Yes, I finally saw the movie. After so many of my correspondents chewed me out for going to see Predators with virtually no prior knowledge of the 1987 original, I didn’t exactly have a choice but to check this one out sooner or later. Not that I needed much encouragement.

I think that the most surprising thing about Predator is that it’s really three films in one. It starts out as a “men on a mission” film, with a team of hardasses pulling off an intricate, dangerous and highly explosive operation. Then it turns into a kind of horror flick, with our characters getting picked off one by one as they try to escape some unseen and unknown threat. Finally, it becomes pure and unfiltered action as our hero tries to outsmart and outfight the villain.

The character development is quite intriguing. We first meet our band of soldiers on a helicopter and it’s fascinating to watch how their interplay and distinguishing characteristics are established with scarcely a word spoken. This is a movie that takes the novel approach of letting us learn about these characters primarily through their actions. The first half of the movie was ingenious in this way, showing us a crew of true commandos going about their mission. These guys could slip through the forest like ghosts, coordinate their movements quickly with barely any speech and kill a man in five different ways before he could call for help.

Unfortunately, this illusion is nearly ruined by Alan Silvestri.

The score for this movie is woefully misguided. Throughout the movie, Silvestri provides loud and flashy music not just for the big action fights, but also for the stealth sequences. The vast majority of this movie is about our heroes trying to blend into the jungle and move unnoticed. This clashes horribly with the overblown music.

The special effects are rather jarring as well. Not that I expected state-of-the-art CGI in a movie from the mid-80s, but the effects range from outdated (the opening spacecraft shot) to ugly (the invisibility effect). Additionally, the heat-sensitive POV shots were nigh-incomprehensible at times. On the other hand, praise be to the ghost of Stan Winston for this glorious monster he created. Credit also to Peter Cullen, who crafted the Predator’s voice.

But of course, this movie is most notable for a different reason entirely, and his name is Schwarzenegger. After watching so many hyper-masculine parodies of ’80s action heroes (quite a few of them played by Arnold himself), it was really quite amazing to meet their maker. Every hallmark of an action hero parody was in Schwarzenegger’s performance, and yet it didn’t feel like a parody. It was all played completely straight with total sincerity and it somehow felt fresh. In short, this character is the action hero that every macho action hero aspires to be.

Yes, Predator does have its flaws and plot holes — the soldiers make some pretty stupid choices when facing the Predator and the chopper’s location at the ending is just implausible. Still, the characters are sympathetic, the action is solid, the Predator is a formidable threat and Schwarzenegger’s performance simply demands to be seen by modern audiences. I don’t know if it warrants multiple viewings, but it definitely deserves a look.