Of all the
iconic, reoccurring movie monsters from either Sci-Fi or Horror … the Predator
creature has always been my personal favorite, and the one I’m always the most
excited to see return to the big screen. However, while the Predator has never
failed to thrill me in a movie, his overall franchise has got to be one of the
most frustrating I’ve ever experienced. While the original “Predator”
from 1987 remains a genera classic, the majority of its sequels have been
sub-par, as well as stretched over a long period of time. Seriously, putting
aside the crossovers in the “Alien” franchise, there has consistently
only been one Predator movie per decade, one in the 80’s, one in the 90’s, one
in the early 2000’s, and one in the two-thousand-teens. It’s hard to ride any
kind of franchise high when your sequels are spaced out like that, and it’s
even more upsetting when these sequels can barley hold a candle to the high
standards of the first. The closest we got was the 2009 sequel titled “Predators”,
which captured the spirit of the first, as well as progressed the series to go
into outer-space, and visit alien planets. This set-up some great potential for
the series to build on, but for whatever reason, the 2018 sequel simply titled
“The Predator” completely ignores the events of the third film, and only
keeps in continuity with the first two movies.
The movie kicks off with something I’ve
always wanted to see in this franchise … a dog-fight in space between two armed
space-ships. The first of which is being flown by a Predator, who’s actually a
fugitive from his own planet, and is being hunted by his own kind. He crashes
on Earth, just as an Army Ranger Captain is carrying out a mission to
assassinate the leader of a drug cartel. During all the excitement, the captain
and his team find the downed ship, and take some items as proof of this
unbelievable discovery.
However, the predator is none too happy with people
taking his things, and a brutal fire-fight breaks out. I’ll say this, after
three movies and two crossovers that each began with slow-burning build-up,
it’s quiet refreshing to finally have a Predator movie that opens with a good
deal of action, and a lot of energy. There’s an amazing shot when the clocked
predator falls on the ground, and his camo is broken by the blood of a victim
dripping on his face. This one shot of the Predators glowing yellow eyes
shining through a bloody red face might just be one of my favorite visuals of
the whole series. After all the carnage, the Army Captain manages to mail his
findings back home, where he thinks they’ll be safe, but is soon apprehended by
the feds, and placed on a bus full of PTSD-afflicted soldiers. After loosing
his original team back in Mexico, these troops become his new crew. After
escaping their captivity, the team set-off to head for the Captains home, in an
effort to retrieve the stolen Predator weapons, which are now in the possession
of his son. This makes the boy a prime target for our alien hunter, as well as
the government officials, and even worse yet … a super Predator who’s hunting
the fugitive.
Let’s, jump right into the biggest
problem with this movie … the human characters once again are completely
disposable.
While the concept of a rag-tag group of PTSD soldiers had some potential,
they all act like the same, overly-animated goofball. With juvenile quips, and
aggressively trashy behavior. It should be noted that this film was written and
directed by Shane Black, who played the character Hawkins back in the original
“Predator”, which seemed like a winning idea … unfortunately, he wrote
every single character as an exaggerated version of his own character from the
first film. The Captain is your by-the-numbers action movie lead, his comrades
are completely interchangeable, and the big bad government officials are your
typical jerks in suits. It also hurts the tone of the movie, as these goofs
continue to joke around after battling alien monsters … like it doesn’t even faze
them, and never once do these people feel terrified of what their facing.
Now,
there are at least some salvageable characters. I like the lead female
scientist, who’s played by Olivia Munn. I previously liked the actress in her
portrayal of Psylocke from 2016’s “X-Men Apocalypse”, and she carries
herself quiet well in this film. I also liked seeing Jake Busey in the role of
Doctor Keyes, which is fitting sense his dad Gary Busey played the characters
descendant Peter Keyes back in 1990’s “Predator 2”. At last, the little
boy makes for a fairly good character, and escapes the confines of just being a
cliched kid with no defining traits. This boy has Asperger’s, and rather than
view it as a handicap, this film spots it as an asset for the boy, which is
appreciated. I grew-up knowing kids with different forms of Autism, and the
performance from young Rory McKenna is quite good.
The absolute best thing about this movie
by far is the classic Predator, as he’s never failed to thrill whenever on
screen. This particular one looks amazing, as the costume, and prosthetic's look
superior to any previous version. This one also displays more personality then
most others, which makes him feel more like a real character. We also see the
Predator do things in this film that the creature has never done before … like
using his pointy mandibles as teeth against one of his victims. There’s even a
moment in which this predator is forced to use a human gun against other troops
… never thought I’d see that. The most serial moment of all is when the Predator
hops on board a transport truck, he takes out the guards, which prompts the
driver to knock on the window, asking if everything is okay, and the Predator
follows up by severing a guards hand, and sticking a thumbs up through the
window. That might just be the funniest thing I’ve ever seen the Predator do in
a movie ... I mean it’s dumb, and out of character … but I love it for its
serial goofiness.
There’s also an amusing call back when the
lead female scientist see’s the Predator for the first time, looks it up and
down in aw, and follows up with … “You’re one Beautiful Mother-*&^+er!”.
Obviously, it’s a reverse of Arnold's classic line … “You’re one Ugly Mother-*&^+er!”,
and it works better than all the other sequels, which have just repeated the
line with no twist on it. Not only is the Predator great, but he also
compliments all the best scenes in the movie. There’s a very suspenseful
sequence in a lab, with the Predator escaping its bondage, and while our lead
female scientist tries to escape, she gets caught in the decontamination
process, making it impossible for her to quickly escape the approach of the
deadly hunter. This scene was riveting, and makes for a terrific moment of
vulnerability, in which a human is completely defenseless. There’s another
exciting sequence in which the Captain and his son try to hide in a local
school, while the Predator is in hot pursuit. I love seeing the classic
Predator on the hunt in different locations, and the films small-town community
is a descent setting. We’ve seen our alien hunter go open season in a big city
back in “Predatory 2”, but this was a nice change up, in which it’s a contemporary
setting on a smaller scale.
