The Predator

Score:  C-

Directed by Shane Black
Starring Boyd Holbrook, Sterling K. Brown, Olivia Munn, Keegan-Michael Key
Running time: 107 minutes
Rated R

Long Story Short:  The Predator resumes the franchise begun and made famous by Arnold Schwarzenegger over thirty years ago.  Brought back to theaters by a director known for recent curve ball hits, this sequel flops in its attempt to blend a winking tone with more familiar action and violence.  There are a few bright spots in the cast, but there's just little here to spark much interest.  Avoid.


A ship carrying a single, extraterrestrial hunter lands in a remote jungle, right in the middle of an Army Ranger mission.  Ranger McKenna (Holbrook) survives an encounter with the alien, and flees with some equipment found around the ship.  Upon making his way back to America, he is seized by Will Traeger (Brown), in charge of the mysterious government Stargazer Project.  Lab technicians, led by Dr. Casey Bracket (Munn), study the incapacitated alien, or "Predator".  However, the Predator escapes the lab; on a bus to military prison, McKenna spots it and teams up with fellow inmates to track it down.  Time is short for McKenna to find the Predator, figure out why it has come to Earth, evade the determined Traeger, and - most importantly - save his family and the human race.

The Predator has some big names in its cast, but for the most part they are wasted by a careless and thin script.  Boyd Holbrook, who's popped up here and there in recent years (Logan), steps into the lead role, and plays about as vanilla and uninteresting of a typical hero role as possible.  He may not be bad, but just completely unremarkable in any way.  Sterling K. Brown, as the villainous director Traeger, clearly enjoys his role, taking every opportunity to form a cruel smirk or deliver an offhand but cutting putdown.  Even the ticks and quirks he develops are fun, and the film would have done far better to give him much more screen time.  Olivia Munn, in the only significant female role, is given nothing interesting to do, and is unable to cobble something out of it herself.  There are a number of smaller roles, the most welcome of whom are Keegan-Michael Key's military veteran Coyle, who is predictably funny when he gets the chance, and Thomas Jane, a fellow veteran with Tourette's.

The Predator is a scifi horror film that tries to be both silly and light as well as violent and intense, and the result is a failure on both ends.  The overall structure is a fairly familiar one: malevolent alien life lands on Earth, good individuals as well as shady government forces discover it, and a ragtag, underdog group manages to win the day.  Clearly, more thought went into how to connect this story with other Predators, both past and future; fortunately, as a newcomer to the series myself, the various references to the series aren't too burdensome or confusing.  And it's not necessarily a problem to use a well-worn story pattern.  But the film's bipolar tone sinks any chance it might have had.  Even the score reflects this: it is painfully dated action-style fare, which could be read as either winking at the audience or just poorly done.  The action and horror elements are by far the weaker - but also eventually dominant - component.  Although the Predator is obviously designed to evoke terror, it came off as merely ugly to me, and while it racks up an impressive kill count, it never actually seems that big a threat or menace.  There is plenty of action - bits here and there are clever - but it's pretty standard, uninspired stuff, and beyond that there's a good bit of clunky and awkward choreography.  If only the filmmakers had committed to a unified, parody, light tone, things could have turned out much better.  Brown, Key, and Jane are by far the film's strengths anyway, and I suspect Munn could have flourished in a far less sober role.  The scene in which the "ragtag" military team meets, on a prison bus, is my favorite in the movie, allowing the characters to introduce themselves as (at least here) surprisingly interesting and with some laugh-out-loud moments (with some admittedly basement humor).

***

That The Predator failed to resurrect yet another scifi franchise is not all that surprising.  It's a victim of a common trap for such films:  it has far too much reverence for its predecessors, and tries to walk the almost impossible tight rope of reproducing the original's successful formula while updating it to contemporary tastes.  Admittedly, I have often been one of those fans who does not want one of his favorite franchises to boldly change direction or tone.  But clearly, the half-hearted messing around in the middle that The Predator represents is usually a recipe for disaster (or at least something completely forgettable).  Fortunately, my craving for decent movies in the theaters shouldn't have to wait much longer, and I'll hopefully have more reviews coming soon.  For this one, give it a hard pass (I guess if you're a big franchise fan, catch it on Netflix).



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