The PredatorI saw this yesterday and have noticed this is quickly becoming the most polarizing movie of 2018, with many calling it the year's biggest disappointment (I guess they forgot Solo and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), where several others like the movie whilst acknowledging its flaws. I'm in the latter camp.
Of course I grew up with Predator. It is an 80's classic that elevated what was B-grade material into an influential and widely recognized icon, and I still love watching it. The sequels I at first didn't care for as much; Predator 2 was essentially a cop exploitation flick with an alien serial killer, and while Predators tried to emulate the first film and add a twist to the creatures' hunting habits, it went a little too far to be like the original. As time goes however, I enjoy both sequels more and consider them underrated. I wonder if I'll feel the same way about this new movie.
After first viewing, I do enjoy The Predator to a point. It is funny, bloody and doesn't skimp on the alien action. The creature design for the classic Predator looks great and the actor in the suit conveys personality along with physicality. There is a larger monster in the movie (the Mega Predator) and this one was clearly a motion capture performance; in some shots it looks fine, but in brighter light, you can tell it's an effect. The cast is fine, with our heroes being a motley group of jokers with PTSD or other mental issues. Boyd Holbrook plays a decent hero, though his one-liners are hit and miss. Olivia Munn as the beleaguered scientist also turns out good performance, even if her abilities get ridiculous by the end. Sterling K Brown as the human villain is a hoot and Jacob Tremblay as a boy with autism (the main target of the film's detractors) did well with what he was given.
The main problem with the movie is tone. It doesn't have the suspense of the original nor the other two sequels, barring one scene where the Predator is stalking Olivia Munn's character; instead this is all about graphic action laced with comedy, allowing for some touching moments on occasion. So, pretty much what you would expect from a Fred Dekker or Shane Black film, when you consider their filmographies. The fact that the word "pussy" was thrown in several times seems like evidence of Black really trying to connect to his contributions to the first movie. The last third of the movie also falls prey to the modern action style of quick, jumbled editing and an over-reliance on CGI to tell the story. The film's coda also tries to be clever sequel bait but is kind of embarrassing in its resolution.
In short, this movie is fun but has a lot of issues. Maybe with age it'll get better reception, maybe not. It is a fry cry better than the AVP films and thankfully has no apparent connection to them. Go in with lowered expectations and you might have a good time.
Edit - treated myself to a second viewing and picked up a couple things I missed. My verdict remains the same, though I have dropped my score from a 7 to a 6, maybe 6.5 at most.
Ok, time to get some things off my chest. First, I liked the arguments of calling the aliens "predators" or "hunters" and didn't hate the subversion of two classic lines - "You're one beautiful motherfucker" got a big laugh and even though I groaned when the line "Get to the choppers" was said, I did have a light chuckle when I saw motorcycles were being referred to.
The fact that the Mega Predator can analyze his environments and bring up a HUD in his vision without a mask bothers me. I get they've been upgrading their bodies with the DNA of other species but are they now introducing cybernetics to themselves? What is he, a Borg? The movie's assertion that autism/Asperger's syndrome is the next step in human evolution as the reason the Mega Predator wants to kidnap and harvest McKenna's son also comes across as unsound. Why they need to extract DNA from spinal fluid to upgrade themselves from any creature they fight isn't clearly explained and one can only assume it is to make them more adaptable and impervious to attack. So much for honorable hunting.
Brown's death scene was played as a you-blink-you-miss-it joke and I thought his character deserved a better send-off than him being a klutz and blowing his head apart with a plasma caster by aiming it the wrong way (and being barely visible in an already fast-paced sequence). By contrast, Thomas Jane and Keegan-Michael Key shared one of the better death scenes in the movie, which makes me wish their characters had been given just a touch more development. Another thing that seems to be bothering people are the Predator dogs; are they meant to be the equivalent of dogs on the Predator home-world are are they also hybrids? They look nothing like the hounds in Predators, after all. I like to think they aren't hybrids but just a different species of dog. A shame one just ends up becoming a deus ex machina for several scenes.
I guess I understand why the first Predator went on a killing spree despite coming to Earth to "save us" from the other creatures. Edit - replacing the next two sentences after watching it a second time tonight and picking up a missed detail. When he first crash lands and goes on a little hunt, I noticed that the escape pod appeared to have been shot down, likely by government agents who happened to show up a few minutes after. When he later finds himself strapped to a table and surrounded by guns and parts of his gear missing, naturally he's going to be pissed, so these acts of violence can be justified as self-defense. He later appears to be more merciful when negotiating, after all. The Mega Predator however gives less of a shit, and I found he was more capricious than any of the Predators previously on screen. It was funny when he mentioned that he enjoyed watching humans kill each other.
The final reveal of the Predator Killer suit as the gift to humans to defend themselves from the upgraded monsters was cheesy and though it might look cool in a sequel, the flippant one-liner from Holbrook and that this movie ends with its door wide open, rather than with the slight ambiguity of its forebears did have me rolling my eyes. Though I don't mind the autistic kid having his own desk and government job by the end while others do; I figure they're taking a Fly II approach and tutoring him as an aside to his help with Predator technology. Yes, I know how silly that sounds. But this whole movie is silly, and its merits can be the subject of a very long conversation, so I'm going to end it here.