Unfortunately, just as this film is
building a lot of momentum, the classic Predator is then killed off, and
replaced with the new super Predator … which I’m not a fan of. I feel the
Predator is already a spectacular design, and can still thrill on its own, but
a new one with bigger muscles really adds nothing special to it. At least in
the 2009 “Predators”, it established different breads of predators that
still maintained the same height and body-mass of the classic … so they didn’t
feel too out of place. We also learn that the Predators are assimilating their
victims into their DNA, to make them even more superior to any other creature
in the galaxy. While this could have been an interesting attempt to develop
their culture and motivations, it just comes off as a mess, when its original
motivations were simple enough. Also, the first Predator was apparently on a
mission to give the human race a gift to protect the humans from these new
super-predators, which brings me to another problem I have with this movie …
there are way too many scenes of people using Predator weapons, as well as their clocking technology, and it just
feels off-putting. Also, the kid using a Predator mask as a Halloween costume …
absolutely ridiculous, although it is amusing that the mask is three times the
size of the boy’s head.
This movie also brings back the Predator
hunting dogs, which I love as a concept, but I don’t understand why the designs
don’t match the dogs from the previous 2009 “Predators”. Those dogs had
a completely original look and appearance, while these dogs have heads that
resemble the Predators … which doesn’t make any sense to me. Like, we have
dogs, but they don’t share our same facial features.
There’s also a curious
choice in the script, that one of the dogs gets lobotomized, which allows the
humans to use it as a loyal pet … and I’m not sure how to feel about that. I
suppose it’s a little cool to see the female lead bond with an alien dog, but
it also snuffs out the suspense when one of them can be trained to aid the
humans. On that note, this is the first Predator movie to lack the aggressive,
and dark tone of the previous movies, and goes for “pulpier”, summer movie
entertainment, which can appeal to the teen crowd. These movies have always
walked a tightrope between Sci-Fi and Horror, but this is the first film to
drop horror in favor of comedy. It’s not unintentional either, this film is
clearly trying to appeal to our generations teen crowd as a goofy Sci-Fi
comedy. It’s a little jarring, but I will say that it makes for the most
visually appealing film in the series. There are far more colors on display,
with less shadows, and some lavish set designs. The visual aesthetics of both
the underground labs, and the Predator ships are all top notch, and they look
great. There’s even a little Easter Egg to AVP, in which Lex’s self-made
Alien-Tale Bow is on display in the lab. Also, Actress Françoise Yip makes an
appearance, who previously appeared at the end of “Aliens vs. Predator:
Requiem” as Ms. Yutani.
I should note that Shane Black had
previously wrote and directed “Iron Man 3”, which was likewise addressed
in all the marketing, clearly as a means to draw-in fans of the Marvel movies.
Once we get to the climax, it’s becomes very obvious that this film was made to
appeal to the Marvel superhero crowds. At first, it starts like your proper
Predator finale, with the hunter playing a game of cat and mouse with all the
troops in the woods, and taking characters out one-by-one.
Then we get a final
battle on the Predator space ship, as it’s crashing through tree’s, characters
are jumping around on energy shields, and it suddenly feels like a climax to a
different movie. I’m not going to act like this finale isn’t fun to watch …
because it is highly entertaining as a big Sci-Fi set-piece … but it is
admittedly out of place when compared to the franchises previous installments.
All the preceding final battles were very tense, urgent, grounded, and slowly
built to a nail biting pay-off, where as this one is very flashy, laced with
lots of eye-candy, and conveys a sense of fun excitement. Like I said, I’ll
still enjoy it for what it’s clearly aiming to be, and it has some really cool moments.
I love when the kid turns on the shield to cut-off the Predators arm, and
there’s an awesome moment when one of the soldier’s leaps into the turbines of
the ship in order to bring it down. It’s all cool stuff, and as a fan of big,
Sci-Fi battles … this leaves me satisfied ... despite not fitting in tone with
the franchise at all. Now, I will say that the epilogue is awful … just plain
awful. The predator’s gift to man-kind is revealed to be a supper-suit that can
connect to people in the same style as an Iron Man suit … which is stupid, and
it completely deflates all tension for any further encounters. Also, be sure to
close off your movie on a cheesy one-liner … because that’s how to end a
Predator movie … with a disposable quip.
I’m convinced, this movie is to the Predator
franchise what “Alien Resurrection” was for the “Alien”
franchise. In both cases, they drop all sense of horror and tension in favor of
outlandish comedy, heavy CGI action spectacles, and is clearly aiming for
trashy entertainment. I should be disappointed, but I have to be honest … I
gave up a long time ago that there would ever be a Predator sequel that would
be on par with the first. As such, whenever I see a new film, it’s only for the
novelty of seeing my favorite creature on screen again, and I hope the rest of
the movie can pass as disposable entertainment. In this regard, 2018’s “The
Predator” actually surpassed my low expectations. It’s a completely
disposable sequel without question, it also has nothing on the first … but it
certainly isn’t boring. There’s enough energy, action, visual appeal, and
memorable highlights that it can pass as an enjoyable … “In one ear, and out
the other” experience. Certainly not a good movie, but I’ve definitely seen
worse, and in the end, I’m just glad I at least had some fun with this installment.
Thanks for reading my review of the
2018 sequel “The Predator” … and continue to enjoy the movies you Love!
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