Let me start this article by making something very clear. I love the Predator. The original with Arnold is in my top ten favorite movies of all time. I know that it doesn’t compare to movies like Citizen Kane or Goodfellas, but to me it had everything. Amazing action, a killer soundtrack (between the music composed for the film to the Little Richard tracks, this movie delivers), and as kid it was just the right amount of scary. Overall, I have liked all the Predator movies that have come since. Predator 2 is a blast as Danny Glover takes one on in L.A., AVP could have been better with an R rating, I don’t like AVP Requiem, and I really enjoyed Predators (I don’t think I have seen a film with Topher Grace that I haven’t enjoyed and that INCLUDES Spider-Man 3). So when I heard Shane Black, a star of the original, was helming a new Predator movie, I was all in. I am not going to discuss the drama between him and Olivia Munn. That is another article for another time. But after the review, I am going to have a brief retrospective on the franchise and where I think it goes from here. So with that, let’s do the 100 word plot summary!
Plot:
A Predator ship is being chased by another Predator ship and jump lands on Earth. Sniper guy comes across it, steals its gear and ships it to his autistic kid. Government locks sniper guy in a looney bin with other crazy ex-soldiers. Autistic kid is able to decipher the Predator language and literally suits up as Predator. Science lady is at secret government lab when the captured Predator escapes. Sniper guy and crazy soldiers escape with science lady to find autistic kid who the Predator is hunting. Hybrid-Predator kills regular Predator and captures little kid. Everyone dies but Sniper guy and Science lady, and they save Autistic kid.
108 words, better than last week. I skipped A LOT in that summary. I actually dug the story, but you had to give them a heck of a lot of leeway when it came to some narrative jumps. It is established that the Autistic kid is incredibly intelligent, but to think that that would correlate to him being able to translate and understand an alien language in a matter of minutes is a little much. There is also a lot of social commentary that happens throughout the story (mental health, climate change, parental roles for example) and not only is this not the vehicle for those discussions, what does take place is poorly done and no clear “correct” answer is given. I did like Sniper guy’s relationship with his son, I genuinely cared for the crazy ex-soldiers and actively cheered for them. But in the end this is just a Predator movie and if you were coming into it thinking you were getting a script written by Aaron Sorkin, then the disappointment is all on you.
6.5 out of 10
Cinematography:
I recently rewatched the original Predator. Although super cool for the time, and amazing as a kid, watching it in 2018 definitely shows the age of the film. Shane Black took some of those things and made it modern. For example, the Predator’s invisibility cloak (I know that it’s not technically an invisibility cloak but you know what I am talking about so don’t be overly difficult) is super cool in this film and I really like how they look when they move around. The deaths and associated gore are brilliant. I never really felt like anything was over the top and all of the gore that was there made sense and looked incredibly realistic. The Hybrid-Predator didn’t look CGI, even though I am sure it had to be in most cases. I did think that the Predator Hounds could have looked a little more realistic, and there is a scene with a bulldog, where the bulldog was CGI and I don’t understand why it was. I do think that Shane Black did a good overall job in this area.
8 out of 10
Audio:
So I am going to talk about to main things in this section in regards to audio; acting and music. I thought that the acting was great. Sniper guy (the villain with the robot arm in Logan) did a super job, and I thought he was a much better choice to follow in the footsteps of Schwarzenegger and Glover than Adrien Brody was. Olivia Munn was really good, although to think that she was a top evolutionary biologist after knowing some of her personal ideals makes it kind of hard to believe. I thought Jacob Tremblay (the autistic kid) was amazing and gave the second overall best performance in the film. Sterling K. Brown was awesome as the bad guy, and on a side note, I want to see more of him in every film I’ve seen him in recently. The best performance I am giving collectively to the ex-soldiers. They are funny, compelling, emotional and motivating all at the same time. Normally in a film like this, you don’t care about what happens to these characters because you KNOW they aren’t making it to the end. But Black modeled this after Predators and made the characters deep. But unlike Predators, they weren’t serial killers and rapists and you wanted them to live. I truly would recommend the film based on the strength of their performance alone.
Next let’s talk music. I was SOOO happy with the music. They used the original scores! I am always afraid that they won’t, but they did and it worked. In particular, the song I was most happy to hear is called “Goodbye” by Alan Silvestri. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1nQ2bncchs There is a link for reference. I find that song to be one of the most moving orchestral pieces in modern cinema. I place it in the echelons of John Williams and Danny Elfman. So when you have great performances matched by a solid soundtrack, you get a film that truly delivers.
10 out of 10
How Scary:
Here is where this movie falls down flat. I think it may be unfair, but this is the criteria for doing a review for the podcast and I am sticking to it. Even though Predator and Predator 2 have a lot of horror elements, the more recent films have moved towards action/sci-fi. This means moments that could be scary end up being more meh. There was one scene where the Hybrid-Predator shows up that made me jump and when the Autistic kid takes revenge on a bully using the Predator gear caught me off guard, it wasn’t all that scary. So understand all of that when you see this score.
3 out of 10
So you add all those numbers up and you get 27.5 out of 40 which makes for a 69% D+. If this film wasn’t being rated on how scary it was, it would be higher but we are a horror podcast and this is a horror blog. I would and have recommended this film to others. Not on the basis to scare them, but that it is a well-acted and well directed film. You can tell Shane Black cares about the franchise and character he helped create. This will be dropped into the Alien category when we reach it as a show, but for now this film sits at the top of its category. So if you have some time and a couple extra bucks, head to the theater and check this one out. It was certainly worth it to me.
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