FLIX: THE PREDATOR
By Alyn Darnay
After five films over 20 years, Predators again visit Earth, only this time the hunt is a little bit different. This time it’s a super Predator hunting down one of its own. But alas, we poor meaningless humans just get in the way again and pay a big price for defending ourselves. That is to say, we get decimated in the crossfire.
This is Director Shane Black’s (The Nice Guys) attempt to return to the Predator films of the yore, but with a more modern twist, after all, we have learned a few things since Arnold Schwarzenegger took out the first one.
They’re still big, still tough, and still unstoppable, the thing of nightmares. The problem is you can’t conjure up the same feeling you had in the original after it becomes legend. And you surely can’t do it with a non-stop foul mouth action film just loaded with eviscerated bodies.
Here’s the storyline…
When Army sniper Quinn McKenna’s (Holbrook) jungle mission is interrupted by a UFO and a Predator subsequently destroys his unit, he manages to escape with some alien tech that he mails home to cover his butt. However, it winds up in the hands of his young son Rory (Tremblay), who immediately opens it up and begins unlocking its dangerous contents thereby setting the story in motion. At the same time, Dr. Casey Brackett (Munn) gets called in to analyze the captured, living Predator who promptly awakens and escapes. From there on it’s up to a now institutionalized McKenna, a crew of ragtag ex-soldiers he picks up, and Brackett to prevent the world’s destruction.
Sadly, Director Black’s style of raucous black humor blended with fast-paced action just misses putting the franchise back on track. It feels like he threw in everything he could think of, including an attempt to explain why the Predators keep visiting Earth, and he even aggressively sets up an obvious sequel. Problem is, he works so hard at making it work that there’s almost no breathing space to engage or get excited in the film itself.
My take… having said all this, I still like watching these aliens. They were brilliantly conceived and are creatures of make-up legend. So I’d have gone to see the film anyway, but then, I’m a fan. You may not be.
Directed
by:
Shane
Black
Cast:
Boyd
Holbrook
Olivia
Munn
Trevante
Rhodes
Jacob
Tremblay
Keegan-Michael
Key
Thomas
Jane
The Predator
Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)
Rated: R (for strong bloody
violence, language throughout, and crude sexual references)
Running Time: 107 minutes
Alyn Darnay is a film critic; feedback is encouraged at adarnay@wiremag.com.
This was originally published in Wire Magazine Issue 38.2018
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