In 1987, filmmaker John McTiernan made his first studio film with the action sci-fi classic, Predator. With an all-star cast including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, and Jesse Ventura and Stan Winston’s effects, it was a hit. Three years later, Predator 2 was released, starring Danny Glover, Gary Busey, and Bill Paxton and directed by Stephen Hopkins. While not a critical or commercial hit, the film has since found a cult following. It wouldn’t be until 2010, 20 years after the last film, when the next installment Predators was released. Produced by Robert Rodriguez and a cast including Adrien Brody, Laurence Fishburne, and Topher Grace, the film sadly underperformed. Cut to 2018, where Shane Black (who starred in the original film) teamed up with former collaborator Fred Dekker. Together, the two have brought us the newest installment in the franchise, The Predator.
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Rating
Rather than a remake or a reboot, this film is a sequel to the earlier films. During a hostage rescue mission, Army Ranger Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook) gets attacked by the Predator. After incapacitating the Predator, McKenna steals some of its armor and mails it to his home for safe keeping. However, McKenna ends up captured by government agent Will Traeger (Sterling K. Brown), who also takes the Predator for research. Traeger recruits biologist Casey Bracket (Olivia Munn) to do further research while McKenna is sent off with several insane ex-soldiers. Things go south when the Predator escapes, so McKenna and the other soldiers take the bus and Bracket with them. McKenna and company make their way to his home and find that his autistic son has the Predator armor. Things are bad enough with the Predator after them, but they also have to contend with a new super Predator.
Before I get into my issues with this film, I’ll first get into what worked for me. For one, the cast does a decent job, even though there are some dead spots. Boyd Holbrook is good in the lead, despite not having much character development. The actors playing the crazy ex-soldiers are all fun and have their own unique quirks. There’s Keegan-Michael Key as Coyle, who uses humor to deal with his PTSD. Also, there’s Thomas Jane’s Baxley, whose Tourette’s has him blurting out random curses, and has an interesting friendship with Coyle. Trevante Rhodes as Nebraska is probably the most normal one amongst the group, perfectly working alongside Holbrook. Sterling K. Brown is fun as the villainous Traeger and Brian A. Prince plays a good Predator. In addition to the cast, Shane Black’s direction is decent, and his and Fred Dekker’s writing has some good ideas.
Unfortunately, while there are things here that work, there’s a whole lot that really doesn’t. For one, as mentioned before, some of the cast isn’t very strong, though none are necessarily awful. For one, Olivia Munn has her moments, but is generally fairly weak. Also, Jacob Tremblay, who plays McKenna’s autistic son, is decent, but seems to play it more like Hollywood autism. In addition to the weak cast, much like with Peppermint, there seems to be stuff cut out of the movie. From what I understand, the movie went through several reshoots after test audiences were confused by the third act. You can tell since the third act feels very cobbled together and doesn’t quite go along with what came before. Admittedly, the movie has some good ideas and it feels like the people involved really tried. While not a terrible movie, The Predator is still very disappointing.
