The Movie
Predator was never my favorite Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. It's not very complex, there's no real character development, and in general I always found it to be a little too in love with its own script. An elite military rescue unit led by Arnold travels to Central America, they're too late to rescue the hostages so they kill everyone in sight. There's a subplot wherein these U.S. soldiers have been lied to, but it simply does not affect the story, which is really about an extra-terrestrial who visits the jungle during extreme heat waves and hunts men for sport. This of course takes the heavily armed, battle-hardened warriors by surprise, but they put up a good fight, which is exactly what this strange "predator" wants.
It's an interesting premise, and under the direction of the gifted John McTiernan, it yields a fast-paced, action-filled movie, if bogged down by a lot of macho posturing and scenes of blastin' stuff just for the sake of blastin' stuff. This new "Ultimate Hunter Edition" is a double-dip of one of Fox's cash cows, following a lackluster 2008 Blu-ray debut.
The Picture
Surely the star of this new edition is the digital restoration, presented in AVC format at an average data rate of 33 megabits-per-second. (The old disc was MPEG-2 at a lower bitrate.) A great deal of care has obviously been invested in pulling all possible detail from the original 1.85:1 master, which is crisp here and extremely clean for the most part, despite frequent layers of potentially hazardous smoke or mist. Quality can vary from shot to shot, some grain remains from the 35mm source elements, and there is some twitch in darker areas of the frame. Out-of-focus areas can look a little flat, and blacks could be more natural, and in a few shots the texture of an actor's skin was too "perfect," as if the digital noise reduction was cranked up a bit too high. But this is unquestionably a huge and welcome improvement over the previous release.
The Sound
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 channel sound remains big and full, with ample bass for such a weapons-blazing adventure. There are signature sonic moments like the sound accompanying the frequent "Predator vision" point-of-view-shots. Occasional discrete rears are utilized as well, mostly for voices, but in general I found the surround envelopment somewhat limited compared to modern tracks. True 5.1 as we know it today didn't exist back in 1987, and this was a modestly budgeted film in its day, believe it or not.
The Extras
Much bonus material had been created for DVDs past, but none of it was included on the old Blu-ray. Ported from pre-existing sources are the audio commentary by director McTiernan, in addition to a text commentary by film historian Eric Lichtensfeld. "'If It Bleeds, We Can Kill It' The Making of Predator" (29 minutes) is cobbled together mostly from old on-set interviews, divided into themed segments. There's also a seven-part "Inside the Predator" documentary and a multi-part Special Effects analysis, a series of brief tests of the red Predator suit (used to isolate it from the green jungle background) and alien camouflage styles. Four "Short Takes" random anecdotes are also here, along with four Deleted Scenes/Outtakes. All of this archival content is in standard definition.
New for this edition are Predators: Sneak Peak, a preview of the upcoming sequel which no doubt inspired this re-release (two minutes), and the "Evolution of the Species: Hunters of Extreme Perfection" featurette (eleven minutes), wherein a producer of Predator and the director and producer of Predators reflect upon the first movie. These are in high definition. Lastly, "Predator Profile" provides a photo/text analysis of his gear, newly updated with data on the sequel weapons.
Final Thoughts
For the legions of Predator fans, this Ultimate Hunter Edition is worth the wait. The picture is better than ever, the HD sound has lost nothing, and old extras are preserved with a light dusting of new material, too.
Product Details
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