Movie Reviews: The Predator (2018)

The Predator is a 2018 science fiction action film directed by Shane Black and co-written by Fred Dekker. It stars Boyd Holbrook, Trevante Rhodes, Jacob Tremblay, Keegan-Michael Kay, Olivia Munn, Thomas Jane, Alfie Allen and Sterling K. Brown. It is the fourth film in the Predator film franchise, the sixth if including both the 'Aliens vs. Predator' films.

The Predator tells the story of Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook), an Army Ranger, who becomes subject of a hush-operation after he witnesses an alien Predator kill off his special operations team. Believing his life is over, Quinn gets a chance at revenge when happenstance places him and a group of military mental patients in the path of the Predator a second time.

I'm afraid Olivia Munn gave the best performance in this film. However, that's the face she made whenever she displayed emotion.

The film also tells some additonal storylines:

- On the homefront, McKenna maintains a cold relationship with his oddly loyal ex-wife. Together, they share an autistic son, Rory McKenna (Jacob Tremblay), who doubles as a super-genius. Somehow, Rory can figure out the Predator language and their motivations.

- McKenna is accompanied by a motley group of military rejects, each suffering from unique forms of mental problems. Of special mention is Gaylord "Nebraska" Williams, who shot his commanding officer; and veterans Coyle and Baxley, who suffer from Tourette's and some other fucking disease I don't fucking remember. But they got brother-love going on between them.

- An evolutionary biologist, Casey Bracket (Olivia Munn), who is brought into examine the Predator only to join McKenna on their mission to destroy the Predator.

There wasn't enough of this going on in the film.

Nor enough of this. I don't see why they keep shooting at the thing when bullets never work. But they keep on doing it. Also: Predator skirt. Don't judge!

The Lowdown (Positives and Negatives)

Though I enjoyed my time watching the film, I spent a good deal of time cringing at poorly written dialogue and forced humor. The pacing and direction also felt forced; situations were set up toward an outcome instead of arising in an organic and understandable way.

Such a shortcoming can be tolerable when fun follows the setup. Mission Impossible: Fallout set up set pieces with such brazenness that it sometimes came off as comical. But in the Predator it just falls flat. If it weren't for the expectation of a confrontation between the Predator and super-Predator I would've tuned out much sooner.

Not to say the movie didn't have its moments. Earlier in the film it's established to get between a lab and a research facility you must transition through a clean room. As a requirement, you must take off your clothes. Not much later in the film Olivia Munn must do this in order to escape the lab where the Predator has just awoken. Not only does this fill the movie with suspense, you also learn something about the Predator when it interact's with Olivia Munn.

She runs around the movie with this gun as if it's gonna put down the Predator. Then she shoots at her own foot accidentally and it doesn't really do anything to her. But she keeps running around with this thing. Olivia, I'm so sorry you got suckered into this film.

The film also fails to reproduce the chemistry between a group of bad-ass macho military men. Not only are they not a bunch of bad-asses, they are also too dysfunctional to cooperate toward the end goal of challenging the Predator. When they finally do get to the situation of fighting the predator, we aren't surprised when they go down for the count.

In the original Predator, we are introduced to a group of bad-asses that, though fearful of death, not for an instant are we worried they can be defeated. Only when a far superior hunter starts hunting the hunted do we become worried. We think in the back of our minds that maybe one will stand a chance. But by the time Old Arnie emerges as the last man standing we aren't entirely sure if even Arnold can do the beast in.

Remember when the Predator was good? Anyone?

Interesting Tidbits

Shane Black, who played one of the grunts in the original Predator, serves as director of this Predator film. Shane has been busy since then, directing both good and bad films over his career. At the top of his game he directed Iron Man 3, the 15th highest grossing film ever. However, he's yet to succeed with another film even remotely as successful.

The original version of The Predator was shot between February and June of 2017. The version didn't go so well with audiences, and it appears from March to July 2018 the entire "third act" was reshot due to poor results from test screenings.

The fearless director in his younger days. I don't even know what to say.

Final Verdict

The Predator scores terribly with both fans and critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, critics score it at 34% while the fans don't rate it much higher at 44%. Critics also lambaste the film on Metacritic, scoring it at 49/100.

I must say I don't find this to be the best film either. With its forced humor and wonky writing it you spend more of your time cringing at the movie than enjoying the experience of watching it. I wouldn't say I regretted watching it, but I have no plans seeing it a second time. I don't know if we'll ever get another true Predator film, but this one definitely isn't it. 2.5/5 stars.

Why don't you try checking out the trailer?

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