Imagine you’re in a forest being hunted down by a fierce alien that’s already killed the rest of your squad. You hear the clicking, then you see the three dotted lasers appear on your chest, and you know it’s over for you.
2018’s “The Predator” is the fourth installment in the Predator franchise. The original 1987 action hit, “Predator,” received tons of praise and is ranked high on the list of great 80’s action films, so this new iteration has big shoes to fill.
You can’t have a Predator movie without the hard “R” rating and the nasty kills. The original was known, in part, for its bloody executions, which was always able to get an “ahh” or an “eww” out of the audience. “The Predator” ups the ante with its over-the-top bloodshed. Soldiers are impaled by tree branches, sliced in half by alien shurikens and blown to bits by the signature “plasmacaster,” a shoulder mounted explosive weapon.
The action in this film is high-octane fun, but there are some problems with it, mainly with the editing. The editing in the film is choppy, but especially during some of the action sequences. During some of the action scenes, it is easy to lose track of where the characters are or who is dying or who is shooting whom. It definitely didn’t help that most of the action sequences were in a poorly lit forest.
A dog like predator tracks down the target like a hunting dog and attacks. This is the second edition of the Predator Dogs, also called Flusher Hounds, a version of them was first seen in “Predators.” They are vicious hunters sent from a Tracker Predator to track its prey.
Another thing that bothered me was the CGI. It was very clear that the CGI department didn’t have either the time or the budget to hone these effects. Most of the CGI looked convincing, to where the audience can get immersed in the film, but when CGI is bad, it’s really noticeable.
The story of “The Predator” seems to backtrack on a lot of the plot points and add new lore to the previous films, which creates interesting, new ways to look at the old story but also opens up new plot holes. The predator was originally just an alien looking to hunt the most formidable foe. This film ret-cons* a lot of the original reasons the predator came to earth in the first place. While I can’t get into spoilers, it tries to explain why the predator species began exploring planets and fought the most powerful enemies they could find. Another thing this movie does is introduce another whole new cast, and most of their storylines and backstories are unentertaining, to say the least.
One of the new characters introduced in the film is Rory Mckenna. Rory is the son of the protagonist Quinn McKenna, and Rory’s introduction is lackluster, to say the least. The character is introduced in a school after some bullies pulled a fire alarm. The alarm caused him to show clear discomfort, which implied that he had had a hearing problem. After this, his sensitive hearing is almost never brought up again, and it didn’t use to be relevant to the story, which, in my opinion, is a wasted opportunity.
The new hunter predator tracks down and eliminates one of the original predators on earth for a secret mission. “The Predator” revolves around a predator coming to earth for mysterious reasons, while also being tracked down by a larger, fiercer hunter and its hounds.
Later into the movie, Quinn Mckenna meets a PTSD relief group that calls themselves the “Looneys.” The entire group is full of misfits and “crazy” people, hence the name. They’ve all been disbanded from the military for various reasons, including but not limited too, friendly fire, helicopter crashes and PTSD. All the characters in the Looneys had their own little quirks and played off each other well.
The last new main character is Casey Bracket, played by Olivia Munn. Casey has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology and is on a call list for the government in case they find extraterrestrial beings. Casey, while being one of the main protagonists next to Quinn Mckenna, has a very little backstory or character development. All we learn about her character is that she is a professor and an expert on aliens. But later throughout the movie, she is randomly gifted with the knowledge of expert hand-to-hand combat. While the two leads of the movie are pretty uninteresting, The Looneys created funny character moments and provided the core comedy of the movie, and for the most part, it was pretty good.
Keegan-Michael Key’s character, Coyle, makes vulgar jokes about another man’s mother to rile him up for an escape attempt. Key’s character is mainly used as comedy relief, even though the entire movie is mostly a comedy.
This movie ended up coming off as more of a comedy than a serious action flick, like most of its predecessors. Shane Black, the director, was also in the original “Predator.” His character was the comedy relief of that film, and he brings back the comedy, but this time at a larger scale. Shane Black has directed very popular comedies like “The Nice Guys,” “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” and even a Marvel movie, “Iron Man 3.” Black brings his style of comedy into this movie, with most of the jokes feeling very much like the MCU humor. Even though it feels slightly out of place, the humor still works, and it gives audiences a new style of predator film that we haven’t seen before.
I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome of this film. I went into the movie expecting nothing more than a garbage cash grab, but it turned out to be an enjoyable experience with exciting action moments, hilarious moments and character interactions. While it’s far from the best entry in the franchise, it’s definitely a solid 5/10 movie and an enjoyable experience, especially if you’re seeing it with friends.
*retroactive continuity- Also known as a ret-con, is when movies ignore or adjusted established facts in a previous film.