Predator (1987)

Predator is a 1987 science-fiction action horror film directed by John McTiernan and written by Jim and John Thomas. It is the first film in the Predator series.

Plot
Alan "Dutch" Schaefer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and his team is sent to South America to rescue hostages from Communist insurgents. Accompanying them in the mission is Dutch's friend and CIA agent Dillon (Carl Weathers). After completing the mission, the team proceeds to the extraction point when they are hunted down one by one by the titular Predator (Kevin Peter Hall), an extraterrestrial warrior who has arrived to Earth to hunt humans for sport.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Established John McTiernan's Hollywood career; he would go on to direct Die Hard (and its second sequel, Die Hard With a Vengeance) and The Hunt for Red October, among others.
 * 2) A nice bait-and-switch: the movie starts out as your typical 1980's action movie before turning into a suspenseful horror film once the Predator makes his presence known to both the protagonists and the audience.
 * 3) Incredibly memorable and quotable dialogue from many of the actors, especially Schwarzenegger.
 * 4) Great creature effects by Stan Winston.
 * 5) A nice soundtrack by Alan Silvestri.
 * 6) Surprisingly nice performances.
 * 7) The Predator went on to become an iconic film monster, along with another 20th Century Fox monster, the Xenomorph from the Alien series.
 * 8) Excellently done action scenes.
 * 9) Good cinematography.
 * 10) ”GET TO THE CHOPPA!”

The Only Bad Quality

 * 1) The Ultimate Hunter Edition Blu-ray has been criticized for relying too much on digital noise reduction to the point that the footage looks terrible. Notably, Dutch ends up looking like a wax figure in one shot.

Reception
Review aggregator Metacritic assigns a weighted average score of 45 out of 100 based on 15 largely contemporary reviews, indicating a "mixed or average" response. Considering a broader range of retrospective opinions, Rotten Tomatoes reports that 82% of 49 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Predator: Part sci-fi, part horror, part action -- all muscle." The movie earned three stars from Roger Ebert. It also ranked 336th on the Empire Magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time". The movie's soundtrack has also won both the BMI Film Music Award and the Saturn Award for Best Music.