A few of the best memories that I have are with my Dad. On the weekends, we would always manage to find a channel that was airing some movies or there'd be Hercules and Xena playing. Two of the instances I remember the most was finding Predator and House on WGN. By this point, it may have even been a double feature. But I remember catching these with him and just loving both movies. Personally, it was always great getting to watch movies with him. And that's something that I am able to do with my son now.
For Predator, I didn't know much going in to it. I knew it had Arnold Schwarzenegger in it. I may or may not have seen Terminator. Predator may have been my first introduction to him. If that is, then it's a hell of an introduction. There were a group of guys going in to do something. I never was quite clear on it back then. Now, of course, I know Arnold led a squad (like the Expendables) into South America to try to rescue someone. Then things just happened to take a huge ass turn into science fiction. I can always recall the final battle with Arnold facing off with the Predator. My younger self always considered it to be a hell of a film.
Now that I'm older, I had the chance to share this experience with my son. He's pretty much in the same age range as I was when I first seen it. So, it's a great growing up moment. And we were able to sit down and watch it the other day.
I will preface this with saying that he has seen the first Alien Vs. PREDATOR and seen me play Predator Hunting Grounds. So it wasn't necessarily his first experience with the Predator in general.
The film started and the space ship soared across the screen. My son turns to me and says "There's an alien!". I told him that he needed to keep watching to find out. Clearly, that opening shot had already hooked him on it. The film moves and before he knows it, Arnold's squad is going into the village. My son was extremely just taken aback with how quickly the film is moving. But every time, the guns started shooting or an explosion, "It's time for fwee fwee." would ring out. He said his favorite moment was the whole final battle between Arnold and the Predator. Just seeing the two go toe to toe against one another was great. He really hadn't seen anything like that before. His final verdict of the film was, "It wasn't what I expected. I was expecting the movie to be people standing around talking like Tremors, which I hate. This wasn't slow. It had lots or action. And the Predator was really cool.".
I'm so happy that was able to share this experience with my son. It's something special that I'll always remember. Especially as it is a nice tradition that hopefully he will be able to share with his son later on.
But with this watch for me, I was able to see the film through a few new perspectives. It's the first time watching it with my son. It's the first time watching Predator since I started writing reviews. The first time watching the original since The Predator was released. So, it made for an interesting experience.
Predator is a classic and for good reason. It is those dirty dozen going into the jungle mixed with an Alien hunting them. Everything in the film holds up so well. It's definitely a master class in how to make a film. It's extremely well paced. It takes its time letting us get an idea of what characters we are going on a journey with. Quickly, it gives us little things that make each character memorable. The best examples are Hawkins jokes, the machismo of Jesse Ventura, and the quiet and stillness of Billy. Then when things take a turn and they are being picked off, we care. And all of it pushes forth into an unforgettable ending. Few films will ever be able to stand up to or surpass what they were able to do here.
Rating: 5 out of 5.
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