be able to last five minutes in there. And even though I still think the scene itself is unnecessary, I can't deny that the backalley where Harrigan meets with King Willie is another good example of how messed up and nasty this place is. Add to that the heat wave and the drought, where it's miserable to even physically be there, and you've got a setting that's the last place you want to be and, therefore, is ideal for this type of movie. If I have to nitpick, though, I must ask what is the point of setting the movie in 1997? There's no significance to it, nothing in the movie feels even vaguely futuristic, and besides, if you're going to set your movie in the future, why just set seven years into the future? Just unnecessary.

Much like the hardships the cast and crew of the original went through in the jungle, this film's crew went through similar crap while filming in L.A. After reading what the crew went through to film the alley scene with King Willie, I now kind of feel bad about giving it crap. That alley was apparently just as nasty in reality as it looks in the film, with rats everywhere, and it was also in a bad part of the city and they actually got bottles and bags full of crap thrown at them because the residents weren't happy with the noise the filming was causing. They supposedly also found a corpse (who knows how much of that is true), so they were really risking life and limb while filming that scene. Also, while they were filming the slaughterhouse scenes, everybody had to wear respirators because there was so much unhealthy junk that filled the air and the scene took about four days to shoot, with the water and lighting adding to the difficulty. Plus, I'm pretty sure that it was actually as sweltering as it appears in the film. I don't think L.A. is quite as bad now as it was then but, at the time, I'm sure that it was just as dangerous to film there as it was in the jungles of Mexico, perhaps even more so.

I'm also sure that there are plenty of people who see this movie as extremely racist in regards to the portrayal of the Colombian and Jamaican drug cartels. Now, before I say anything else, I want to make it clear that I'm not racist at all, that I'm all for stomping it out completely, and that, yes, this movie doesn't exactly show Colombians and Jamaicans in the best of lights. However, all that said, I feel that those who call this movie, and many others like it, racist are making a big deal out of nothing. First, two of Harrigan's partners are Hispanic, so that has to count for something. Second, I've read that the Jamaicans' use of voodoo sacrificial rituals is based on some real gangs who terrorized a couple of cities in the 1980's. It's portrayed in an over the top fashion, granted, but that leads me into my third point: this is an action movie. Don't know if anybody's noticed but action movies, particularly those made around this time, tend to be over the top in their heroes and villains because reality is often boring. Fourth, why does nobody bat an eyelash when Causian bad guys are over the top in their evilness but over the top villains from any other ethnicities are automatically racist? This really makes you look like a bunch of hypocrites. Finally, it's a frigging movie. Relax and enjoy it.

Just like the first movie, this flick moves at a lightning-fast pace and has plenty of good action. However, while the first movie started out slowly and built up to the action, this one decides not to hold back and hits the ground running, opening with a bang. The first thing you see is a devastating shootout between the Colombians and the police that the Colombians are winning, having critically injured several officers before they eventually blow a vehicle to bits. (I love one of the first lines in the movie where this reporter is trying to be professional in reporting on the scene but when a few shots get a little too close for comfort, she yells, "Oh, fuck this! Get me out of here!") Once Harrigan arrives, though, the tables quickly turn on the Colombians. Harrigan opens up the back of his squad car, where you see that he has a lot of weapons stored, and after he chooses a big rifle, he gets in his car, leaves the door on the driver's side open, and barrels forward, firing everything he has at the Colombians. He eventually manages to drive the majority of them back into their hideout, where they're attacked and slaughtered by the Predator. Harrigan chases El Scorpio, the leader of the gang, onto the rooftop and eventually blows him away when he refuses to put his weapons down (not realizing that El Scorpio sees the Predator). Now this is how you start an action movie! Best of all, the momentum of the movie doesn't let up from there. What we get afterward is the Predator slaughtering gang members left and right, eventually leading to the awesome attack on the subway. When I first saw this movie, I was absolutely blown away by that scene. Even though you can't really see it because of the constantly flickering lights, the impact is still tremendous, with the Predator mowing down a bunch of people and finally confronting Jerry who, after using up all his ammo, pulls out a blade and yells, "Alright, motherfucker, let's dance!" If you think about it, it's kind of like Billy's last stand in the original, particularly since you don't see Jerry's death on-screen either (but since it's Bill Paxton, who I like, I didn't really want to see him get butchered up close, even though you do see his dead body get decapitated from far off later on). But the movie still doesn't give you a chance to catch your breath because Harrigan proceeds to chase the Predator all over the city before he's captured by Keyes' men.

