The Predator Review

The original Predator is a cross-genre classic from the ‘80s, a film that blended sci-fi, action, and horror and considered one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s best. There have been many attempts to expand the Predator movie universe and legendary screenwriter Shane Black has now had a crack with The Predator.

Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook) is a sniper and a Captain in the Army Rangers who was on a mission in Mexico when an alien spaceship crashes. Before a secret American government comes to retrieve the spaceship and its pilot McKenna takes the alien’s mask and gauntlet and mails them to himself as an insurance policy. However, Quinn has not paid for his post box and his autistic son Rory (Jacob Tremblay) being given the items. This leads to the government agency, a predator and a ragtag group of soldiers to converge to a small American town.

The Predator was a troubled production, it had to go through reshoots including its ending, cutting ideas from the original screenplay – Shane Black did not partake in the film’s promotion and there was a controversy because Olivia Munn requested a scene she had with Steve Wilder be cut because he’s a registered sex offender. Fans of the series were particularly harsh against the new Predator and I went with low-expectations: this is the best way to go into The Predator.

The big positive is the film is a relentless hard-R – I sat in the cinema with a big gleeful smile when the Predator starts killing whether it’s picking people up and throwing them or stabbing them with his blade. It provides the style of action that people want.

Shane Black is known as a talented writer, he wrote films like Lethal Weapon, The Last Action Hero and The Long Kiss Goodnight and he had a supporting role in the original Predator which he did uncredited rewrites. Black’s work on the original film was properly the main reason why he was hired to make The Predator: however his previous attempt at making a franchise film was Iron Man 3 – which was one of the most divisive MCU films and his style of writing isn’t the right fit despite his work on the original because he has a much more comedic approach to action cinema. And Black focuses on comedy for The Predator.

There are some decent jokes in the film with Keegan-Michael Key having some of the best jokes – my favourite being when Olivia Munn wakes up with the Loonies. But others fall flat, making the film a mixed bag. The original Predator had macho characters with some awesome one-liners and Predator 2 had a police detective investigating the Predator during the middle of a gang war. These were skilled people pushed to their limit yet The Predator had a group known as ‘The Loonies’, insane soldiers who are able to take on the Predator when a group of highly trained special forces soldiers struggled against it. It’s the same issue I had with 2010’s Predators which had an eclectic team that featured special forces soldiers, a Yakuza member, and a doctor all somehow surviving together in an alien jungle – it’s too implausible even for a sci-fi horror action hybrid.

Holbrook, Trevante Rhodes, and Munn play characters that fit into any film in the Predator series, two highly trained and serious soldiers and a scientist. But other characters are too silly for the series like Augusto Aguilera as a religious, brain-damaged pilot and Thomas Jane as a soldier with Tourettes.

The previous films in the series had a simple set up – The Predator hunting people in various settings. The Predator has a long time setting up its premise and it is more contrived as various groups are drawn together.

One of the reasons why people love the Predator franchise is that there’s a backstory and mythology – Predators have been coming to Earth for centuries to hunt humans for sport and have a sense of honour. They don’t kill children or pregnant women and willing to throw down their propulsion weapons if someone is willing to engage in hand-to-hand or sword combat. The Predator‘s attempt to add to the mythos of the creatures is that they are hunting various creatures so they could enhance themselves with their DNA and a rogue Predator comes to help humanity. Obviously this Predator’s first reaction when he encounters humans is to kill as many as they can. This shows sloppy writing and editing because there are big logic holes.

The film has a troubling portrayal of Asperger’s because it is used as a magic problem-solving ability – Rory getting to figure out how Predator technology without many issues. It was a Hollywood portrayal of autism. There is even inconsistency because Rory’s Asperger’s was sometimes several, like being unable to handle loud noises and other times his condition seems minor. Plus the film has the audacity to say that Asperger’s is the next stage in human evolution.

The Predator ends like Independence Day: Resurgence and Pacific Rim: Uprising, promising a sequel that will never come and will probably be retcon out of existence if there are any future films. The Predator is the weakest film in the franchise outside of the AvP films.