Directed by: Shane Black
Runtime: 118 minutes
Ironically (given the infamously camouflaged namesake) with The Predator, what you see is what you get. It makes this clear very quickly. If you know the franchise you might be just starting to ask yourself if you are going to see a plasma caster or a wrist blade when you are answered… viscerally. The classic gadgets are not the only returning Predator staples. Director Shane Black borrows heavily from the imagery and staging that made the series iconic. But, Black does know how to set a pace, and that, for the most part, keeps it from devolving into gratuitous fanservice.
First, the positives. Black has a wealth of experience in the ‘hyper competent, unconventional team on a mission’ genre. The Predator does not alienate newcomers with an unwieldy plot. It expands on some of the worldbuilding from Predators (2010), mining it for a premise and predator vs predator spectacle, but purposely avoids becoming impenetrable. There are Predators, and people who do not want to become prey, and you are here for when they meet. Very little that could be shown is said, and Olivia Munn’s excited but bewildered scientist, Casey Bracket, provides a charismatic point of view that allows what necessary exposition there is to breeze by as quickly and organically as possible.
Similarly, the plot, which revolves around advanced technology accidentally falling into the hands of a precocious child (Jacob Tremblay), may be simple, but it provides a solid structure so you always know who wants what in the action.
When they’re on screen, the Predators themselves are shot like the main attraction of a monster movie. Not shy about showing the creature, or a spurt of gore, if it will also show how dangerous it is.
The aforementioned team is a group of US army veterans en-route to a psychiatric hospital (played by a host of actors you will probably remember as that guy from that thing; Trevante Rhodes, Keegan-Michael Jey, Thomas Jane, Alfie Allen, Augusto Aguilera), when fate intervenes in the form of Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook) and the eponymous entity. Holbrook plays a convincing if conventional lead and the chemistry of the group is strong enough to carry the film through its weaker moments, which brings us to the not so positives.
The Predator is exactly what it says on the tin, and that is a weakness as well as a strength. Black uses broad, and for want of a better word, obvious cinematic language to communicate as much as possible very quickly, but it does oversimplify. At times characterisations veer into tired tropes, most noticeably, an unorthodox interpretation of what it means to be on the spectrum. There is also a definite note of MCU-ification. With occasional Whedon-esque quips sprinkled throughout, and a suspicion that somewhere during production Holbrook was asked for his best impression of Tony Stark playing Captain America. However, the real problem is that the film never comes together into something more than the sum of its parts. The cast and crew are all professionals and you get a good product, but that’s all it is.
The Predator lacks the personality you expect from the director behind Lethal Weapon and The Nice Guys (who incidentally, also appeared as Rick Hawkins in the original Predator (1987)) and, with reportedly significant rewrites of the third act, maybe it was meant to be something different. As it stands, The Predator is enjoyable and I recommend it to anyone interested in seeing it, but I do wonder if it could have been more.
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