THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Some things are too good to be left alone. 20th Century (Fox) Studios had this problem with the Predator franchise and paid the price again in 2018.
PLOT
The Predator follows Army Ranger Quinn McKenna get attacked by the titular alien that crash landed on Earth for a hostage retrieval mission. Quinn is able to pull off incapacitating it and take its armor, mailing it to a private address to prove there is extraterrestrial life. He gets captured by government agent Will Traeger for questioning who also takes the alien to a lab for experimentation and observation. For the latter, Traeger recruits evolutionary biologist Casey Bracket to study it, which she finds its genetic makeup to be mixed with human DNA. The Predator does break free and kill all that oppose it, but spare Bracket due to being the only one unarmed. Quinn is then bussed off with a group of former marines that are deemed unstable: Gaylord ‘Nebraska’ Williams, Coyle, Baxley, Lynch and Nettles. When they see the Predator escape, they hijack the bus in hopes to pursue it. When Bracket takes part in pursuing it herself, she actually gets her tranquilized once the Predator blows one of the bus’ tires, resulting in Quinn and the guys to take her with them. When going to the protagonist’s home, he finds out his autistic son Rory took the armor for a Halloween costume, hoping to avoid detection from bullies. He soon finds him when he accidentally sets it off in public. He and the guys find him at a baseball field and protect him from Predator Hounds, lobotomizing one in the process. The escaped Predator is able to track the group down to a nearby school for the armor, only to be subdued by a larger and more powerful one of his kind. Seeing this firsthand, Bracket suspects their species are improving themselves with the DNA they’re splicing. When Traeger sees the body of the escaped, he suspects it to be a rogue one and the big one was a tracker. He then chooses to pursue the group when finding out Rory was able to understand their technology without even knowing what it was. Off of that, Bracket also believes the boy’s autism enables him to translate it. As they hide in a barn, Traeger finds and captures them. He shares his own theory that the Predators are retrieving enough human samples before climate change prevents them from doing so. When discovering Rory drew a map to the rogue one’s spaceship, the big one invades Quinn’s home and follows the coordinates. Traeger takes the boy to it when seeing him casually draw a copy of the map. Quinn and the boys overpower the other officers to go after him, being followed by the brain damaged Predator hound. By the time every central character reaches the crashed ship, the second Predator shows up and first kills Lynch. It then uses translation software to reveal its intent to destroy the ship to keep it out of their hands and gives them a head start before beginning to hunt them all. It makes good to its promise by killing most of Traeger’s men, as well as Coyle & Baxley. Traeger tries to use a Predator’s shoulder cannon, but accidentally gets himself killed with it. The Predator then takes Rory as an assumption that his autism can advance human evolution. As he tries to take him for future hybridization by starting its ship, Nettles & Nebraska join Quinn in the pursuit by jumping onto the exterior. However, the force field gets summoned which severs Nettles’ legs and causes him to fall to his death. Before it can fully close, Nebraska sacrifices himself by sliding into a turbine that causes the ship to crash. Once it does, Bracket helps Quinn take down the alien for good. After a successful victory, they pay respects to the fallen and take trinkets before heading off. Some time later, Quinn & Rory work together at a science lab, where they witness the cargo left behind by the rogue Predator to open. A transformative ‘Predator Killer’ suit emerges before deactivating, confirming it was sent for humanity to have a fair fight against the new generation of hybridized Predators. The film ends with Quinn declaring to pilot the suit for himself to pilot.
