The Predator Movie Review

The Predator (2018)

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Written by: Fred Dekker & Shane Black (written by), Jim Thomas & John Thomas (based on characters created by)
Directed by: Shane Black
Starring: Boyd Holbrook, Trevante Rhodes, Keegan-Michasel Key, Olivia Munn, Sterling K. Brown, Thomas Jane, Alfie Allen, Jacob Tremblay, Jake Busey
Rated: R
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Plot
When a young boy accidentally triggers the universe's most lethal hunters' return to Earth, only a ragtag crew of ex-soldiers and a disgruntled scientist can prevent the end of the human race.

Verdict
The movie is full of improbable, if not impossible, events. The movie pushes for "rule of cool" above all else. Some of the humor is dated, but the core group of outcast heroes has great camraderie. It's not going to top the original Predator, but it's an alright way to kill some time.
It depends.

Review
I don't know if these movie needs to exist and if a fourth entry in the franchise is necessary, but I was hoping for some dumb action movie fun and I got that. I wish I had gotten fewer plot inconsistencies because the movie is happy to dodge logic for cool scenes.

Army Ranger Quinn McKenna has seen things.

Army Ranger Sniper McKenna is sent for a psych evaluation to discredit his story of having seen an alien. It's this group of military outcasts he meets en route that become the heroes of the story. There are plenty of jokes, though the humor is a bit dated. This group seems to be rather improbably tight knit, but it works.  One of the soldiers has Tourette Syndrome, and the movie simplifies that for some cheap laughs.

Don't worry about the Predator, he's just sleeping.

Sterling K. Brown owns his role as Traeger, the man in charge of the Predator collection and study program. All of the actors do a fairly good job, but Brown should have been one of the good guys just so he'd have more screen time. He's over the top and really enjoying his role.

The plot kicks into gear when a sedated Predator wakes up and wreaks havoc on the lab. There are so many questions of protocol and how this actually happened, but the movie doesn't care about details. The Predator had to escape so the movie could exist.
I wonder how an earlier Predator helmet is able to connect to the 4G network and communicate with a Predator ship in space. There are many questions that have no answers.

Olivia Munn plays a scientist, Dr. Bracket. The outcast military heroes use her to baby sit McKenna's son once it's time to fight. I'm not really sure why she was in this movie. She definitely could have been more useful.

 

You could ask why all day long, but this is a fun action movie once we get into it. There are two Predators with one being eleven feet tall. There's some Predator political stuff going on that's not explained much, and there is a lot of killing. Men, women, children, and aliens are killing everything.

The script does a good job with a lot of the humor, and I liked the story that develops between Key and Jane's characters. A lot of the story elements are rather stereotypical, and the movie could have used that fact more.