Film Review: The Predator

I guess I’ll just mention it first since I can’t think of another way to bring the subject up within the review without making it seem like it’s merely a footnote. If you weren’t already aware, a week ago, Shane Black came under much deserved scrutiny when it was revealed by Olivia Munn that Black had cast a friend in a small role, and said friend is a registered sex offender. I’ll spare details, but you can read more here. The studio has removed the scene, but it’s still incredibly disappointing as a huge fan of Black’s work, and I hope he makes amends. I just wanted to make it clear that the issue is not to be dismissed, regardless of whether the film is good or bad. So, onto the review.

I’m not entirely sure what people want with a Predator sequel. It’s like the same thing with the Alien franchise. Great premise for one movie, but sequels only offer diminishing returns because there isn’t enough material to mine. Of course, filmmakers add lore and mythology to give some substance, but diving into lore is an easy way to lose my interest. However, having Shane Black return to helm a sequel, co-writing it with Monster Squad collaborator, Fred Dekker, is one hell of a sell, and for a while, The Predator presents everything I could’ve wanted from a Shane Black Predator movie.

The film hits the ground running, almost literally, as we see a brief space battle that results in a Predator crashing into Earth, and Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook), a sniper in the middle of a hostage rescue mission, finds the mysterious alien equipment that he decides to save as evidence by mailing it to his old home where his son, Rory (Jacob Tremblay), gets a hold of it. Meanwhile, Will Traeger (Sterling K. Brown), a government agent, brings in a biologist, Casey Bracket (Olivia Munn), to assist in examining a Predator body found at the crash site. At the same time, Quinn is being taken away in a bus full of “loonies” (played by Trevante Rhodes, Keegan-Michael Key, Thomas Jane, Alfie Allen, and Augusto Aguilera), in an effort to keep things quiet on the whole, you know, aliens on Earth thing. As you’d expect, things quickly take a turn for the gruesome, especially when a bigger Predator lands on Earth with its own agenda.

Aside from loving the original Predator, and being mostly lukewarm on the other sequels (not counting the two Alien crossovers), I’m not a purist, and I don’t have any big investment in this franchise. My only appeal for this was as a Shane Black movie, and the film is – very recognizably – a Shane Black movie. It’s got colorful characters, some clever subversive twists, a biting sense of humor, it’s all there. However, it’s very off. You quickly realize that the movie seems to be keeping up this relentless pace, and it simply doesn’t end. This hurts the movie because most of his films, even the ones he just wrote for, tend to be a bit more leisurely, the characters are given a lot of room to breathe, allowing for some nuance within their broad quirks, and those moments never really happen here. The same goes for Black’s humor, which is often based on an enlightened genre savviness and hyper-awareness of tropes and subversions thereof. Again, because the film is keen on moving things along as quickly as possible, these beats don’t land with the impact that they should.

The whole film has this feeling of being very heavily chopped up, with some obvious signs of the reshoots and other issues that plagued the production, especially in its downright awful ending, which feels like nothing like what came before. It doesn’t help that the film itself is stitching together four separate premises for a Predator movie together, either of which could’ve been a winner, but together feels muddled. Perhaps, the barrage of all these various plot threads being crammed into the movie was part of the point? Was Shane Black trying to make a statement in taking the piss out of the Hollywood franchise machine? I wouldn’t be surprised, but it is hard to get a grasp on it because those nuances that would usually be there, are likely on the cutting room floor.

As a result of this messiness, the film is an hour and 47 minutes of non-stop quips, and gruesome action beats, which – if I’m being completely honest – is hardly the worst thing in the world. The film, more than basically anything else, understands showmanship, so while it severely lacks in depth, it knows to keep things moving fast, and to keep as much of the fun bits on screen as possible. The violence is very satisfying, most of the quips are hilarious, so I found myself having a pretty good time. A lot of that is due to the actors here. Sterling K. Brown sells every single line he’s given, and he delivers it with so much style and charm. Holbrook doesn’t quite have the presence necessary for this, but he works well with the cast, especially the ragtag group of soldiers that he gets stuck with. Although, that touches on another odd thing about the film, and it’s the way Black handles mental illness, which swings from sensitive to superheroic from scene to scene, and it’s not just with these guys, it’s more to do with Rory, who is on the spectrum, which apparently means he can translate alien languages(?), and plus, as good as Munn is in this, it’s strange seeing her be the lone woman constantly being at odds with and condescended to by the guys around her, especially given what’s been revealed recently.

I don’t think The Predator is a complete disaster, but its appeal as an ultraviolent romp that seems to have no care to the legacy of the franchise (which is fine by me) is limited in its appeal. It is definitely very flawed, but it is somewhat refreshing to see a franchise film go for broke in such a spectacular fashion, even if it doesn’t totally work. It’s a fun and entertaining movie, but only on a superficial level. If your expecting any new information about the lore, you’ll be disappointed. If you were hoping for a more legit and polished Shane Black Predator movie, you’ll be disappointed. If you are soured on seeing the film because of the recent news, that’s fine too. The film is a hard one to really recommend, and if anything I described didn’t immediately turn you off, maybe give it a shot, but I’d prefer to see what this looked like before it was sentenced to death by a thousand cuts.