THOUGHTS
I really wanted to say it was a good sign for this to be directed by Shane Black, who not only starred in the original film, but also directed solid stuff in advance (The Nice Guys, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Iron Man 3). Surprisingly, this is not exactly the case because it's hard to say where the common ground is. This is a scenario where I feel like this movie is so bad but so good. There are a fair amount of strengths, yet there are a high amount of weaknesses that hold it back from being better. Like the action is well edited and the visuals/practical effects are still genuinely impressive. I mean the OG Predator is still cool thanks to the designs made by Tom Woodruff Jr., but the Ultra Predator was quite intimidating due to being an obvious bigger threat than the Super Predators from before. Continuing the blood feud from Predators was smart because feuds like that aren't dealt with overnight. The first thing I gotta complain about is the Predator Hounds. They creeped me out in the wrong ways and didn't look cool compared to the ones in Predators. If I gotta get into the itty gritty, the pacing feels off for me. Like I enjoy an adrenaline rush, but the story goes on so quickly I can barely digest stuff scene by scene. I blame the reshoots on this one because I'm sure what was edited before would've had a better pace. As much as there isn't enough time to enjoy all the characters, I can admit the cast make each moment count with what they're given. Boyd Holbrook holds it down in making a solid protagonist out of Quinn who is all about doing the right thing and does so with each move he makes. He's not proud on being away from his family to do the absolute, but is proud of the end result that matters most. He still proves to care for his family when protecting his son from something none of them were prepared for, thus being comfortable enough to have him work with the government. And once he figures out the mechanics, he totally would rock the Predator Killer suit should the next fight against the aliens go down. You can say Jacob Tremblay tones down the autism, but you can't deny he makes it believable enough to sympathize enough with the boy who feels alone in his view and felt most comfy when messing with technology. As much as I can say he should stay in school to avoid adult drama, at least he found somewhere he thinks he belongs. Olivia Munn was also great in making Bracket a down to earth individual who is all about the discovery and nothing more. She has the most fascination towards encountering the Predators, but has no self motivation that drives her per se. She knew it was dangerous and chose to take part in putting it down rather than give it a chance to wreak havoc. In one way, you could assume Sterling K Brown was typecast as Traeger, or you can feel that it suited him. He steps out of his comfort zone in making him an ass of a villain since he was pursuing the Predators believing he'll gain something out of it. Ironically, he gained death without even looking. Surprisingly, what made the film colorful was the Loonies group. They're not all there in the head, yet they all meant well from top to bottom. Alfie Allen made Lynch likable because despite suffering from entropy, he is all about doing his part in being a helping hand. Augusto Aguilera kept things interesting as Nettles because he's all about fitting in after all the trauma he seems to have dealt with and uses his religion to pave the way for him. Thomas Jane & Keegan Michael Key played off of each other very well as the banter between Coyle & Baxter was more of a playful way to say they care for as brothers in arms due to how they were both involved in the same incident that led to where they are when we see them. The biggest wild card was Nebraska because Trevante Rhodes portrayed him as a guy who struggled to find satisfaction in life after the experience he had serving, thus having suicide attempts. He felt like his life wasn't meaningful after previous experience and didn't believe he was making a difference unless he died in his efforts. Sadly, he got what he wanted in the most shocking way possible. Having said what I said on what can make a bearable re-watch, there are a shit load of story elements that make no damn sense. Like from the top, the rogue Predator could've done the space time jump way before the Ultra was on his tail if he wanted to get to Earth so fast. The same can be said on the Ultra not using it immediately after the rogue did. And what kind of school has a teacher that abandons Rory who is sensitive to loud nosies due to his autism? A fucked up kind of school that's what. And if the government has encountered predators before, they're should've been extra straps to pin the rogue one down. I really wished there wouldn't be any continuity errors, but boy was there a big one. When Bracket looks through a iPad full of Predator files, the events of Predator 2 are dated to 1990 (the year the film was released) when an agent earlier said the second film took place in '97. I blame the reshoots big time on not fixing a big typo. Moving on, it is odd that the rogue Predator doesn't try to explain it wants to help rather than attack like an enemy. If the Ultra was willing to translate its plans, the same could've been done the other way around. And it's pretty fucking dumb for Rory to go trick-or-treating without his mom Emily (Yvonne Strahovski) even seeing him with a Predator helmet. It's dumb on Emily's end because she could've not gave her kid that much space to do as he pleased. I'm then surprised on how no civilian sees the lobotomized Preda-Hound roaming the streets before it follows the protagonists to the barn. And Traeger saying he's been trying to pursue Predators since '87 doesn't sound as much sense as it should. Is he trying to imply him the government or him as if he's the son of Dillon from the first movie? If he's trying to say the latter, then fucking say that. And boy was that soldier dumb for throwing that Predator boomerang without training for it. That was bound to go oh so wrong, I was on Traeger's side when he killed him for it. Lastly, I want to enjoy the idea of a Predator Killer suit since the visuals were well done on it. My problem is that the inspiration is too obvious to come from Iron Man. I honestly wished it was a xenomorph facehugger instead because that would've been more realistic of a weapon. Ignoring all of these issues is hella hard to ignore and I wish you good luck to try. To get this over with, The Predator is another weak link for trying too hard to be new while also trying to be nostalgic. Whichever kind of fan you are of this franchise, I hope your patience is better than mine.
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