The Predator Movie Review: Just Another Messy Alien Movie with Its Light Satirical Humour to Keep You Watching
You’d expect director Shane Black (who played Hawkins in the 1987 film) to make amends to the first film’s negatives and try to make it right the fourth time.
Humour seems to be the new fancy of action movies. Sure, we had Rush Hour, 21 Jump Street, Police Academy and other such films that glorified the action-comedy genre. However, recently all the films with action as its theme have the humour to lighten the tone of the film. Take for example the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe films (except Captain America series, they were quite serious and in tone with the war theme), Deadpool, even Logan, for god's sake! They have all been following the same blueprint of films that are sure to win at the box office. The Predator too has brought in a similar approach to make the film better than its predecessors. Perhaps their satiric and dark humour could be considered as the saving grace of the film altogether.
The film starts with a Star Wars-like music and a spaceship that manages to open a wormhole that leads it straight to planet Earth. The ship crashes right where Sniper Quinn Mckenna along with his two comrades are trying to bust drug lords. Quinn witnesses the death of both his partners by the alien aka The Predator, who gets injured in the process of killing the last human in sight. Next thing you know, Quinn, being just a human, takes away two of the important armours of the alien and absconds from the site. Well, the rest is quite like what happened in the first Predator movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Oh yes, a child (Quinn’s son) gets involved in the whole mess as the predator is seeking to him. The Predator Actress Olivia Munn 'Chastised' For Outing A Convicted Sex Offender From The Movie
We’ll cut to the chase, the story is much like the first Predator film with decent to bad special effects and a plotline as thin as ice sheets. You’d expect director Shane Black (who played Hawkins in the 1987 film) to make amends to the first film’s negatives and try to make it right the fourth time. However, he fails to envision beyond what the writers Jim and John Thomas wrote. Worse is the inability to make the protagonist as charismatic as how Arnold Schwarzenegger portrayed. Sure, The Predator also joins the bandwagon of action films that run on the machismo of their male leads and do give Olivia Munn, their only female character, to join their conquest. But beyond a gun and the irrelevant inputs shared by Munn, there isn’t much use of her character either. The Predator Final Trailer: Humans and Alien Hunters Go On a Blood-and-Gore Filled Rampage and It is R-Rated Fun- Watch Video
Quinn’s wife Yvonne Strahovski has more spunk and would possibly make a good combatant in their alien squad. However, they choose to let her be the estranged wife who is sitting at home being of not much use. The Predator is nothing but a gory and R-rated rendition of The Mummy Returns. Sure, the blood and carnage were a fun sight as was the R-rated language and constant F-bombs (which we would’ve enjoyed more if they weren’t censored! So much for ‘A’ accreditation), but beyond that, there’s nothing that makes it better than the first film. Heck, the supporting cast of loonies (that’s what they call themselves) played by Keegan-Michael Key, Thomas Jane, Trevante Rhodes, Alfie Allen Augusto Aguilera with their humorous camaraderie make the film entertaining!
Yay
- The loonies (supporting cast) and their bizarreness steal the show
- The gory content deserves an applause
- The satirical banter shared by the supporting cast is hilarious!
Nay
- Haphazard and complex storytelling
- Olivia Munn's irrelevance
- Sterling K Brown's ambiguous character sketch
- Lack of continuity
- Unpolished special effects (we're living in the 21st Century with sharp VFX guys!)
- Lousy action sequences
- Lack of purpose of the film
Final Word
If you want to enjoy some irresponsibly gory content with the R-Rated hurl of abuses, The Predator is the film for you. Take your boys and gal pals with you if you're not too disturbed by limbs flying in the air and F-bombs falling from one person to another. As for those who want good action sequences, charismatic protagonist, better looking alien and much better special effects than what The Predator has to offer, don’t bother.
P.S. the Censor Board did a pretty villainous job of ridding us off all the R-rated language but leaving us with just the “F” words.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 13, 2018 03:30 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).