Physical media: Predator 4K Blu-ray

John McTiernan's 80s action classic finally gets the home release it's always deserved.

Predator has pretty much everything I want from an '80s action film. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a group of ridiculously macho soldiers, huge guns, explosions, an amazing jungle setting and an alien that spends most of the film picking everyone off one at a time. But does the 4K Blu-ray do it justice?

John McTiernan was obviously on a bit of a roll at this point in his career in the late 80s, because he followed Predator with Die Hard the following year. Both films have that same feeling of being extremely well put together without ever getting in the way of the entertainment. From a cinematography point of view, Predator looks fantastic, particularly once the team disappears into the jungle, and McTiernan does a great job of making the environment feel like another character. It's hot, humid and constantly filled with things you can't quite see.

The cast is a huge part of the fun as well. Schwarzenegger is obviously the star, but Carl Weathers, Jesse Ventura, Bill Duke, Sonny Landham and the rest of the team all have enough personality to make you care about them before the Predator starts removing them from the film one by one. The opening section is basically a testosterone convention, but then watching that confidence disappear as the Predator starts hunting them is what makes the film work so well.

Legend Stan Winston's creature design for the Predator is still incredible and scares me just as much now as it did when I was a child, lol. Particularly because the film doesn't immediately give you a full look at it. The clicking noise, the thermal vision, the cloaking effect and the laser sight all build up this idea that they're dealing with something completely beyond their experience. When you finally see what has been following them, it still looks brilliant. There was a paintball park near York where I lived in the 90s that had a guy in a fantastic Predator suit that would hunt you with double paintball guns. I’m still having therapy about that, lol.

Video

The biggest reason to upgrade to this 4K release is the way the film has been treated compared with some of its previous HD versions. The 2010 Blu-ray became particularly notorious for its heavy use of digital noise reduction, which removed a huge amount of the natural 35mm film grain. It made the image look cleaner, but it also removed fine detail and gave people's faces that slightly waxy appearance that became so common on heavily processed catalogue Blu-rays.

Thankfully, this 3840 x 2160p (1.85:1 aspect ratio) 4K release goes in the opposite direction. It uses a new 4K scan and brings the film grain back, giving Predator a much more natural film-like appearance. You can see the texture of the original photography throughout the film, and while the grain can be quite obvious in darker scenes, I'd take that over the scrubbed-looking image of the old Blu-ray every time.

The extra detail is noticeable as well. Schwarzenegger's skin, the uniforms, weapons, foliage and all the little textures around the jungle have a much more convincing appearance. The old Blu-ray could sometimes look strangely smooth, whereas the 4K presentation actually looks like a piece of 1980s 35mm photography.

HDR gives the jungle a nice boost too. The greens have more depth, bright sunlight looks considerably more natural and there's better separation between the bright exterior shots and the darker sections of the film. The Predator's thermal vision and glowing green blood also benefit from the improved contrast, although some of the very dark scenes can lose a little shadow detail.

There are inevitably some softer shots, particularly where optical effects are involved, but that doesn't bother me. It's an old film and not every frame was photographed in exactly the same way. What matters is that the restoration isn't trying to hide that. It looks like Predator, rather than a modern attempt to make Predator look like something it isn't.

After years of seeing this film with a lot of its grain digitally scrubbed away, that's probably the biggest compliment I can give the 4K release. It feels like the film has been put back into the picture.

Audio

The audio doesn't receive quite as dramatic an upgrade. The 4K disc sticks with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack rather than getting a new Dolby Atmos or DTS mix. It's essentially the same surround presentation we've had on previous releases, but it's still a very good mix. The jungle ambience makes good use of the surround channels and guns/explosions have suitable thump (that minigun scene, oh yes!) and dialogue is nice and clear too, even in action scenes. Alan Silvestri's score also has a decent amount of space around it, and the Predator's various noises are particularly effective when they start appearing around the room.

It would have been nice to have a modern immersive DTS:X  soundtrack, particularly for a film with so much jungle atmosphere, but I'm not particularly disappointed. The existing 5.1 mix does the job and still sounds powerful. There's also something to be said for leaving the original sound presentation alone rather than creating a new mix simply because the format allows it.

Extras

Most of the bonus material has been carried over from previous releases, so don't expect a huge collection of brand-new features. The 4K disc itself includes John McTiernan's audio commentary, while the accompanying Blu-ray contains the majority of the extras.

The making-of material is particularly interesting because Predator was not exactly the easiest film to produce. If It Bleeds, We Can Kill It: The Making of Predator goes into the production, casting, creature design and the difficult jungle shoot, while Predator: Evolution of a Species – Hunters of Extreme Perfection looks more closely at the creature and how it developed.

There's also Inside the Predator: Classified Action and Inside the Predator: The Unseen Arnold, along with deleted scenes, a still gallery and trailers. Most of this material has been available before, but it's good to have it retained here rather than losing it with another catalogue upgrade.

The slightly strange part of the package is that the included Blu-ray is still the old 2010 transfer. That means you have the rather amusing situation of having a brand-new 4K disc that restores the film grain, sitting alongside a Blu-ray that famously removed a lot of it. Once you've watched the UHD version, going back to the old disc makes the difference surprisingly obvious.

Predator remains one of those films that I can put on without needing much of an excuse and the 4K release finally gives it a presentation that suits the film. The new scan, HDR and restored film grain are the biggest improvements, and for me the return of that natural texture is SUPER important as this version looks like a proper 35mm film again.