THE PREDATOR (R)
Released by 20th Century Fox
Review by Adam Mast
Writer/director Shane Black was all the rage in the 80s. He was only in his early 20s when his screenplay for a little film called LETHAL WEAPON would cause bidding wars amongst Hollywood’s biggest studios. Later on, during that same decade, director John McTiernan would cast Black as a grunt in the Arnold Schwarzenegger-headlined sci-fi/action classic, PREDATOR. Now, several directing and writing credits later (credits that would include THE LAST BOY SCOUT, THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT, KISS KISS, BANG BANG, IRON MAN 3, and THE NICE GUYS), Black’s career comes full circle with THE PREDATOR, a film that further explores the mythology of the galaxy’s fiercest hunters.
In THE PREDATOR, a ragtag team of misfit soldiers, played by the likes of Boyd Holbrook, Trevante Rhodes, Thomas Jane, and funny man Keegan-Michael Key just to name a few, come face to face with both a familiar otherworldly competitor as well as a genetically upgraded version of a race of deadly hunters who’ve been visiting our planet for decades. As expected things go from brutal to ultra-violent as these soldiers join forces with a science teacher (played by an uninspired Olivia Munn) and a young autistic boy (played by Jacob Tremblay) in an effort to put a stop to these deadly Predators and save humanity as we know it. It won’t be easy though, as a rival military man with an agenda of his own (played by Sterling K. Brown) constantly gets in their way.
I’m sad to report that the ALIEN VS PREDATOR films aside (actually, the first AVP isn’t as bad as its reputation suggests) is not only the worst of the standalone PREDATOR movies, but it also emerges as Black’s messiest effort as a filmmaker. Upon watching the film, it’s pretty easy to see why Arnold Schwarzenegger turned down what was speculated to be nothing more than a glorified cameo.
Negativity aside, there are positive aspects worth noting in this movie. Particularly the cast chemistry. These slightly offbeat and unhinged characters do play off each other quite well and their banter crackles with the kind of colorful wordplay that you’d expect from the writer/director of KISS KISS, BANG BANG. Honestly, though there were times throughout THE PREDATOR when I sort of wished these characters were in a completely different movie because the story being told isn’t always worthy of their personalities.
Of the entire cast, the standouts are an amusing and effective Thomas Jane as a grunt with Tourettes and young ROOM star, Jacob Tremblay as an autistic with direct ties to one of the soldiers. Sterling K. Brown has some delightfully cruel and quirky moments as a cretin of a military officer as well.
As for the Predators themselves, they certainly look good. Most are akin to the standard Predator made famous by the original film while the genetically upgraded version is a colossal beast capable of a considerable amount of bodily damage. And new to this film is the much talked about Predator hounds which are essentially their version of a hunting dog, only they really don’t serve much of a purpose in this film because the Predators do a good enough job tracking prey on their own.
THE PREDATOR offers up the obligatory Easter eggs and callback lines to be sure (“Get to the choppers!”) There’s also an appearance by Jake Busey as the son of the character his father Gary Busey played in 1990’s underappreciated PREDATOR 2. This movie doesn’t take the time to acknowledge the Busey connection, however, but a visit to IMDB reveals that both characters do share the same last name. Finally, there’s Henry Jackman‘s rousing score which provides so much PREDATOR-inspired familiarity (in a good way), one might wonder why Alan Silvestri didn’t just jump on board and compose the music himself.
Beyond these traits, Black, working from a script he wrote with his THE MONSTER SQUAD co-writer Fred Dekker, admirably tries to subvert our expectations and bring new plot hooks to the table, including the aforementioned upgraded Predator and motivation behind the primary hunter’s reason for being on Earth in the first place, but these hooks do little to rise above the overall messy nature of this movie as a whole. There’s too much going on and in some cases, it appears as if scenes are straight up missing entirely (watch as a soldier’s ex-wife shows up for a couple of scenes only to never be heard from again.) Furthermore, it’s been widely reported that the final act of this film has been majorly retooled. It feels like it!
Listen, I recognize that the original PREDATOR isn’t exactly high art but as an action piece, it’s breathtakingly crafted, plus, it’s a hell of a lot of fun to boot! THE PREDATOR, by comparison, is more goofy and nonsensical than fun. This, despite moments of very entertaining character banter and ample amounts of bloodshed. Ultimately though, there’s no sense of rhythm or geography to the bigger set pieces in this movie, and that’s not a good thing, particularly when discussing a big sci-fi actioneer like THE PREDATOR. Surprising, because Black knows his way around a film set and he certainly understands the logistics of action movies. It’s hard to know what exactly went wrong here. All the pieces were in place but for whatever reason, this one simply doesn’t come together and while I wouldn’t call THE PREDATOR a bad movie, it’s definitely a crushing disappointment, particularly given all the talent involved.
