| The Predator (2018) | |
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Rating: 5.3/10 (142,744 votes) Director: Shane Black Writer: Fred Dekker, Shane Black, Jim Thomas Stars: Boyd Holbrook, Trevante Rhodes, Jacob Tremblay Runtime: 107 min Rated: R Genre: Action, Adventure, Horror Released: 14 Sep 2018 |
| Plot: When a young boy accidentally triggers the universe's most lethal hunters' return to Earth, only a ragtag crew of ex-soldiers and a disgruntled scientist can prevent the end of the human race. | |
The Predator films have always been a big lump of dumb, testosterone fuelled fun. The first film is one of the highlights of the wave of 80s action films, with iconic actors in iconic roles mouthing iconic dialogue whilst iconic effects-work thrills and entertains. The sequel was even dumber, and whilst it doesn’t quite survive the deteriorating effect of time as well as its predecessor, it is still quite rewatchable (even if sometimes its for the wrong reasons). The Alien v Predator films aren’t classed as a part of the main series, but I do have a soft spot for the first of those (likely down to me really strange love of the director, Paul WS Anderson) – the second film, Requiem, was just terrible. In 2010 a new entry, Predators, was released, aiming to bring the franchise back to its roots, but at the same time flipping it in a new direction. The film delivered well enough at the box office to be classed a success, and was generally a solid entry into the series (personally I rank it just behind the first film). But a sequel to that film never arrived, despite Nimrod Antal and Robert Rodriguez being keen on expanding their tale out. Now we have a new sequel/reboot of the franchise, from none other than Shane Black.
At the news that Black was writing and directing, to say I was enthusiastic is an understatement. Known for writing some of the best ‘buddy action films’ of our time (Lethal Weapon 1 and 2, Last Boy Scout, Last Action Hero), he also has turned his hand successfully to directing with films like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Nice Guys, and shown his deftness for action in Iron Man 3. He was also in the original Predator as Hawkins, so his links to the franchise bode well. As trailers failed to enthuse people, I kept reassuring them that this is Shane Black, it will surely be dumb fun. The guy can write witty, interesting characters, and he can direct well.
So, imagine my disappointment to find out that there must be two writer/directors named Shane Black, because there is no way on earth this was by the same guy!
Stick around – this gets messy…
The plot sees a Predator on the run from other Predators crash land on earth, kill Army Ranger sniper Quinn McKenna’s team – Mckenna escaping with some tech which he manages to work out how to use rather rapidly and sends it to a safe PO Box before he is arrested by the men in black. However the PO Box hasn’t been paid for, so the box gets sent to his home where his son, Rory, who is autistic, opens the box, and all manner of trouble eventually arises as his super-brain activates the equipment. Cue another Predator and his dogs hunting down the other Predator and….oh, the rest would be spoilers, but suffice to say just the memory of what comes after triggers my mediocrity alarm!
Quinn, meanwhile, is being sent to a maximum security facility, with claims he killed his squad as a cover, and on the bus there he teams up with a bunch of really poorly written and annoying characters to escape and go help Rory (how they escape is pathetically unbelievable, relying on the tired trope of guards on prison buses being deaf and blind to the antics of those being transported). Throw in some bloody action and explosions, along with some attempts at humour, and the end result is a film that would sit well as a straight-to-home-release piece of nonsense from a studio like Asylum, but not as a cinematic release from a major studio.
The initial thing that stands out is that the pacing is totally off. There’s no build up, no momentum, no tension. Scenes are just mashed against each other in order to propel the plot as fast as possible, and as a result the editing is choppy, sloppy, and haphazard. Any potential thrill during action is lost due to the manner in which it slices back and forth, only stopping to linger when it has a chance to show off some bloody entrails or severed spine, because gore is clearly more important in this film that tension. Action scenes that should have packed a punch end up more of a slight nudge as a result. Things just ‘happen’ on screen, and scenes just ‘come around’ rather than feel like there is any kind of natural flow to events. If you need a character to be somewhere for a scene, don’t give them any reason for being there, just dump them in it – nobody will notice any continuity issues, will they?
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This still shot gives the moment too much justice – it looks thrilling….it wasn’t!
Regarding the characters, they may be well written, I can’t actually tell, because whilst there are some intriguing elements to their backstories, the cast are so flat there are a rising number of people who are now citing them as evidence that the earth isn’t a globe! In the synopsis above I completely missed out Olivia Munn’s character, Dr Casey Bracket, despite her being quite a key character. I missed her out because I completely forgot about her presence in the film until now, that’s how much impact she had! The same goes for Sterling Brown as Will Traeger – completely forgettable character, despite being key to a fair few events! Don’t set me off on Thomas Jane and Keegan-Michael Key as Baxley and Coyle, two actors that are capable of so much better, but here are terribly unconvincing (Key, in particular, completely overdoes the ‘wacky-joker-charm’ as though he’s in some kind of pantomime).
There are elements of Black’s style of writing still present, and some laughs are to be had – however those laughs are not necessarily at moments where they were intended, the film is hilariously terrible at parts. But the whole venture whiffs of studio interference and meddling (a film from Fox feeling like it’s been messed with? That would never happen!). By the time the final scene comes around – which is what I refer to as an ID: Resurgence ending, forcibly and cheesily trying to set up the next film (also see Fant4stic) – the only response walking out of the screening I had was, “Well, AvP Requiem wasn’t all that bad on reflection!”
Don’t get me wrong, I tried to like this – I wanted to like this. During the film I kept trying to convince myself that it was just being ‘comic-booky’ and trying to not be too critical, but after 40 minutes of trying to tell myself the film was better than it was, I realised I should just be honest and accept that it isn’t.
With any luck The Predator, with it’s attempts to jump-start a trilogy, will follow in the footsteps of all the other recent attempts at trilogies that fell at the first hurdle, and we can consign it to history as, “Whoops! Sorry – ignore this!” where films such as Indy 4, Terminator Salvation and Genisys, and ID: Resurgence are currently festering.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaG1KZqrLvM
