The Predator (2018)

Directed by: Shane Black | 107 minutes | action, adventure, thriller | Actors: Boyd Holbrook, Trevante Rhodes, Jacob Tremblay, Keegan-Michael Key, Olivia Munn, Sterling K. Brown, Thomas Jane, Alfie Allen, Augusto Aguilera, Jake Busey, Yvonne Strahovski, Brian A. Prince, Mike Dopud, Niall Matter, Javier Lacroix, Gabriel LaBelle, Nikolas Dukic, RJ Fetherstonhaugh, James S. Salisbury, Garry Chalk

After a long absence, the ‘Predator’ film series is alive and well again. The series once started as another vehicle for Arnold Schwarzenegger and now revolves mainly around the popularity of the alien monster from the title. With director Shane Black (‘Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang’, ‘Iron Man 3’), who himself had a bit part in the first ‘Predator’ at the helm, ‘The Predator’ looked set to be the series’ big comeback. Unfortunately, the film ends in disappointment for the most part.

The film starts promisingly: mercenary Quinn McKenna, played by Boyd Holbrook (“Narcos”, “Logan”) finds a piece of alien technology. To prevent it from falling into the wrong hands, he sends it home, where it accidentally ends up with his autistic son Rory (Jacob Tremblay, known for ‘Room’ and ‘Wonder’). Soon, McKenna and his team become entangled in a nefarious plan by a company to use the Predators for military purposes.

Unfortunately, this is also where the film completely derails. The original ‘Predator’ was simple: a group of mercenaries are being hunted by an invisible creature in the South American jungle. ‘The Predator’ adds government conspiracies, an internal battle between Predators (a concept already used in ‘Predators’, the previous Predator movie) and hybrids (badly stolen from ‘Jurassic World’, where it was already bad) capped with strange myths about autism as the next stage in human evolution. Inspired by Marvel, the film is full of references to the earlier installments: the alien hunting dogs from ‘Predators’ return and even some weapons from the infamous crossover ‘Alien vs Predator’ pop up. Jake Busey (‘Starship Troopers’, ‘Contact’) also stars as the son of the character his father Gary Busey played in ‘Predator 2’.

The boring characters add little to it. Although ‘Predator’ also didn’t have deeply developed characters, they did have entertaining personalities that played well with each other. McKenna, on the other hand, is hardly interesting, and neither are his teammates. Thomas Jane (‘Deep Blue Sea’, ‘The Punisher’, ‘The Expanse’) plays a character with La Tourette, which does not get any further than clichéd cursing at random moments. Unfortunately, Olivia Munn (“X-Men: Apocalypse,” “The Newsroom”) has little more to do than be pretty and spew scientific information when it’s relevant to the story. Sterling K. Brown (‘Black Panther’, ‘Marshall’) has the thankless job of carrying the bizarre plot (com) as the villain Traeger.

What the film still excels at, and where most eventually come for, are the Predators themselves. Fueled by a generous budget, the alien safari hunters look fantastic, both the classic prosthetic suits and the digital creations. The action is also what we’ve come to expect from the series – lots of lasers, explosions and people dying horribly. It’s a shame that the film again makes the same mistake as ‘Alien versus Predator’ and ‘Predators’ by having Predators battle with other creatures or Predators. This distracts from what it should be about – Predators preying on humans. The film also changes a number of things in the ‘lore’ of the Predator series that will be difficult for many fans to swallow. Unfortunately, ‘The Predator’ falls in the same category as ‘Jurassic World’, ‘Terminator: Genisys’ and ‘Alien: Covenant’. That’s a shame, because ‘Predator’ still has a lot of potential. ‘The Predator’ is fun entertainment on a dull evening, but could have been much more.