An Entertaining Identity Crisis: The Predator Movie Review

Sci-Fi is one of my all-time favourite genres of cinema. From John Carpenter's The Thing to Ridley Scott's Alien franchise, I have seen and enjoyed a large number of science fiction film. When I heard that there was a new Predator movie being released I was over the moon with excitement and anticipation to see what new trouble my favourite inter-galactic hunter would get into. The film sported good enough actors, starring Oliva Munn(Attack of the Show), Boyd Holbrook (Logan), Keegan-Michael Key (Key and Peele), Jacob Tremblay (Room) and Sterling K. Brown (This is Us). The addition of Shane Black as the director reinforced my expectations that the movie would be great, seeing as he was part of the original Predator film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. After watching the movie, those high hopes and expectations were shattered. Not in a good way either.

The Predator starts off good enough, with a decent opening scene involving our space faring hunter speeding through the cosmos in an impressively rendered spaceship, pursued by a larger, also impressively rendered spaceship. The ship crashes into earth after entering some sort of worm-hole to escape its pursuer, which causes the predator to jettison itself to safety via escape pod. Enter Quinn Mckenna (Holbrook): he's a mean, lean, gun firing machine with a special ops military background and hard-nosed kick-ass-and-take-names attitude. During a routine recon operation that coincidentally occurs near the predator's crash site, he has a run in with the technologically advanced hunter that almost costs him his life. His men are not so lucky after the encounter is over, so McKenna flees the scene with some equipment he manages to scab off of the incapacitated predator. After fleeing the scene, McKenna mails the equipment to his estranged wife's household so it may be kept safe despite whatever may happen to him.

We then get introduced to government agent Traeger (Brown). Traeger knows of the predator's existence, and acts to cover up incidents where humans and the predator have crossed paths while harvesting evidence left-over for military weapons research. After finding the incapacitated body of the predator, he calls in biologist Casey Brackett (Munn) to help with documentation and study of the sedated predator. As could be easily predicted, something goes awry and the predator awakens, understandably pissed off at the fact that he has been examined by humans without his permission. What ensues is a bloodbath that probably made the surviving employees really wonder if their work benefits were worth the risk of disembowelment by jagged alien claw.

Back at the McKenna residence, McKenna's son Rory (Tremblay) has snooped through the package mailed by his father and toyed with the alien technology within. Long story short, he unknowingly activates a tracker which notifies the predator of the location of his missing gear. McKenna, now under custody of Traeger's forces after being interrogated for his knowledge on the predator, must escape to protect his son with the help of other rugged macho-men who are also under custody for knowing too much. His rag-tag troop of hap-hazard and potentially unhinged partners handle themselves well and provide help as well as entertaining banter for the remainder of the film.

Now that I've explained the gist of the plot, it's time to get down to brass tacks on what I actually thought. The movie was no-where near as good as I thought it would be. Without getting too deep into spoiler territory, there is a moment around halfway through the film where the pacing completely goes to hell and i was left pretty confused about how some events actually transpired scene-to-scene. I'm not sure if messy editing is also to blame, but the scene sequencing during a particularly important stand-off that transpires once McKenna and the gang secure his son really messed up the flow and therefore my enjoyment of the movie. Then came the bit near the end of the film where the predator decides to use a voice translator to tell the surviving members of the story that he will give them a head-start on preparation for their final confrontation. At this moment i stopped taking anything seriously in this film. I am all down for camp, but god damn it I'll draw a line when one of the most intimidating and iconic movie monsters of all time starts talking like a Saturday morning cartoon villain waxing poetic about the values of hunting through a voice modulator. It is at this moment in the film where the tone goes from "fun action packed sci-fi adventure" to "half-baked attempt at the hunger games featuring aliens" and I was not having any of it.

McKenna (Holbrook) and Brackett (Munn) find themselves in a spot of trouble

In conclusion, The Predator is still a good time if you are looking for entertainment and suspension of disbelief. With a run-time of 118 minutes, the film doesn't outstay it's welcome. It hangs around just long enough for you to begin to get sick of it right as it is ending which I thought was a redeeming quality. Just don't go expecting a true-to-form comeback that harks back to the Arnold Schwarzenegger classic. You will be unsatisfied and probably find more wrong than right, which really ruins the over-all viewing experience.

I give The Predator 3 scientists with poor job safety standards out of 5.