Film Review: The Predator (2018)

Hunter becomes hunted

The Predator (15)

Starring: Boyd Holbrook, Olivia Munn, Jacob Tremblay

Director: Shane Black

The Plot: A Predator travels to Earth and crash-lands in Mexico, where Captain Quinn McKenna (Holbrook) is operating. McKenna survives the encounter and steals some of its gear, while the Predator is subdued by a secret branch of the US military and taken for study. Dr Casey Bracket (Munn) is called in to study the creature, while McKenna is debriefed and held with a ragtag group of ex-soldiers. Unbeknownst to them, McKenna's young son Rory (Tremblay) finds the stolen gear and activates it, summoning not only the captured Predator but also a new, bigger, more dangerous version to Earth as well. McKenna will need to team up with both Bracket and his crazy new unit to save his son . . .

Check out the trailer for the film here.

Review: In the world of eighties action movies, Predator ranks among the very best and earned itself a cult following. Sadly though, over the years the various sequels and spin-offs have never managed to live up to the original, but fans were excited when last year, Shane Black announced that he would be writing and directing a new instalment of the Predator franchise and promised it would go back to what made the first film so exciting. Not only is Black an extremely talented individual - over his career he's brought us the Lethal Weapon series, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and in more recent years Iron Man 3 and The Nice Guys - but he was also a cast member of Predator, playing squad member Hawkins who's remembered by most for cracking the infamous "pussy" joke. Given his connection to the original film and his excellent track record, expectations for this film were rightly very high. I'm disappointed to tell you The Predator fails to meet those expectations, and then some.

Why does it go so wrong then? Well, I'm sorry to say that the script is the biggest culprit, which is such a shame given Black's talent. The plot of the film is ridiculously complicated - it took me a while to try and condense it down into my summary above, and that's with a lot of stuff left out - and for an action movie with sci-fi elements it just doesn't need to be. Black has tried to both replicate the feel of the original but also expand the concept, backstory and locations and it just doesn't work, something that the lacklustre sequels and spinoffs also tried and failed. A big reason why the original Predator worked so well was its simplicity - a group of soldiers in a jungle hunted by a deadly alien. That's it. The Predator can't replicate this due to the multiple story threads and locations, and it suffers for it, particularly in the third act which turns into a shambolic mess of plot holes and poor editing, giving the impression of something very rushed. The ending would have us believe, for example, that the Predator which arrives first (the one being hunted by the film's new super-Predator) actually came to Earth to help humanity, despite the first thing it does on landing is string one of McKenna's squad up by his guts. On top of this there's poor acting across the board, with the exception of the young Jacob Tremblay who does well as McKenna's son who has Asperger's syndrome. You don't expect Oscar performances in a film like this, but everyone is really bad, even Olivia Munn who's usually terrific. Her character, a biologist who just happens to have combat skills rivalling an elite soldier, is particularly hard to take seriously. Kudos to Black however for giving a small role to the legendary JAKE FUCKING BUSEY, who deserves both the capitalisation and the expletive.

The film isn't without its redeeming qualities though, particularly if you're a fan of the franchise. It looks good visually, with particular attention paid to the Predator and it's deadly equipment, including its iconic cloaking field, and the familiar score and sound effects from the first film are present and correct. There's also a lot of violent, gory action, which is exactly what you're looking for here. There's even some humour, mostly from the crazy ex-soldiers that McKenna has to team up with but Olivia Munn gets a few good lines too. There's also some very nice callouts to the previous films as well: both Predator and Predator 2 are referenced (although, wisely, both AvP films aren't mentioned) as events that happened, at one point a character shouts "Get to the chopper!" and, on seeing the Predator for the first time, Olivia Munn says "You're one pretty motherfucker." These are all nice little moments that bring the nostalgia fans were looking for, but sadly, it's not enough to salvage this mess.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
A film made with good intentions, but ruined by a poor, overly-complicated story that goes particularly off the rails at the end. There's good action and a lot of nice callouts to previous Predator films, but this isn't enough to make up for the film's problems. A real shame.