The Predator

Official Australian release date: 13/9/18. Viewed: 20/9/18.

Director: Shane Black

Actors: Boyd Holbrook, Olivia Munn, Trevante Rhodes, Jacob Tremblay

Genre: Sci-Fi / Action

Rating: MA

   

‘The Predator’ is the fourth film (we don’t count the two ‘Alien Vs Predator’ films) in the series and does exactly what it should – has Predators killing people, soldiers killing people, lots of explosions, some jungle, and some humour. The pretty-thin plot is – an “upgraded” Predator is sent to Earth to hunt down a rogue Predator. Stick around to the end to see the silly reasoning.

McKenna (Holbrook, from ‘Narcos’) is the hero, with his son Rory (Tremblay) having a key part to play. Casey (Munn) is somehow an evolutionary biologist and the rest of the cast is a ragtag crew of mentally-unstable soldiers – Nebraska (Rhodes), Coyle (Key), Baxley (Jane), Nettles (Aguilera) & Lynch (Allen). They all have just enough to do to make them interesting – and bump-up the body count. Traeger (Brown) is the typical government agent/bad guy.

It takes about 20min to get going, but once it does, the pace is good, there’s plenty of action and fighting, but also a lot of stupid moments, which are also counteracted with some genuine laughs – e.g. why it’s called “the Predator”. Sufficient amounts of gore and blood. Not better or worse than ‘Predator 2’ or ‘Predators’, which is good.

Overall: Fun foray back to the Predator-galaxy.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.