Remakes, reboots and sequels all try to go for that big sales pitch; more explosions, more of the characters you love and just outdoing the film before it. Or in some very rare occasions, a film can go a different route, changing the tone of the film and adding a layer that wasn’t there before it.
Take Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight”: same spandex dressed caped crusader—well, maybe not spandex. Same Bruce Wayne, but an almost entire shift of tone and complexity that was so realistic and genre defying. Viewers don’t get to be seeing the same exact carbon copy of the previous rendition of Director X’s take of the new film, and they get something fresh and exhilarating. Though, In Shane Black’s (“Iron Man 3”) new film, “The Predator,” one would think that the new film, which serves as a sequel to the original, could be a redeeming fit. With as much pain as this sounds, “The Predator” doesn’t waste anyone’s time; it starts as a mess and ends a “muddy” mess.
The film revolves around Quinn McKenna, played by Boyd Holbrook (“Narcos”), who plays a former Army Ranger and a keen sniper, with his eyes set on a hostage mission. Things take a turn for the worst, and McKenna quite literally stumbles upon an alien spacecraft that belongs to an alien species known as the predators. It’s a scary looking creature that enjoys a hobby that some call trophy hunting: stalking, hunting and killing its prey, taking amputated hands and other bloody body parts as a ornament of a good hunt. While trying to hunt down this creature, McKenna finds himself with a scientist, Casey Bracket, played by Olivia Munn (“X-Men: Apocalypse”), and a group of soldiers who are not fit for combat but have PTSD written all over them.
“The Predator” boasts a star studded cast, with Jacob Tremblay (“Wonder”), Keegan-Michael Key (“Keanu”), Thomas Jane (“The Punisher”), Alfie Allen (“Game of Thrones”), Trevante Rhodes (“Moonlight”) and Sterling K. Brown (“This is Us”). Now if anything does work in this film, it is the cast. Every single character in this film is given really well-written dialogue and is likeable, funny and super interesting to watch. Keegan-Michael Key delivering some hilarious lines and Thomas Jane’s character playing off of this is just downright funny and creates a bromance that shows such amazing chemistry that it almost takes some of the bad aspects of the film away. Maybe the jokes are a little forced, but it doesn’t matter. It’s worth every ounce of laughter as one can muster.
Now where “The Predator” really fails is in its direction and tone. The characters in the film are great and they work for the film, but this is not the “Predator” from the 1980s. The film is not scary at all, which is a huge mistake on the part of Shane Black, because that is what made the original so amazing. When the original “Predator” came out, it was disturbing, violent and horrifying. It was in a jungle in the middle of nowhere, with a creature hunting down the best of the best elite soldiers. It is just horrifying, and the sounds that the predators make… well, there is a reason why even someone as buff as Arnold Schwarzenegger ran away. But here, it is just laughable, there are no tension filled scenes, no music that will get you on the edge of your seat and it is just a really terrible story. Also, the film uses mostly CGI predators for the film, which is a really bad decision, since the effects render the giant monstrous predator as a lackadaisical force; it might be big in stature, but otherwise it’s small on detail and really doesn’t fit the look or the tone of what made the original predator so horrifying.
By the time you get to the end of the movie, you will either be somewhat disappointed or outright offended. The movie had the makings of what could have been a great film: an ensemble cast, a great director and good screen material to work with. Though that is all the film will ever be known for: a huge waste of incredible potential, and it all lies in the tone that was misappropriately handled. Though there are some really bloody and funny scenes in the film, this is quite the opposite of its 1980s predecessor. There were no good scares, bland action scenes and some of the worst CGI to grace across any screen. The hunt hasn’t evolved here; it rather just devolved into something of a disappointment.
2/5
