47
Metascore
17 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertMoves at a breakneck pace, it has strong and simple characterizations, it has good location photography and terrific special effects, and it supplies what it claims to supply: an effective action movie.
- 75The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jay ScottThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jay ScottIt's got thrills and chills and one of the most elegantly conceived monsters in the history of movies.
- 70TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineCrisply stylish and suspenseful, making brilliant use of optical special effects, Predator is one of Schwarzenegger's best.
- 50Chicago TribuneDave KehrChicago TribuneDave KehrMcTiernan, regrettably, seems more interested in spectacle than suspense, and the attack sequences are filmed for splashy visual impact. And an apocalyptic finale that raises the antiwar message to the nuclear level is more than McTiernan's metaphor can bear. [12 June 1987, Friday, p.J]
- 50San Francisco ChroniclePeter StackSan Francisco ChroniclePeter StackThe movie, a rather pointless thing when you get down to it, has little of the provocative intelligence that was found in "Terminator." But at least it's self-propelling in terms of suspense and cheap thrills. [12 June 1987, Daily Datebook, p.78]
- 50VarietyVarietyA slightly above-average actioner that tries to compensate for tissue-thin-plot with ever-more-grisly death sequences and impressive special effects.
- 40Chicago ReaderChicago ReaderDespite the off-rhythm styling and suggestions of primeval menace, there's really not much going on here.
- 30The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinAlternately grisly and dull, with few surprises.
- 16Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittArnold Schwarzenegger fights an outer-space monster in a third-world jungle. The monster never has a chance. Neither does the jungle. Neither does the audience. [19 June 1987, Arts & Leisure, p.23]
- 10Los Angeles TimesMichael WilmingtonLos Angeles TimesMichael WilmingtonIt's arguably one of the emptiest, feeblest, most derivative scripts ever made as a major studio movie. There's no need to do a Mad magazine movie parody of this; it's already on the screen.