Even though the franchise has been consistently inconsistent for 35 years, any self-respecting Predator fan surely has a soft spot and an undying love for Stephen Hopkins’ 1990 sequel set on the sun-baked streets of Los Angeles.
Moving the action to a concrete jungle as opposed to literal one was an ingenious creative decision, but it may shock a lot of people to find out that Predator 2 is both the worst-reviewed and lowest-grossing entry in the entire standalone series (crossovers aside), by virtue of a 32 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and box office haul of just $57 million.
However, proving that cult favorites endure in spite of their reputations, one intrepid Redditor has suggested that not only is Predator 2 the finest entry in the sci-fi saga outside of the original, but it’s also one of the best horror sequels of all-time.
At the time of writing, upwards of 200 users have felt the need to reply, and the majority of them have been responding with nothing but positivity. It’s a travesty that Predator 2 isn’t held in higher esteem, when it’s got everything you could want and more from a delightfully cheesy, action-packed, and often gruesomely violent mashup of science fiction, action, and horror.
Danny Glover makes for an excellent everyman action hero, the supporting cast is excellent across the board from Bill Paxton’s cocky Jerry Lambert to Gary Busey’s scenery-chewing Peter Keys via Calvin Lockhart’s ominous King Willie, and it went on to inform the lore for decades to come, with Prey calling back to the movie’s climactic showdown, while Busey’s son Jake popped up as Sean Keyes in The Predator, to name but two instances.
