The Rotten Tomatoes website currently has Predator 2 ranked at a measly 25% on its tomatometer. Only one in four movie critics apparently thought the film was worth seeing, which is a shame, considering this rapid-fire sequel has all the charm, excitement, and violence of John McTiernan's 1987 original.

In many ways, Predator 2 manages to outgun its predecessor. There is more humor than the often relentlessly serious original, and the violence factor has been increased significantly. That's not uncommon for sequels, where the mantra seems to be 'bigger is better'. Simply upping the violence quotient is not a guarantee for success. The audience has to become invested in the characters and the story, so we actually care what happens to the heroes.

Although Arnold Schwarzenegger is disappointingly absent due to his commitment to filming Total Recall, the film doesn't suffer that badly. Even without Mr. Universe and his seemingly endless arsenal of one-liners, the cast is more than up to the task of filling his sizeable shoes. Danny Glover leads the way as Lt. Mike Harrigan, the cop who plays by his own rules – now that's a new one – and his spirited performance is always fun to watch. Helping him along the way is his long time partner Danny Archuletta (Ruben Blades), the tough-as-nails, ball-busting Leona (Maria Conchita Alonso), and the young hotshot detective Jerry Lambert (Bill Paxton).

The film is set in a near-future Los Angeles, ten years after the events of the original. It trades the jungle scenery of the first movie for a sweltering, crime-ridden metropolis. As the movie begins, gangs are locked in a deadly battle against each other and the police, with L.A. steadily turning into a violent, hellish inferno. When members of one Columbian gang are found butchered and hanging upside down and naked from the rafters of their headquarters, Harrigan and his crack team of detectives not surprisingly wonder who could have done this.

The filmmakers assume that the audience is already familiar with the antagonist. To recap: it's an invisible alien with dreadlocks that can see only the heat of the human body, and it came to Earth to stalk and kill humans for sport. Predator 2 builds on the first film by giving the predator more exotic weaponry, and it's fair to say that most people who cross his path end up becoming the human equivalent to shish kabob. The predator's futuristic technology is of prime interest to the smarmy government agent Peter Keyes (Gary Busey – in a role that fits him like a glove). While Keyes is purportedly a DEA investigator, his real aim is to capture the predator to acquire his futuristic weaponry. Naturally, Harrigan suspects Keyes knows more than he is letting on.

Whereas the first film favored building up the story through mystery and intrigue, Predator 2 is all about the action. Since the audience is already ahead of the game, director Stephen Hopkins keeps the pace boiling as the movie careens from one elaborate action set piece to another. There are shootouts in a subway car and in a slaughterhouse, people hang from tall buildings, bad guys get decapitated, bullets fly everywhere, expletives are hurled, and reporters get punched in the face. There's also a nice helping of humor to keep things fresh. Writers Jim and John Thomas, who also wrote the original, give us just enough information to prod the plot along before another requisite action sequence unfolds.

In the wrong hands, it all could have ended up a senseless mess, but we enjoy seeing Harrigan disregard every order from his superiors in an attempt to bring the alien brute down. The cast looks to be enjoying themselves too, particularly Bill Paxton as the ultra-slick Jerry "luck is my specialty" Lambert. The movie bears strong resemblance to another unjustly maligned sequel that also came out in 1990, and that is Robocop 2. Both films feature mountains of corpses and ultra-violence, two aspects that movie critics pounced on when they were released in theatres. Honestly though, these films weren't made for the Spongebob crowd, so who cares if the violence dominates the proceedings? It's all kind of zany fun watching the predator find new ways of hunting his victims.

Ultimately, Predator 2 is a taut and robust action movie that stakes a legitimate claim as a superior sequel. In fact, as this review's title suggests, it belongs among an elite group of sequels made in the 90's, which also includes Robocop 2 and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The cast is a generally likeable group, and Danny Glover makes for a capable hero, especially since he's following in Ah-nuld’s footsteps, which is no easy task. If viewers can get past the colossal body count and bloody violence, something the critics evidently couldn't do, they'll be treated to an admirably crafted and consistently entertaining action extravaganza.

Final Rating: 4.5 Stars

Recommended: Yes