Predator 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		2.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.5

Predator 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 8, 2018

Some may wonder if Fox is trying to atone for past Blu-ray sins with the new 4K UHD releases of Predator 4K, Predator 2 4K and Predators 4K . And while there may indeed be at least a bit of salvation with regard to the first Predator film’s 4K release (in terms of previous perceived botched outings), the cold, hard fact is that Fox is probably just understandably cross promoting its new kinda sorta reboot of the franchise, The Predator, due in just a little over a month as this review is being published. Predator appeared (well, the film, anyway) in 1987 and quickly entered the annals of audience favorites, even if those curmudgeonly critics found the typical bugaboos like plot and character development questionable at times. What is kind of interesting in terms of this particular supervillain is what Alfred Hitchcock once described as the difference between surprise and suspense. He used the well remembered example of two people talking with a bomb suddenly going off, which he likened to a surprise. But Hitchcock then asked folks to wonder how they’d react if they already knew a bomb was placed in the vicinity before the people arrived to begin their chat. That’s suspense, and in a way, there’s a visual analog of sorts in that Predator relies on the conceit of a (largely) invisible monster that the viewer nonetheless knows is there, but which can’t be localized. Ironically, when the Predator does “show up” (as far as that goes), that leads to some definite surprises. Perhaps predictably, the nascent Predator franchise suffered a pretty significant “sophomore slump” with Predator 2, and not necessarily just because Ah-nold wasn’t involved and the location had been changed from an almost inherently spooky jungle. That failure probably accounts for the fact that it took decades for the “next” Predator film to appear, 2010’s Predators, an outing which some fans may have felt seemed deliberately designed to evoke another iconic science fiction franchise, Alien: 6 Film Collection.

As fans of Predator no doubt are already aware, the film has had two previous releases on Blu-ray, each with their own set of issues (for those who are literally or figuratively keeping score). I highly recommend interested readers read both reviews linked below, not only for the included plot summaries (something I'm personally not rehashing here), but perhaps especially for the technical evaluations which will hopefully help to inform part of why I've scored this release the way I have.

The first Blu-ray release of Predator came out quite early in the Blu-ray format and utilized the MPEG-2 codec, even then probably toward the end of its reasonable shelf life, one that occasioned some compression hurdles (something probably not helped by pretty anemic bitrates), but which at least offered something looking like natural film grain. My colleague Martin Liebman offered his thoughts in his Predator Blu-ray review.

The Ultimate Hunter Edition of Predator appeared a couple of years later, and suffered from, as my colleague Casey Broadwater stated in his Predator Blu-ray review, an "ungodly amount of digital noise reduction". Unfortunately for fans, it's this edition of the Blu-ray which is included with this release, and which provided the source for the 1080p screenshots included with this review, so major caveats are in order in terms of judging this particular "book" by these particular "covers".

Predator 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screenshots are sourced from the 1080p Blu-ray. It's important to also note that the 1080p Blu-ray disc included with this release is the Ultimate Hunter Edition, which many fans consider to have substandard video quality, so the screenshots here reflect those inadequacies. The 2.0 score for the 1080p video also reflects Casey's original score for that version.

Predator is presented on 4K UHD courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with a 2160p transfer in 1.85:1. Both this film and its follow up were reportedly given brand new 4K scans, and the first thing fans will notice as the 20th Century Fox masthead comes into view is — grain. In fact, a lot of it (much more than the other shot on film offering in the Predator: 3-Movie Collection 4K, Predator 2 4K). Here's the thing, though: unlike some shot on film 4K UHD transfers from Lionsgate I've reviewed over the past little while that I found at least occasionally on the dicey side, Fox's encode pretty effortlessly supports even the rather coarse (and, frankly, somewhat "dupey" looking) grain in the opening couple of seconds, a tendency that only improves once the actual film starts. While there are probably unavoidable ebbs and flows to the grain field here, partly due to lighting conditions and at other times due to opticals, things look commendably organic throughout the presentation, with a really nice thickness and texture to the proceedings that those who want "film to look like film" will almost certainly approve of. Detail levels are noticeably improved throughout this version, even in some of the dimly lit and mist filled jungle scenes, but it was some of the tweaks to the palette courtesy of HDR that really caught my eye as I watched this version. "Little" elements like the saturation on Arnie's red shirt in one of his first scenes are quite notably more vivid now, and even the interstitial green tones in the many jungle sequences have greater range and nuance. Explosions from gunfire and, well, explosives also offer a somewhat more lustrous orange tone in this version, and the highlights of the "Predator vision" moments gain new force as well. Some of the heavily graded and/or "stylishly" lit sequences, as in some of the longer moments bathed in red, have surprising levels of fine detail that are frankly nowhere to be seen in the Ultimate Hunter Edition Blu-ray version. Both this film and each of its follow ups sometimes suffer from slight inadequacies in shadow definition in some of the darkest moments, but I can't imagine many fans, especially those really disappointed with the Ultimate Hunter Edition, not being pleased with the look of this new 4K UHD version.

Predator 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

One possible letdown for fans is Fox's decision not to grant this release a new DTS:X or Dolby Atmos mix. This release features the same generally excellent if somewhat dated sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that is capably assessed by both Marty and Casey in their respective reviews linked above.

Predator 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

All three of the films included in the Predator: 3- Movie Collection 4K have ported over only the commentary track(s) to the 4K UHD discs included in the set. For this particular film, that includes:

• Commentary by Director John McTiernan


• Text Commentary by Eric Lichtenfeld, which is delivered via subtitle and includes a ton of interviews with various production personnel.

The 1080p Blu-ray included features all of the (other) supplements detailed by Casey in his Predator Blu-ray review.

Predator 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Those who pay attention to such things may notice that when you get different reviewers offering their opinions on the same film, you often get different scores (imagine that!), and while Marty gave Predator a straight up 5.0 as a film, Casey came in at 4.0. I'm splitting the difference with a 4.5, but whether or not you consider Predator an outright masterpiece or just good old genre fun, the good news is Fox has provided a really stellar looking new 4K transfer that should help to salve the wound of the Ultimate Hunter Edition Blu-ray. Unfortunately, Fox has included the Ultimate Hunter Edition Blu-ray as its 1080p offering in this set, something that will probably be seen as a disappointment, even if that release does offer some appealing supplements. The other potential downside to this release is the lack of a new audio mix, but the included DTS- HD Master Audio 5.1 track gets the job done with good force and immersion, even if it's not quite at state of the art levels anymore. Highly recommended.