It is absolutely mystifying how terrible the next installment of the Predator franchise is. What made the first two films so great, and most of the third film is that they were incredibly self-aware.
They knew what they were and went for it. Arnie versus the beast turned into Danny Glover in an urban game of cat and mouse to Adrien Brody and a ragtag group of badasses fending off the hunters on their home planet and now there is a bus full of characters who have an amalgam of off placed and painfully humorless jokes who must face up against a DNA hybrid super predator (think Jurassic World but worse) whose CGI is awful.
One of the many pitfalls of the film is the exploration of Predator lore that introduces narrative elements that are so bizarre and so ridiculous that they are even too much for the Predator franchise.
Shane Black wrote the screenplay with Fred Dekker and ultimately deliver a script that takes itself too seriously and tries so painfully hard with humor, that the one-liner zingers become difficult to endure. It’s a shame really, considering that Black and Dekker are responsible for one of the finest self-aware genre films of the 80s and Stranger Things trendsetter, The Monster Squad.
Boyd Holbrook is fine as he leads a cast made-up of Olivia Munn as Olivia Munn, Keegan-Michael Key as a shtick worn thin, Jacob Tremblay as the prototypical autistic kid, Trevante Rhodes in a solid turn, Sterling K. Brown as an admirable villain, Jake Busey as the son of Gary Busey from Predator 2, and Thomas Jane playing against type and perhaps one of the only redeeming qualities of the film.
While Jane makes the absolute best of his poorly written character, he perfectly encapsulates what the film is: a messy missed opportunity.
Those who abide by latter-day Shane Black’s zeal, may find some salvageable elements in the film, but as a whole it turns itself upside down with poor CGI, atrocious jokes, and a plot so ridiculous that makes the Predator 2 look like it is Empire Strikes Back (which to some, that film is justifiably already at that level).
It’s not surprising that Arnold Schwarzenegger turned down a chance to reprise his seminal role of Dutch, and Bencio Del Toro dropped out of playing the lead because the film isn’t just a disappointing progression of the Predator franchise, or that it’s a misfire from Shane Black; it is because the film is terrible.
Review by Frank Mengarelli
The Predator
Summary
Not only is it painful how bad the new Predator film is, but it also becomes a steep chore to endure.
