20th Century Fox
Way back in 1987, Arnold Schwarzenegger was arguably at the height of his stardom following a string of hits including Conan the Barbarian, The Terminator, and Commando. He followed those films up with the sci-fi/action/monster movie Predator and continued his stardom into the 1990s before becoming the governor of California. But this isn’t about him. This is about one of his co-stars, Shane Black, who had just scored a hit a few months earlier with his screenplay for Lethal Weapon, regarded as one of the best ‘buddy’ movies ever made. Black continued to act in small roles but his real bread and butter became writing, scripting fondly regarded movies The Monster Squad, Last Action Hero, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Iron Man 3 and the criminally overlooked The Nice Guys (another perfect ‘buddy’ movie).
With his reputation for turning out great scripts that include a lot of action and witty dialog, coupled with his involvement in the original Predator, it seemed only natural that Black should be the guy to bring the franchise back to life after a failed attempt in 2010 with Predators. One might think that, but expectations don’t necessarily end up being reality.
The Predator takes place in the present, although it feels like it could be the 80s (we’ll get to that). A Predator ship is pursued through space and ends up crashing … in Mexico? Or some Central American country. Who knows. An American military sniper, Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook), witnesses the crash and collects a couple of souvenirs including a face mask and gauntlet, shipping them back home for safe keeping. Except his post office box bill is overdue so it all gets forwarded to the home of his estranged wife and son. Son Rory (Jacob Tremblay) opens the box and plays with the gauntlet, inadvertently alerting others to his location, including the Predators. To keep him quiet, the government tries to shuffle Quinn off to the looney bin with a group of other ex-military types (and tired stereotypes) while summoning Dr. Casey Bracket (Olivia Munn) to a top secret lab to examine the sedated Predator (and there are an endless number of conversations about how the name Predator is totally inaccurate based on how the creature hunts for sport). Of course it gets loose and mayhem ensues, Quinn and his new unit join up with Bracket to protect Rory and stop this alien invasion. Or something like that.
The Predator is a mess. Coming from the writer of those films listed about, one would expect more, a lot more from this movie. I mentioned how it felt like a movie from the 1980s. It does because the jokes are dated and the stereotypes are even more dated. Rory is ‘on the spectrum’ but Tremblay doesn’t seem to have actually met anyone with autism. His direction from director Shane Black is basically ‘cover your ears and whine’ when there’s a loud noise. Even worse is the character played by Thomas Jane who has the comedic condition of Tourette’s. Of course it’s not comedic, but Black has him play it for laughs, giving him the most profane outbursts just to get a few laughs. It’s extremely offensive (especially if you’ve been watching the A+E docuseries Raising Tourette’s). Most of the cast just seems to be speaking their lines. None more so than Sterling K. Brown, who should know better. And his condescending fake laugh is completely grating.
Now there are reports of a lot of behind the scenes turmoil (aside from the one that’s already well-known) involving rewrites and reshoots that have only served to make the movie a mess. Not only is the dialog flat and the jokes tone deaf, but the story is mostly incoherent. And it ends like an old Star Trek: The Next Generation episode where everything is conveniently wrapped up in the last five minutes of the movie. There are other issues with the story as well, such as when the 1987 movie and the 1990 sequel are referenced, although I believe a character states that the Predators have been to earth in 1987 and 1997 and the visits are getting more frequent … 20 years after the last visit? There’s just a total lack of focus to the story and that could be due to the reshoots. But when a studio orders reshoots, the hope is that they will improve the movie. If this is an improvement, I shudder to think what the originally submitted version looked like. There’s also the issue of taking the one thing away from the Predator that makes him the Predator — invisibility. Keeping the alien exposed for the bulk of the movie just makes it look like what it is — a man in a rubber suit.
But, there were people at the screening who claimed to have enjoyed it, but from the looks on their faces and the tone of their voices, it sounded like it was a fun as a funeral. The Predator feels like a movie made in the 1980s that you absolutely loved and then watching it 40 years later you realize (a)how much times have changed and (b)that movie you loved really wasn’t as good as you thought it was. I can usually find something good to say about a movie, even the bad ones, but I’m at a loss here.
The Predator has a run time of 1 hour 41 minutes and is rated R for strong bloody violence, language throughout, and crude sexual references.
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