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The Predator
(20th Century Fox)
By Lucas Allen
Excluding the two “Alien vs. Predator” movies, “The Predator” is the fourth film to star the alien hunter who debuted in 1987 fighting Arnold Schwarzenegger. In fact, one of the stars of the original, Shane Black, directed and co-wrote the script with Fred Dekker (“The Monster Squad”) as a modern day, macho 80s action film.
It’s the kind of movie that takes you back to a time when you don’t need your brain to enjoy an ultra-violent and explosive movie.
On a recon mission in Mexico, Army sniper Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook) sees a space pod crashing into the forest. When he investigates, he discovers a wounded Predator and some of his advanced weaponry. After escaping the crash site, he hides the weaponry from the government by mailing it to his P.O. box, but it ends up with his estranged wife Emily (Yvonne Strahovski) and their autistic son Rory (Jacob Tremblay).
When he gets caught, he’s taken to a psychiatric hospital with a group of other soldiers (including Keegan Michael Key and Thomas Jane) who have problems of their own.
Meanwhile, a scientist, Casey Bracket (Olivia Munn), gets taken to a facility where the boss, Traeger (Sterling K. Brown), studies the wounded Predator in hopes of gaining knowledge of its presence on Earth. However when Rory figures out one of the alien’s tech, he accidentally signals another bigger, deadlier Predator who’s out for blood. Soon enough, all the characters co-aligned with each other battling the uber-size beast and its dogs for the fate of our planet.
In case you want to know, this movie takes place after the events of the first two Predator movies with the two AvP movies being non-existent and 2010’s “Predators” can be placed anywhere if one so wishes. While each film in the series stands on its own, this entry returns to the original’s roots as a gritty, macho action film with different characters to root for, explosive action and fantastic visual effects.
This time, the action is ramped up a lot more with enough chases, gunfire, and gory kills to satisfy anybody’s need for brainless entertainment. As an action film, it is certainly a lot of fun to experience the alien hunter take on the human characters in a deadly game of science fiction warfare. Since it’s directed by Black, the movie has a little more humor with characters spouting one-liners and cursing on a non-stop basis.
The tone can be all over the place, which could impact any viewer looking for a good time. Some substantial re-editing would’ve helped keep the tone of the original without going overboard with the comedy.
The best way to explain the characters is that some of them are written straight while others go in other directions that becomes wildly unpredictable.
Fortunately, the actors seem to be committed to these roles and have fun with it in the process. Holbrook is certainly no Schwarzenegger, but he does what he can with his performance especially when pairing up with the very loony Key and Jane. Both Munn and Trembley also hold their own in more straightforward performances becoming the heart and soul of the film.
Many fans of the other movies will be disappointed, but “The Predator” should welcome new fans to the series.
The ending no doubt sets up a possible sequel, so let’s hope positive word-of-mouth will let it happen. Let’s also hope that the next one brings back Schwarzenegger to bring the series full circle.
THE MOVIE’S RATING: R (for strong bloody violence, language throughout, and crude sexual references)
THE CRITIC’S RATING: 3.25 Stars (Out of Four)
