Predator, The (2018) [Blu-ray]
Action | Adventure | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline: The Hunt has Evolved

From the outer reaches of space to the small-town streets of suburbia, the hunt comes home in Shane Black's explosive reinvention of the Predator series. Now, the universe's most lethal hunters are stronger, smarter and deadlier than ever before, having genetically upgraded themselves with DNA from other species. When a young boy accidentally triggers their return to Earth, only a ragtag crew of ex-soldiers and a disgruntled science teacher can prevent the end of the human race.

Storyline: From the outer reaches of space to the small-town streets of suburbia, the hunt comes home. Now, the universe's most lethal hunters are stronger, smarter and deadlier than ever before, having genetically upgraded themselves with DNA from other species. When a young boy accidentally triggers their return to Earth, only a ragtag crew of ex-soldiers and a disgruntled science teacher can prevent the end of the human race. Written by Twentieth Century FoxThe Predator is the fourth installment of the Predator saga (technically sixth if one includes the dismal Alien vs. Predator films), and it’s the one production that carries the greatest sense of hope.

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, December 18, 2018 The current season finale of television's long running Survivor is about to air as this review is being written, and in at least a couple of ways, The Predator might be thought of as an analog to the show. After all, many of the characters in the film find themselves in an isolated jungle, and, as with the television show, one by one they get picked off, albeit by an intermittently invisible alien rather than one (or more) of their teammates. But one of the funniest analogs comes at the end of this occasionally exciting but awfully rote enterprise, after a bunch of characters have met their demise and the, well, survivors pay homage to them all, including by collecting little trinkets that belonged to them. It patently reminded me of a silly vignette that used to be part and parcel of Survivor, but which has thankfully (in my considered opinion) been dropped, where the last few survivors walk through a field littered with little altars honoring their "fallen" comrades, often with, yep, little trinkets associated with those folks part of the structure.

An alien spacecraft suddenly emerges from a wormhole where it promptly crashes into a communications satellite (hey, where's my HBO? ), and then careens wildly through our atmosphere as a Predator ejects himself in an escape pod. Meanwhile, an Army Ranger sniper named Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook) is getting ready to let loose on some hostage takers in an unspecified jungle when he suddenly sees the flaming wreckage of something passing awfully closely overhead, a UFO that crash lands nearby, setting off a huge conflagration and sending Quinn careening down a hill. He finds the remnants of the escape pod, including some alien hardware which he quickly confiscates, and then he rather unexpectedly has a little close encounter of the tech kind with an alien armpiece that actually helps him to bring down the shimmering, semi-visible Predator.

Quinn also discovers some transformational powers that a mysterious alien sphere provides, ultimately deciding to ingest the tiny globe to keep it out of prying hands. He mails the rest of his alien hoard back to the United States, where conveniently enough they end up in the hands of his autistic son Rory (Jacob Tremblay), in a plot point that plays suspiciously similarly to the "kid finds alien tech" aspect of Kin. Also unfolding as the "third leg" of this particular plotting stool is the work of Doctor Casey Bracket (Olivia Munn), who is accosted by those ubiquitous men in black and taken to a top secret lab to poke and prod the Predator who has been captured in the wake of Quinn's battle.

Now, already co-writer and director (and original Predator featured player) Shane Black is treading on pretty precarious ground, with a trifurcated initial onslaught that is basically begging to be woven together. But things get even more wobbly once it's revealed that Quinn has been taken into custody and is more or less being shipped off to a post traumatic stress disorder mental institution with a bunch of other troubled vets (all of whom of course get sucked into the story, therefore perhaps making this a quadra-furcated story). Except — wouldn't the government, even the Black Ops types who lurk in the background of this tale, have been happy that Quinn's little fracas actually allowed them to capture a Predator?

In a completely predictable plot point, the captive Predator escapes, and meanwhile little Rory has started "activating" various alien tech, which in turn draws the interest of other Predators who are the hunt for the devices, in yet another plot point that seems awfully like Kin (despite Kin's ultimate reveal as to who the "aliens" actually were). Suffice it to say that Quinn, along with a ragtag band of potentially slightly crazy former vets, team with Bracket to take down the invaders, with Rory getting taken captive himself (again — predictable).

This is a somewhat raucous Predator outing, and its kind of shtick laden comedy may not sit that well with fans of the franchise, even given some of Ah-nold's "comic" pronouncements in the first film (interestingly, Black is on hand in an interview stating he was initially hired to write jokes for the first film, but he felt they weren't required, which is when he was ported over to the acting side of that particular equation). That said, perhaps surprisingly, there's a decent amount of emotion underpinning the carnage. While Rory's affliction is obviously played for some heartstring tugging moments, it's some of the vets who actually end up creating the most potent emotional tether with the audience, something that perhaps makes their unavoidable demises more visceral.

There's probably too much going on in this latest Predator "reboot", something that tends to fray focus and make the story more vignette driven than it arguably needs to be. The tone here is what may set many Predator fans' teeth on edge, though, for Black obviously wanted to go for a little more comedic gusto this time around. There are some good performances here, but the entire enterprise feels a little rote. Technical merits are solid for those considering a purchase.

[CSW] -3.3- It's a B movie blast with an unrelenting pace, fantastic fight choreography that doesn't skimp on the gleeful blood and gore, and never not fun or interesting to look at. Yeah some of the one-liner dialogue was a little blue and a little over the top but the plot is interesting even if it isn't exactly clever or unique. If you start out expecting a major "A" movie like many of the earlier in the Predator franchise, you will miss all the fun of a great B movie. But damn it, it all works and it makes its own beautiful alchemy out of a bunch of borrowed parts. This is cheap genre filmmaking, granted with some expensive CGI, to make for a great shoot-um-up / beat-um-up action movie done right for what it is supposed to be.
[V4.5-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - D-Box really enhanced this movie (when toned down a bit unless you really want to be bounced around).


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