Predator [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

I'm both amazed and appalled at what 20th Century Fox has done with this blu ray, providing one of the most schizophrenic video transfers I've ever seen, which despite its faults still impresses me.

Because eighty percent of the time, it's beautiful.

They must have used a different source print than they had previously. Many scenes that were dull and dark before now show wonderfully vivid colours and much greater contrast. Also, it seems Fox has done a heavy amount of grain reduction, which I know will be an instant deal breaker for some cinephiles, but I do think that Predator benefitted from the treatment. I was astounded at the clarity some scenes have, every piece of foliage is razor sharp, and the Predator himself is so detailed in closeup it's scary. And it doesn't stop there.. From being able to see each bead of sweat on Carl Weathers' face, to the intricate patterns of the lightning effects as Predator decloaks, the new video transfer often presents scenes that look light years ahead of older versions of the film.

But then there's the other twenty percent...

The infamous scene at the start, when Dillon and Dutch lock arms, is one of the most egregious examples of video tampering. Carl Weathers' moustache looks like it's a blurry smudge on his face in this scene, whilst R.G. Armstrong now appears to be made of rubber. Arnold's closeups here are just plain ugly. Certainly not a great start to the movie, and it sets a trend of blurred shots and smudged faces that continues off and on through the film. A scene will be playing out, looking detailed and film-like, then suddenly it cuts to a closeup and we're examining a wax figure from Madame Tussauds acting in a Predator movie. Luckily this doesn't happen too often.

Whilst the Ultimate Hunter Edition is very obviously a cash-in on the new Predators movie coming out, it's honestly a better deal than the last Predator release Predator [Blu-ray] [1987]. Unlike the last bare bones version, this new edition includes every extra from the 2 disc DVD, even the still entertaining text commentary and easter eggs, as well as a brief but nice retrospective with producer John Davis and a quick look at the upcoming sequel.

If you already bought the last blu ray edition, or are unsure as to which looks better, I recommend renting them to judge the quality for yourself. There are a few moments that could have looked A LOT better here, but the film on the whole makes up for it by being much more vibrant and bold than before, and having stunning picture clarity when it counts. Not to mention the always epic DTS HD sound. Overall, I'd say this is definitely the version to pick up if you somehow don't already own this seminal action movie.

If you look at the faces on Carl Weathers and Arnold Shwarzenegger early in the film you would think they had been replaced by CGI characters, as their faces look very waxxy due to the type of Digital remastering used. It's less grainy than before, but detail is lost. John McTiernan films are supposed to be grainy, it's his style, check his other films like Die Hard 1 & 3, Last Action Hero etc, they're all grainy due to his camera style.

Personally I'll be keeping my older Blu-ray with no extras as the picture's far supperior and I have the extras on a previous Dvd anyway.

So yet another original bare bones blu ray release finally gets the decent treatment it so rightly deserves.
When Predator debuted on Blu-ray a couple of years back there were some mixed reviews. I actually rated it quite highly, although it could obviously have been better, (featuring a relatively low bit-rate MPEG-2 transfer), that it was certainly a marked improvement over the really shoddy looking DVD with it's noise and grain. The other gripe about the original release was of course, the fact that it completely lacked any extras. So now, Fox have recitifed the situation (or if you're feeling more cynical - decided to nick some more cash out the fans back pockets) by releasing an inevitabvle remastered special edition to blu ray.

And here it is, newly encoded, dual layer 50GB disc crammed with all the extras from the DVD including McTiernan's commentary and the 'If it bleeds we can kill it' making of documentary.

So how does it fare? Well, in fairness I think the remastered picture in this edition could well incite the same amount of criticism as the old one, but for the opposite reason. Personally I think it's great, bright, clear, immensely vived and colourful and whereas the previous edition only really looked "Hi-Def" in a number of places, this looks pretty immaculate throughout. Black levels are also greatly improved. However, all of this comes at a price, which some fans may not like, because seemingly to combat the gripes about grain and noise this remaster is pretty heavy on the digital noise reduction. So if you liked the rougher, grittier texture of the original print, you're probably going to be disappointed. Faces look particularly "smoothed over" and a little waxy in certain shots, but I should add that this is NOT the case all the time. In fact facial close ups for example look great, and incredibly detailed, (you can even see the texture of the camouflaged face paint) the jungle looks beautfully sharp and thoroughly alive and generally the print does a good job of masking the dirtier looking scenes. I felt that for the most part the picture looked much more naturally "hi-def" than obviously "tinkered with", but I must confess there were a few bits where I really felt they'd overdone it on the enhancements somewhat, and that's the only reason why i've dropped a star. At the end of the day tho, I think a blu ray where everything mostly looks like a DVD, is far worse than a blu ray where everything mostly looks hi definition. But this I'm sure will be up to what you prefer.

Not sure if the sound has been changed since the last release, but it is still a totally engaing and absorbing 5.1 DTS HD Master audio track. This was my favourite thing about the original release, and it is totally replicated in the ultimate hunter edition. It's a brilliantly balanced track, giving great clarity and detail in the quieter scenes, exploding into hefty machine gun fire and explosions later on that pound your speakers without ever sounding too overbearing.

So all in all, whether this release is for you will come down to the remastered picture quality. If you dont mind the film looking polished, vibrant and, in certain places noticeably artifically polished, you will love it; if you'd rather watch the film closer to it's original intended look, I would hang on to (or indeed go out and buy) the original release.