Predator sequel can't keep up with its ambitions

Olivia Munn and Jacob Tremblay in The Predator. Image courtesy Fox.

At the very least, The Predator has ambition. For a third sequel to a horror sci-fi franchise, not including the Alien vs. Predator series, director and co-writer Shane Black wants to evolve the franchise beyond its simple base. What started as a hunt in the jungle – one featuring Black himself as a combatant 30-plus years ago – has become a global threat with unexpected heroes and stronger villains. But there's so much to The Predator, so many stories Black and fellow writer Fred Dekker want to tell, they can't corral possibly tell everything. A lot happens in the course of the film, but most of it feels incomplete.

Following the evens of Predator and Predator 2, and skipping right over Predators, The Predator is technically a misnomer. There are, in fact, two Predators in this movie. One is theoretically (albeit not in practice) a good guy, while the other is an 11-foot beast with new abilities gained from stealing DNA from some of the hunted. The big Predator is on the hunt for the “good” Predator, and encounters expert sniper Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook) and his savant son Rory (Jacob Tremblay) during the pursuit. Alongside a mentally unbalanced squad of soldiers (Trevante Rhodes, Keegan-Michael Key, Thomas Jane, Alfie Allen, and Augusto Aguilera) and biologist Casey Bracket (Olivia Munn), the McKenna family must evade the expert hunter, as well as a mysterious government agent (Sterling K. Brown) with ill intentions.

So what's really new this time around? The Predator has the larger Predator, one with far better weaponry and even a couple of hounds to unleash upon his prey. There are a plethora of in jokes, from references mocking the first two films to a couple of scenes deconstructing how the name Predator does not actually match those aliens do. The point is for Black and Dekker to show they're in on how campy the series has become, and the dialog is good enough to just barely pull it off. But, mostly, there's the battle among Predators, with the alien creatures warring against one another. Which, as a concept, is pretty interesting. Bumping the stakes from small hunting expeditions to global annihilation makes a lot of sense for this franchise, while adding urgency to a formula that has started to become stale in recent years. It also shows Black and Dekker want to do something more with their sequel, to put their stamp on this movie and to deviate away from the past 28 years of Predator flicks. Interesting is good, especially for a franchise with sci-fi roots and such a horrifying and dangerous threat.

At least there could have been a threat of danger, as the peril is reduced markedly by some CGI Predator action. The original Predator has some excellent elements of horror movie because the eponymous alien exist on the same plane as the humans. They are large and strong, big enough threats to physically intimidate one of Earth's largest combatants. The Predator shifts between a real-life character in costume and CGI, with the latter scenes looking pretty cheap. Once the Predator is no longer flesh, the fear it evokes is gone. Bad CGI, like the version in this movie, sucks the audience right out of the tension the filmmakers try to breed.

The rub with ambition is it needs to have some direction to go with it. The Predator floats because Black and Dekker have so many ideas for this movie they can't keep track of everything. Narratives abound, from Quinn and Rory, to the soldiers, to the Predators, to Bracket, to the future battle for the planet. The focus shifts wantonly, because Black can't manage to track all the stories he and Dekker lobbed into this movie, and the result are a combination of plot holes and unfulfilled stories for the characters. Nobody receives adequate time because the movie gives itself less than two hours to tell 10 stories, and the result is a mass of confusion for an audience tasked with keeping up with so much.

The funny thing is, The Predator is still the best Predator sequel. Even with the mess of a story, Black is a competent enough filmmaker to give the audience some quality gore and decent jokes. The action is shot pretty well, and the kills become fairly unique thanks to the new Predator's advanced weaponry and Black's penchant for ingenuity. Then again, being the best Predator sequel is a backhanded compliment given how bad the rest of the franchise is; none of them could ever match the magic of the original. Ambition won't necessarily carry a movie to greatness, but it does put The Predator above its sister sequels.

Review: Two and a half out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: R

Run time: 107 minutes

Genre: Action

tl;dr

What Worked: Ambition, in jokes, Sterling K. Brown

What Sucked: Abandoned subplots, special effects

Watch Instead: Predator, The Nice Guys