The Predator (Film Review)

At one point this could have been the sequel the franchise deserved. Then it decided to make changes, either through executive intervention or simply a few poor creative decisions. The result is that you end up with half of a good film trying to be true to the original and the other half weighing it down with mismanaged ideas, poor scenes and an insane final act. Simply put - This is a film which is a near perfect successor to the original Predator, right up to the moment where everything falls to bits.


The Synopsis

Another predator lands on Earth, seemingly seeking worthy prey and encounters a black ops group led by Quinn McKenna. In a one-sided battle, all but McKenna are butchered by the alien, and he escapes only by sheer luck. Yet this isn't simply another hunt. The predator crash landed, with his ship heavily damaged, and he has another goal in mind beyond claiming trophies. As McKenna is deemed insane for his story and prepared for transportation to an insane asylum, something else arrives in pursuit of the alien...


The Good

Whatever flaws might be leveled at the film, it has to be said that the film benefited from excellent casting choices. As Predator was recognised for its larger-than-life commando unit and infamous lines, each film has tried to mimic that same quality. However, The Predator is the first to truly follow up on the original and execute it well, perhaps even outshining its predecessor in a number of areas. While the group is thrown together, their exaggerated and insane lines could have easily devolved into irritating cliches or the wrong kind of macho competition. Instead, the dialogue is effective thanks to its more humourous style and the chemistry between the various actors. This even works with a number of secondary figures within the tale - civilian or otherwise - and frequently helps to make otherwise forgettable characters quite memorable.

Despite its jokey tone, the first act does continually add in threatening moments to keep the story on track. The predators themselves are supposed to be genuinely imposing, after all, and maintaining the same jokey tone would have undercut their menace. While it's definitely aiming to break from the more straight-faced style of its predecessors, this does still help to give the film its own identity, rather than feeling wholly like a sequel. Plus, whatever his flaws, Shane Black has a proven track record when it comes to juxtaposing humour with drama or terror, and the predators offer a multitude of moments for this. In fact, in moments where it might otherwise go too far, it keeps going until it comes back around to being hilarious again. The thumbs up scene - which might justify the price of a ticket alone - is easily the best example of this.

So, what about the predators themselves then? Good, at least for the most part. A few flaws will be cited in the below section - relating to one particular part of the film above all others - but the initial impressions the film offers are very strong. The use of practical effects when it comes to the initial villain is a particular strong point in the story's favour, as it emulates the imposing style and sheer mass of the hunters. Every time one shows up, it serves as a reminder that their use of stealth is due to their choice and culture, and that even without it they could simply outfight most humans. This leads to a number of quite stunningly one-sided fights, which nevertheless still prove to be highly entertaining. Oh, and bloody, can't forget that.

The cinematography and visual direction is what you would expect from this sort of production, as it does its best to avoid the sins of recent years. There is much less of an emphasis placed on rapid cuts and sudden visual gimmicks than solid imagery, holding the camera on a subject for longer than might be expected. While there are amateurish takes on this sort of thing, easily its best moments are when the camera uses slow panning shots to track a moment or a broad enough view to take in most of a scene at once. It helps to give the film much more of a sense of how ongoing events are playing out and a more natural feel for character reactions. Even when it does get into the action itself, this works in favour of the predators' sheer size, and it offers a better take on their visual designs. 

Finally, while The Predator isn't afraid of making call-backs to the original films, these are not nearly so ham-fisted as you might expect. A few in there do feel somewhat cheap, but they work in favour of the scene in question, and often seem like a nice bonus over using references as a crutch. Unfortunately, while it managed to sidestep that particular issue, there were other things it got very, very wrong indeed.


