THE PREDATOR Review

I was born in 1987 or the same year the original Predator was released. One might think this means something more or that it's led to some long-standing connection I feel with that John McTiernan movie, but it doesn't and hasn't. I say this more to point out I was too far behind to now have any nostalgic or appropriated affection for that movie. In fact, I've only seen Predator once before in preparation for the 2010 re-boot, Predators, and while the Arnold Schwarzenegger flick certainly makes for an enjoyable enough action movie it certainly didn't hit me the same way in 2010 as it likely did those who were in their late-teens to early-twenties in 1987. For me, it was fine, goofy fun and very much a product of the time in which it was made. And while 2018's The Predator will rank miles below that original for those who adore it and place it on this pedestal of action perfection, which I admittedly can't dispute given the credentials of my birth, The Predator is also perfectly okay. There is a lot going on and it wants to do more than its hour and forty-seven minute runtime dares to contain, but at the heart of the issues with the film is the fact the movie itself doesn't seem to know what its heart really wants. Does this mean there is nothing beating within the core of this movie? Does it mean there's no pulse? Not necessarily. There is so much going on that it kind of creates the illusion of this pounding sense of energy and tension, but energy doesn't always equal an understanding or coherence. There are numerous players playing different games, following several different arcs, but none of them thread together to form a satisfying whole despite countless efforts to present a facade that it does in fact do so. The Predator puts on that it knows what it is, but taking in the execution presented it seems the movie only has ideas of what it wants to be. Writer/director Shane Black knows he wants to make a bloody, irreverent, and fun action movie but for one reason or another everything Black throws at the audience feels like both disparate and sometimes desperate attempts to play to what the masses want never landing a single of the many things as well as he's proven he could have.

First Trailer for THE PREDATOR

I was never a huge fan of Predator, but most of this lack of affection derived from the fact I was born to late to really enjoy the testosterone-soaked brutal action movie it was during the heyday of testosterone-soaked brutal action movies. I did eventually go back and re-visit both the original and that 1990 sequel before seeing 2010's Predators though (which I remember liking more than I expected). That being said, I never bothered with any of the AVP titles given they came out in '04 and 07' which was before I had any interest in either franchise. Personal history aside, this latest attempt to re-boot the Predator franchise comes from writer/director Shane Black (Iron Man 3, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) who starred in the original 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger-vehicle before going on to write massive hits like Lethal Weapon and Last Action Hero before and eventually moving into directing his own films. 20th Century Fox is clearly hoping that the hiring of Black contributes to the nostalgia factor it is also counting on to pull fans back in for a new film in a franchise that is now thirty-plus years old. And while having never personally been a huge fan of these movies it's not hard to understand the appeal and I look forward to seeing what a unique voice like Black brings to this kind of movie. Black's last film, 2016's The Nice Guys, was a fantastic little slice of a seventies buddy action/comedy, but it only made $62.7 million worldwide on a $50 million budget despite starring "names" like Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe. The Nice Guys is the kind of movie that would have flourished in the nineties when the movie star on the poster was everything, but in a world dominated by IP's and familiar brands it makes sense the studio would have Black return to his roots and try his hand at something proven that could use a little bit of fresh inspiration. As far as the trailer goes, this looks like what one would expect as far as a summer sci-fi movie goes, but I expect the film itself to be a lot less typical than what this first piece of promotional material suggests as the Predator films have a history of being rated-R and filled with a little more blood and guts than your standard PG-13 summer blockbuster. The Predator stars Jacob Tremblay, Boyd Holbrook, Trevante Rhodes, Keegan-Michael Key, Olivia Munn, Sterling K. Brown, Alfie Allen, Thomas Jane, Augusto Aguilera, Jake Busey, Yvonne Strahovski, and opens on September 14th, 2018.