The Predator

Dir: Shane Black

2018

***

1987’s Predator is special. I first watched it at a friends house when I was nine years old. His mum had no idea about the VHS tapes he had, she assumed we were playing Atari for hours on end in his room – and we were mostly – but we’d always end a gaming session with horror film the son of the owner of our local video shop would rent us for sweets and trading cards. I saw RoboCop, Predator, Terminator, Aliens and Rambo for the first time within the same week and it blew my tiny mind. My love and fascination of film had reached a new level, so John McTiernan’s sci-fi action horror will always have a special place in my heart. Is it a masterpiece? Yeah, to me it is but I understand why it wouldn’t be considered one to others. I loved Predator 2 and I liked Predators but I wasn’t expecting a masterpiece from The Predator, just a Shane Black flavoured film full of fun, action and the odd Predator and Predator 2 reference here and there…and that is exactly what I got. The original film wraps me in a warm blanket of nostalgia, I don’t expect any subsequent sequel to do the same but I’m always up for a Predator-shapes action romp and as much as I love the original, I really don’t care too much about continuity at this point, especially after the AVP films. That said, it was the continuity that probably impressed me the most. Obviously Shane Black was in the first film, so he knows his Predator and clearly has fond memories he wanted to revisit. The hard core nerd will spot the references to Predator actors and producers but most people will get the ‘Get to the choppers’ reference and the relevance of a severed arm. Black puts together a band of misfit solders very well and then disposes of them in magnificent manner – that is what we all wanted right? There is more to it of course, but the basics are best bits. Unfortunately, the rest of it isn’t always that great. Firstly, what I really liked about it was that it felt as if it had been written by Shane Black’s character in the first film, Rick Hawkins. The characters are well developed in a relatively short amount of time and the cast is near perfect. Boyd Holbrook wasn’t an obvious choice of lead, especially as he was essentially replacing Benicio Del Toro but he suited his character and read the script perfectly. Jacob Tremblay is a great up and coming actor who has carried some very serious films on his shoulders, so I was happy to watch him fulfill my childhood dream of being in a Predator movie – even though Predator movies are no place for a child. Olivia Munn is refreshingly bad-ass as the film only female character and it was a relief that she wasn’t just there as an object of affection or romantically linked to the leading man. Trevante Rhodes is brilliant as is Sterling K. Brown as the film’s human villain. Both actors have the best lines but Rhodes’s character is so well written and so brilliantly performed (I loved his final scene) he really does steal the show. That said, Keegan-Michael Key, Thomas Jane, Alfie Allen and Augusto Aguilera provide great comedy relief in their supporting roles. The relationship between Keegan-Michael Key and Thomas Jane is brilliant, I’ve been a Thomas Jane fan for a while and always see him as a great action hero that could have been, so it was nice to see him here in the mix playing a brilliant character of which he is always great at playing. I’ve heard people criticise the decision of making his character a tourette's sufferer as either a cheap shot at involving someone with special needs and/or making fun out of the condition. The fact is Shane Black has tourette's, so he wanted someone like himself to be represented, simple as that. The film has some perfect moments of action as well as some unexpectedly tender scenes that took me by surprise. In that sense it is classic Shane Black. The problem is the editing. I wonder whether they used a lawn-mower to save money, as the film is so full of pointless shots that it soon became hard to tell where the characters were, why they were there and which ones of them were still alive. What the hell happened to the dog? Ugh, and talking of dogs, Predator dogs is probably the worst decision made in a film since car flies (Pixar’s Cars) or having Julia Roberts play herself in Ocean’s 12. I didn’t really warm to the giant Predator either but I liked the idea behind why he was so tall and both ideas are Robert Rodriguez's fault anyway but cudos for continuity - even if this is set before Predators. The script is as sharp as a knife but there are a few lines that are unnecessarily controversial and provocative, although they are easy to ignore. I didn’t like the fact that the film features a child and liked it even less that, once again, Hollywood believes autism is a sign of genius but the film gets away with it – but only just. The scenes don’t fit very well together and it is all a bit muddled but I was happily knocking back the popcorn. The worst crime, or at last, one of the worst crimes was the fact that the Predator wasn’t that scary but I think the old school gore and the fact that Jake Busey played Sean Keyes, son of Peter Keyes, who was played by his own father Gary Busey in Predator 2, kind of makes up for it. I liked that it was a continuation of the story following the first two films and I’m glad they got the dates right (Predator 2 came out in 1990 but was set in 1997). As I said, the story is actually set before 2010’s Predators, which is fine, and they did leave a few clues around to suggest that the AVP are included in the Predator universe. There is nothing worse then when when a new director tells their audience to forget certain films ever happened, Black made it work and I think the nerds should be at least happy about that. Nerds should also be happy with all the references to Black and Fred Dekker’s infamous unproduced script Shadow Company. The real thorn in the side of The Predator is the controversy surrounding actor Steven Wilder. Olivia Munn had a scene cut from the film after finding out that it featured Wilder who, unbeknownst to everyone but friend Shane Black, was a registered sex offender. Munn took up the issue with Fox executives and had gotten the scene cut. She later came forward publicly regarding the involvement. Fox later released a statement stating that they were unaware of the the person's status as a registered sex offender. Munn expressed that she felt she had been "iced-out" by Fox and her cast members for speaking out. Director Shane Black had cast his friend as a favour and defended him saying that everyone deserves a second chance. Wilder spent six months in prison in 2010 when he plead guilty after he was accused of trying to lure a 14-year-old girl into a sexual relationship online. Her co-star Sterling Brown tweeted in her support but her other co-stars were slow to follow, only doing so with mounting public pressure. It was a dick move by Black, who has also admitted as much and has apologised. All that aside, the film is full of ups and downs. The cinephile in me thought little of it but the popcorn-munching nerd in me had a great time.