Movie Review: The Predator (2018)

The Predator (2018) co-written and directed by Shane Black

A Predator ship fleeing from another Predator ship crash lands on Earth. The fugitive Predator bails out and loses some of his armor in a Latin American jungle to an American sniper (Boyd Holbrook). The sniper knows that no one will believe he met an alien, so he mails the helmet and bracer to his P. O. Box stateside. The box winds up with his estranged wife (Yvonne Strahovski) and autistic son (Jacob Tremblay). The son naturally figures out how to use the equipment and accidentally sends a signal to the Predators. They know where to find the fugitive. Meanwhile, the sniper winds up on a bus filled with other military nutballs, because nobody believes his "space alien" story. Well, almost nobody. The secret agency that recovers the Predator's body and what's left of his armor summon him. The bus (still with the whole set of nutters) goes to the secret base just as the Predator wakes up and escapes. The nutballs chase it and have fights with it and with the eleven-foot tall Predator that's come to "take care" of the fugitive. Tall Predator wants whatever was on the first ship, so another chase ensues as the humans try to outrun and outfight a warrior from an advanced race of space travelers. If Schwarzenegger could do it in the 1980s, why not a rag-tag bunch of misfits in the 2010s?

The plot is a bit rambling and random, as if they were making it up as they were shooting the film. Another character is a female biologist (Olivia Munn) brought in to study the Predator. Her character's ongoing involvement doesn't make any sense other than checking off a box on the diversity checklist. The story makes up new things about the Predator culture throughout the movie that don't make much sense. Black is a reasonably good action writer (the original Lethal Weapon, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, among others), so the mediocrity of the script is surprising.

The special effects are impressive and the fights are exciting even when they don't make much sense. The actors do the best with what they have. None of them have the star power of Schwarzenegger or even of Danny Glover in the second film, a factor that moved those films to a higher level. Probably neither Schwarzenegger nor Glover could have saved this film.

Not recommended.