The Bad

The last act of the film is a mess. Yes, this was alluded to in the introduction, but from a very specific point onward, you will quickly begin to see poor ideas stacked atop of one another, leading up to the finale. The fact the final fight in question seems to be an effort to pander toward the Marvel crowd hardly helps matters, and it's in stark contrast with what made final fights so engaging. The whole point of the Predator franchise is the idea of humanity being hunted by an intelligent (if arrogant) opponent who outguns them physically and technologically, then overcoming them through determination or ingenuity. This one unfortunately makes the mistake of trying to level the playing field, and it's sadly the crux of the entire narrative.

Normally, the subject of the finale and the single greatest problem of the film would be left down to the final part here. Instead, it's bring brought up first for two reasons: A. It's so spoiler heavy that someone would complain if anything more than that was discussed. B. It's what most people will focus on the most. In some cases, it might be the only thing that they focus on, to the point of overlooking the film's other notable problems.

The big problem which runs throughout much of the film is that many scenes seem to be isolated. There's little in the way of true cohesion between them, directly linking one event to the next. On their own they work fine, until you notice that it isn't able to fully connect one to the other in terms of thematic presentation and pacing. The primary reason behind this is due to some remarkably choppy editing and the inability to fully examine some of its story elements. It feels as if whole scenes are missing at points - something the Black himself confirmed with at least one major subplot - and this disrupts both the character dynamics and main story. It's the counterpoint against Mad Max: Fury Road showing how, when mishandled, breakneck pacing can only serve to disrupt and undermine the film.

Even then, were everything handled correctly, a number of thematic elements surrounding the titular villains simply doesn't gel with what we are seeing. It's executed in a manner which starts to make a good deal of sense initially, especially in terms of what it implies, only for it to repeatedly contradict that point toward the middle of the film. The fugitive angle is an interesting one to be sure, but it seems like the writers simply didn't know what to do with these ideas, and it never takes the time to fully explore its implications. Even when one predator is bumped off in favour of the bigger and much badder one, not enough is done to present this as an upgrade. There's no escalation in terms of power, and not nearly enough done to show just why this new one is much more of a threat. If anything, his more direct methods makes him a more predictable opponent, as it lacks a few key elements of the guile his kind are known for.

Oh, and let's not forget the plot conveniences. Every story usually needs a few of these to have everything fall into place, and that's fine. So long as it doesn't break the suspension of disbelief or fall into cliches, this can typically be forgiven. However, almost everything surrounding Rory McKenna is questionable. It's not that the kid is a bad actor, he does a decent job with what he's given, but nine times out of ten he feels more like a walking plot device. Something only made worse when it falls into the "autism makes people savants" cliche which is rather insultingly handled and could have been easily avoided.

Also, the CGI is bad. These reviews rarely bring up such elements, as it's worth giving these productions some fair degree of leeway when it comes to them. Some age better than others, some might be limited by the studio, and a few might be just not as bad as people say. Don't believe me? The Star Wars prequels have been repeatedly mocked for supposedly low-grade CGI but, whatever their flaws, it has aged far better than a number of other films in following years. As such, you know things are bad when I have to bring it up as a serious detriment, especially when it starts to outright replace the excellent practical effects. This is especially bad during the (allegedly heavily reshot) third act, which devolves into some relatively well animated sequences that have clearly suffered from poor rendering.


The Verdict

As this is coming from someone who will defend most of the Predator related films - all save AvP: Requiem - this might be going a little easier on the film than it should. It certainly has its strengths, from a solid cast with good chemistry to the concept of an enhanced version of an old foe. Yet in its efforts to follow on from Predators' lost scenes with an Aliens style "tell my own story" break from the original, it just fails to tell a coherent story. As a result, it falls into the Aliens vs Predator trap of being fun, but deeply flawed and fairly forgettable.

If you do watch this, it will likely be Shane Black's usual thumbprints you end up recognising the most; such as the humourous tone juxtaposed with serious threats, solid action set-pieces and the use of practical effects at the right moments. It's more of a beer film, where it does enough right for you to enjoy, you can laugh at its stupidity and forget about it within days of seeing it. There's just about enough good here for it not to completely fail, but far too much bad for it to ever become a classic.

Verdict: 5 out of 10