Once Keyes' team is attacked by the Predator in the slaughterhouse and Harrigan has to come to the rescue, the last twenty or so minutes of the movie is nonstop action. We first see the Predator brutally slaughter all of Keyes' men but once Harrigan bursts into the slaughterhouse with a loud blast, yelling, "You want me? Here I am!", we finally get to the confrontation we've been waiting for the entire movie and it doesn't disappoint. Like the battle between Dutch and the Predator in the original movie, it's an awesome fight. Harrigan immediately gets an advantage over the Predator, damaging his shoulder cannon, cornering him, and ultimately blowing several shots into him after he chases Harrigan amongst a bunch of hanging slabs of meat. Harrigan manages to take the Predator's helmet off but the Predator regain consciousness and the fight continues. The Predator destroys Harrigan's gun, kills Keyes by slicing him in half with one of his weapons, chases Harrigan to the roof, the two of them fall along the side of the building, the Predator tries to blow himself and the city up with his self-destruct device but Harrigan manages to cut his arm off, stopping the explosion and sending the Predator down the side of the building before grabbing onto a pipe that flings him over into an apartment in a building directly across from the slaughterhouse. After a lull where the Predator uses a medical kit to heal his wounds, Harrigan manages to get across to the building and the chase begins again, ending in the spaceship where the two of them have a final duel to the death. Honestly, with all of that to grab your attention, I don't get why this movie is so hated.

It seems as though the first cut of this movie was so violent that it got slapped with an NC-17 and had to be re-cut almost two dozen times before it could finally qualify for an R. According to Stephen Hopkins, there were many more gruesome shots of the skinned corpses of the Predator's victims as well closer shots of the Predator decapitating people and more mutilated corpses in the subway tunnels when Harrigan chases the Predator after he sees him decapitate Jerry's body. I find that interesting because to me, the final theatrical cut of the movie isn't quite as gory as the original movie. Don't get me wrong, the movie is still violent and mean-spirited as hell but if you think about it, the amount of actual gore is reduced. The mutilated bodies of the Predator's victims that you do see, while graphic, don't feel as sick to me as those in the original. In fact, the Predator's kills are shown in either very quick cuts or are filmed from so far away that you can't see much. Take for instance the most graphic scene, where the Predator carries away King Willie's head and proceeds to make a trophy out of the skull. The idea is gruesome but you don't see much of the actual process. Keyes' death where he is split in half is where you see the most amount of actual human blood but it's very brief. We see a whole lot more of the Predator's glowing green blood than we do red, human blood. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there isn't as much dripping, splattering gore this time around, that most of the really gruesome stuff deals with the aftermath of the Predator's attacks whereas in the original, you saw most of the gore when he actually killed people. I hope that makes sense.

Kevin Peter Hall returned as the Predator (sadly, this was one of his last gigs before he died of AIDS at the age of 35) and he's just as awesome as he was in the original movie. Since he's playing a different individual Predator who, although it's never explicitly stated in the film, is meant to be younger and not quite as disciplined as his predecessor, his movements are different. He gets the chance to run a lot more and do much more complex movements than he did before (although part of that could be due to the costume this time around being much less restrictive), as well as much more screentime. While the original hid the Predator for most of the movie, Hopkins and crew decided to establish this one's presence from the very beginning and have him massacring people right from the get-go. And boy, does he ever do some damage! Like I said, this Predator is mean to be much less disciplined and isn't content with just stalking and picking people off one by one. He's constantly bursting into crowded rooms with heavily armed, dangerous people and absolutely ripping them all to pieces, racking up a much bigger body count than the original did. He also seems to really relish the thrill of the kill because, after he decapitates Jerry, he climbs to the top of a building, lets out a loud war-cry, and holds his spear up in the air as a lightning bolt strikes him (it doesn't hurt him at all and only seems to invigorate him further). This guy is in absolute hog-heaven at that moment. He's also an absolute bad-ass because he gets hit by freezing cold gas, takes a bunch of shots from a high-powered rifle right in the torso, and, even though he has to use an oxygen mask, still keeps chasing Harrigan. What a stud! He may still follow the honor code of his species, sparing a kid when he realizes that the "gun" he has isn't real and Leona when he sees that she's pregnant, but for the most part, this is a hunter you don't want to mess with (which could also explain why he chose to hunt in Los Angeles; it makes for much more of a challenge).

