“The Predator” (2018) / Z-View

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The Predator (2018)

Director:  Shane Black

Screenplay:  Fred Dekker, Shane Black based on characters created by Jim Thomas, John Thomas

Starring: Boyd Holbrook, Trevante Rhodes, Jacob Tremblay, Keegan-Michael Key, Olivia Munn, Sterling K. Brown, Thomas Jane, Alfie Allen, Jake Busey and Yvonne Strahovski

Tagline:   You’ll never see him coming.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

While on a rescue mission, Quint McKenna (Holbrook) and his team are attacked by a Predator.  Against all odds, McKenna escapes with his life as well as a Predator faceplate and armor.  McKenna is sure no one will believe his story about an alien encounter so he mails the Predator gear to himself.  McKenna’s plan is to get home and collect the package before his estranged wife, Emily ( Strahovski) gets to it.

McKenna’s plan is foiled when he is picked up for debriefing.  Meanwhile at home, McKenna’s son opens the package and accidentally triggers the alien technology.  At his debriefing McKenna tells about his team’s encounter with the Predator. He is then placed in a group of soldiers with mental issues.  Meanwhile in another part of the facility, a sedated Predator is being prepped for examination.  The Predator wakes up, breaks it’s bonds and kills anyone in it’s way as it escapes.

McKenna is telling the other soldiers about his run-in with the Predator and they’re all laughing at the “real” nut among them… until they see the Predator jumping out of a lab window.  McKenna and the crazy soldiers take-over a bus and give chase.  The Predator escapes and McKenna realizes it is after the armor he mailed to himself.  McKenna and the “loonie” soldiers are the kid’s only chance for survival.

Man, I really had high expectations for The Predator.  Shane Black as the director and co-writer of the screenplay!  It had a good cast (Boyd Holbrook, Sterling K. Brown and Thomas Jane to name three).  What could go wrong?

The Predator starts out okay.  But as the movie rolls along it comes off the rails.

  • We get bad joke after bad joke.
  • The Predator gets into a van and kills a soldier in the back.  When the driver asks his partner if he’s okay, the Predator picks up the man’s severed arm which is in a “thumbs up” position and shows it to the driver.
  • There are Predator dogs with dreadlocks… that play fetch.
  • Two of the “loonie” soldiers get impaled across from each other.  Despite mortal injuries and great pain, they shoot each other in the head to end the other’s misery.
  • We learn that the Predators keep coming back to earth because of climate change and they will thrive as we die off.  What?
  • We learn that McKenna’s autistic son is seen as the next stage of human evolution.
  • We see our heroes jump on the surface of a Predator space ship and those who don’t get cut in half by the ship’s force field will have the chance to bring the ship down by jumping into one of it’s turbines?!
  • Oh, and there’s good Predators and bad Predators… and some are really BIG.

What a mess.  The Predator rates 2 of 5 stars.