2018’s The Predator,
directed by Shane Black.
Starring Boyd Holbrook, Olivia Munn, Sterling K. Brown,
Jacob Tremblay, Keegan-Michael Key, Trevante Rhodes, Thomas Jane, Alfie Allen,
Augusto Aguilera, Jake Busey, and Yvonne Strahovski.
What is it about?
The Predator is
about a military sniper, Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook), who while out on a
mission encounters a lethal alien creature that wipes out his platoon. Quinn is
able to escape, but not before stealing some of the creature’s sophisticated
hardware. About to be captured by his government, he sends it in the mail, and
it is accidentally sent to his son, Rory (Jacob Tremblay). Quinn is rounded up
and stuck with a gang of rag tag soldiers afflicted with mental illness
(calling themselves, “The Loonies”) they are: Nebraska (Trevante Rhodes), Coyle
(Keegan-Michael Key), Baxley (Thomas Jane), Lynch (Alfie Allen), and Nettles
(Augusto Aguilera). A government agent, Traeger (Sterling K. Brown), is
interested in securing and researching the predator, but things go off the
rails when another predator shows up,
with intent to cover up the first predator’s exploits and any humans involved. Can the Loonies (and feisty scientist,
Casey Bracket, played by Olivia Munn) save Rory, and survive being hunted by
the ultimate killer?
Why is it worth seeing?
The Predator is
the fourth film in the Predator franchise. Director and
co-writer Shane Black (who starred in the original), brings aboard his usual sensibilities- that of caustic
quips, PTSD afflicted veterans, and child actors during seasonal events. Their fit
in the series’ lore of primal machismo can be quite odd, and the plot resembles
an alien dog’s breakfast.
Given their slimy and teeth baring science fiction
parallels, comparisons between the respective Predator and Alien franchises are inevitable. The
Sigourney Weaver-lead quadrilogy understood
that its titular fevered nightmare antagonists didn’t really care for much
beyond their instincts to survive (by killing everything else), and expand
their colony- putting the onus on creating a protagonist (or in the case of Aliens,
protagonists) worth following. Sigourney Weaver’s long suffering but relatable
Ripley was someone who (relatively) had a clear arc from movies 1 through 4.
The Predator franchise (plus Prometheus and Alien: Covenant), do not
possess that. It instead chooses its human characters’ arcs to be episodic- and
instead tries to give us glimpses of a dynamic from its own titular star(s). But
as demonstrated in Predators, the predator race just isn’t that interesting as a
character- can you give a knife more than an edge?
The Predator has
no shortage of characters running through it. Between the alien creatures, Holbrook’s
capable sniper, Munn’s barely connected overachiever, K. Brown’s shadowy man, the
comfortable with alien technology Tremblay, Holbrook’s ex-wife, and the Loonies
and their manic antics, there’s just too many prey running amok for each player
to leave much of an impression, and if they do (especially , Sterling K. Brown,
who steals the show) they don’t last long before off to the next (evisceration).
You’re almost grateful for the thinning of the herd.
With the players established, cowriters Black and Fred
Dekker are free to establish some kind of a plot to manifest our alien
creature’s deus ex machina. In between the impossibly sharp wrist blades and
shoulder mounted laser cannons- it’s pretty convoluted. From the predator who
seems to have a different agenda (and DNA) than the usual garden variety
Rastafarian space hunter, to Tremblay’s asberger character having more cache
with the alien race than you would think, to the treatment of war veterans with
PTSD, to the scientists trying to contain and research something without physical
restraints, the results are quite unwieldy. Considering it’s made by the same
guy who created Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
and The Other Guys, it’s a step back.
Relieved of the help from Marvel’s in house team, the action sequences, framed
in the now ubiquitous Fox forest, need a lot of help as well- although having multiple reshoots probably explains a piece of the confusion.
With too many characters given too much to do, in a sometimes
amusing film that is a bloody mess, The
Predator continues the franchise vibes of video game-like continuity,
repeating musical scores, verbal cues, and guttural screams, but omitting the
mantras that made the original so successful. The film clearly sets itself up
for a sequel- will we get some blessed continuity, and will anyone care?
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