I really like the design of this Predator as well. Like Stan Winston himself said, the overall concept is the same but his team added subtle but noticeable differences to get across that this Predator is a different individual. While it is indeed subtle, you can notice a difference in his helmet and his armor, as well as the aforementioned more aggressive way he hunts and kills his victims. The most obvious differences become apparent when Harrigan removes his helmet, revealing his face. His skin is a lighter color, he has lightly colored stripes on his face (particularly the forehead), his mandibles appear to be bigger and more pronounced, and he has fangs in his actual mouth. While I enjoy the new design overall, I don't like the really dramatic closeups of the Predator's face when he speaks in a couple of shots as well as the face he makes right before Harrigan slices his arm off, it looked a little too goofy for my taste. By the way, going back to the supposed racism of this movie, here's where I get rather irritated at Roger Ebert. In his very negative review of the film, he said that the look of the Predator has racist undertones to it, to which I ask, "So, you didn't have any problems with the design of the original Predator and yet you have one with this, which is the same basic design only with subtle changes?" If he is talking about the subtle changes, which of them have racist undertones to them in his eyes? Are they the tribal markings on the face or the fact that this Predator is more urban cool in his look? Seriously? Didn't mean to go on another little rant but, sometimes, critics pick out the dumbest things to drive home some stupid criticism they have.

This Predator makes completely different sounds than his predecessor as well, other than the clicking noises and some of the growling. This time, the vocal effects were created by Hal Ryle along with a lot of pre-recorded, animal sounds. His screams are much more high-pitched, in particular an eerie sound that he makes when he kills Danny, and, as I mentioned, he lets out a victorious war cry at one point. He also has some intimidating, jaguar-like roars and growls, some other sounds that let you know he's really angry, and some other, slightly sympathetic-sounding cries that he makes when he's wounded, especially a long, loud scream he lets out when Harrigan finally kills him with his own smart disc. One wounded sound that he makes that especially gets to me is the scream he lets out when he's healing himself and he gives himself a shot in the chest. That really seemed to hurt like crap. Like his predecessor, this Predator uses his helmet to record people's voices but other using Harrigan's voice right before he kills Danny, he seems to use it more to intimidate people, like when he uses that kid's voice saying, "Want some candy?" as he's attacking Jerry. In fact, this Predator, as well as his brethren, seems to actually be able to talk. He doesn't do it much but he does say "Motherfucker" and "Shit happens" after he's lost his helmet and even the Predator elder says, "Take it," when he gives Harrigan the antique pistol and he wasn't wearing a helmet then either. So, can the Predators just imitate the sounds of humans talking or can they actually talk but just don't do for most of the time? Kind of creepy.

