Predator: A Memoir, a Movie, an Obsession Paperback – September 6, 2022

love it! great!

In Monson's memoir, he describes how the first Predator movie bled into his personal life and he gets his life events -and the wider social events- mixed up with those events occurring in the Predator film. But this is not the strangest of his claims; He's watched the film over a hundred times and only on the 144th watching catches Poncho's 'sauras' pun. Um, Dutch's immortal words 'You never were that smart' springs aptly to mind. Also, his interpretation of characters and scenes being homosexual says more about himself than the actual film, as Sigmund Freud quipped: 'Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar'. Written before Prey debuted by someone who had nothing to do with the making of any of the Predator films; all titbits of information about the first film were gained from director John McTiernan's commentary track (and the bonus content, as well as the internet and novelisation), which the author mentions. What fans need is an insightful, detailed, definitive 'making of' tome, similar to JW Rinzler's The Making of Alien, but this isn't it. So, one has to ask 'Is some random fan's life story interesting enough to read'? Well, if you're on the potty this book may help pass the time while passing gas...just remember to wash your handsies afterwards. For a more salient and unofficial analysis of Predator and later films (and Alien films) up to AVP, check out Beautiful Monsters by David McIntee.

The memoir is honestly pretty good, it made me appreciate the emotion sensitivity and complexity of Schwarzenegger's "Dutch" so much more than after I had only watched the movie. The author breaks down the tough guy front that Dutch puts on during all of his screen time, and carefully picks apart various parts of Dutch's body language and facial expressions to reveal to the reader that Dutch was a lot more nervous, afraid, and borderline cowardly throughout the movie than your average one-time watcher might realize. I considered it a hot take when I first started reading, but it made more and more sense to me as I progressed in the book, as Monson's review of the movie is only about the first page and a half, the rest of the book being his deep analyzation of Dutch and the fake, compensating, brazen metaphor he is for toxic/fragile masculinity at the time this movie was filmed. A good analyzation of the character, only lost a star because the title falsely led me to believe I was getting an in-depth analysis of the entire film. I'd suggest the author goes through and clicks through the movie frame-by-frame, something an avid movie enjoyer like myself already does. This may add some value to his 147th watch, and allow him to uncover new parts from other aspects of the movie, and not just Dutch and his rippling muscles.

This book was amazing. The part about the effect eating fast food has on your mindset, and when he talks about ways to cope with eating grass instead, is phenomenal. I did not know that I could learn so much about farming and meditation which drove me to just start digging in my yard and sitting near where I dug to be one with the alpha inside. I hope others can find significance in this book the way that I did.

Hard time pinning down what kind of book it is. While providing interesting and insightful knowledge into the making of Predator and how it was much a satire about that action hero of the 80s, it rambles into a self-poetic analysis of the author in a way in which it feels contrived or unsure of what the book (or he) wants to say. Do I recommend it? For the analysis he gives on the 80s and the film, sure; but for anyone looking solely for that and nothing else? No I don’t recommend it. It was hard to get through at times, which is why I skipped over certain passages.

This book is the best I've ever read. The length, just perfect and I like the cover very much. The way the words are just spoken onto paper, is so interesting to me. If I could read this book a thousand times over, I will.

Contrary to what some might expect, this is not meant to be a be-all, end-all trivia book about 1987's Predator and the franchise it spawned. Instead, it is one highly intelligent and sensitive super-fan's exploration of his own obsession with Predator. In it, he examines his own life, the forces that shaped him as a young man, and the ways in which early experiences primed him to love action movies, Predator above the rest. He re-tells the story of the film, and certainly examines how we might profitably ruminate about masculinity, violence, American hegemony, and more by thinking more deeply about Predator than most people would assume is worth it. Monson's style is witty and philosophical without becoming overly dense. I found the entire work engaging and thought-provoking, particularly Monson's frequent meditations on Paul Monette, the gay man who wrote the "novelization" of Predator--a man whose lover was dying of AIDS as Monette wrote that Predator novelization. Poignant passages abound. I found myself re-examining myself in relation to my own favorite films during and after my reading of this book, which is wonderful to do in itself. If you're looking for a comprehensive guide to the lore of the Predator spin-offs, there are probably other sources. To me, this is more than the account of a "random fan," though. This fan is a brilliant writer of poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction who found a singular way to tell his life story: through his consuming obsession with a seemingly dumb and muscled-up action flick that reveals more layers the more deeply you freeze-frame your way through its heat-vision special effects and odd blend of war film, sci-fi, and horror.