I always like sequels that take the concept of the original and expand upon it and this sequel does it very well with the Predator. Not only is this one much more gun-ho in his hunting but he has more vicious weapons to get the job done. Besides the wrist blades, shoulder cannon, thermal vision, self-destruct device, and camouflage capabilities, he also has some smaller laser blasters on his arms; a retractable spear that he uses to impale his enemies; a gun that fires a net that apparently is razor-sharp and digs into the skin of anyone itr traps; little pincer-like spear tips that are deadly when fired from the aforementioned arm blasters; and a lethal smart disc that can slice someone, namely Keyes, in half. This Predator's helmet also allows him to see in more than one spectrum of light so he can attack Keyes' team after they block his thermal vision (some may argue why the Predator in the original film didn't use this when Dutch found a way to hide his body heat but I would argue that the species had invented that since then to counteract just such a thing). That doesn't explain, though, why the Predator's POV after he's unmasked is still thermal vision (must have been a goof) but who cares? I also must add that the camouflage silhouette effect looks even better than it did originally, particularly in the effect that's created when the Predator walks through a puddle of water towards King Willie. You also get to see a more advanced medical kit this time around, with the Predator using a heating mechanism to make bits of plaster hot so he can cauterize his wounds and this is also where he gives himself that shot that you can imagine hurt like hell from the scream he makes. While it's not part of the medical kit, as I said, you do see the Predator using an oxygen mask at one point. Some see that as a sign that the Predators can't breath oxygen without their helmets but I think he's actually using it because he's been severely wounded by Keyes' attempt to freeze him as well as the point blank shots he took from Harrigan and is buying himself some time until he gets a chance to use the medical kit.

They also expand on the Predators' culture as well. Like I said, as fierce as this Predator is, he still follows his species' code of honor in not killing unarmed humans or humans with physical disabilities. That doesn't exclude bladed objects, though, as shown when the Predator uses his wrist blades to duel with Harrigan, who has his smart disc. Since you see the inside of the Predators' ship, you get an even bigger sense of their culture from the patterns along the walls as well as the trophy room. Of course, I have to mention that there's an Alien skull among the trophies in the room, a blatant nod to the concept introduced by Dark Horse Comics around that time that these two franchises take place in the same universe. It's a cool little notion but, in retrospect, it made us anticipate some movie adaptations of the concept that were not worth the wait at all. The ending scene in the spaceship also expands upon the notion introduced in the original film that the Predators have been visiting Earth for a long time, with the antique pistol that they give Harrigan revealing that it's been at least since the early 1700's. You get a sense too of how long Predators can live because that elder (whose design is that of the original predator) has to be almost 300 years old and he looks pretty frail, while the other predators that show up with him are all clearly of different ages, some fairly young and others more "middle-aged." I like how the Predators could kill Harrigan right then and there but, since he defeated the main one in a fair fight, the elder gives him that antique pistol as a reward, like, "You did good, take this," and lets him go. It reinforces the notion that the Predators aren't mindless monsters. They may brutally kill their intended quarries but they do subscribe to the concept of, "fair is fair."

Alan Silvestri returned to do the music score and while he used a good majority of the same material he composed for the first movie, he added to it with the use of jungle-like drum beats, more percussion, and so on. He created a pretty cool mix of new music with some of his original motifs, especially the one that plays when the Predator attacks King Willie and makes his skull into a trophy as well as over the ending credits, and the main title theme is much more bombastic and military-like this time around. I prefer the sound of the theme from the original, granted, but this has a good sound to it as well and works well with the setting. One piece of music that I didn't think Silvestri handled all that well, though, was the Taps-like theme that he uses this time for the scene where Harrigan visits Danny's grave. It sounded way too rushed, as if Silvestri was thinking, "Okay, they expect me to play this during a scene like this so let's get this over with." Other than that little nitpick, though, all of the original themes and motifs are used very well, the new music adds a nice touch to it, and, as with the first movie, the music helps make the flick even more exciting.

I have always enjoyed Predator 2 and I don't understand why it gets so much hate. It's just as exciting as the original, Danny Glover is a great hero, there are some good supporting characters, the new environment is used to great effect, there's action galore, especially in the last act, the Predator looks once again looks good and has some cool new weapons and abilities to play with, the music score is still solid, and, all in all, it's a great 107 minutes. What's not to love? Sure, it has plotholes but those are miniscule and shouldn't be enough to make you automatically hate it. Unfortunately, this flick, for some reason, has gotten crapped on ever since its release. While it wasn't an out and out flop, its box-office returns were a joke compared to those of the original and it was savaged by the critics, and even though I think it has more fans now, it still often ends up on lists of "the worst sequels ever," which baffles me to no end. I for one will always stick up for this flick and try to make others see what an enjoyable movie it really is. If you saw it once and didn't like it, give it another chance at least, because it deserves it.