As they’re called in The Predator , the "space aliens" — as if the word in post-Trump America mandatorily requires a geographical prefix — have been visiting earth more frequently to gather human DNA for hybridisation. For reasons unknown, Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook) is in the same forest that the predator crash-lands in. He steals the alien’s helmet and gauntlet, which ends up being delivered to his autistic son Rory (Jacob Tremblay) and estranged wife Emily (Yvonne Strahovski). Soon the extraterrestrial is after his family and McKenna reels in a motley crew of troubled army men to protect his family.
- Director: Shane Black
- Cast: Boyd Holbrook, Trevante Rhodes, Jacob Tremblay, Keegan-Michael Key, Olivia Munn, Thomas Jane, Alfie Allen, Sterling K. Brown
- Storyline: As any Indian who’s ever watched a film in a cinema would know, the censor gods have a mind of their own. It’s no wonder then that badly chopped sequences are a norm for us. But with The Predator, the Indian censors barely make a dent in the film’s beat-up logic. The latest instalment of the monster franchise leave our heads scratched raw with confusion, entirely on its own.
Either director Shane Black (who acted in the original 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger film) missed a final check before his film released or he couldn’t be bothered to care. Because there’s no excuse for how shoddy The Predator is. Most glaringly obvious of course is the editing that renders the film unintelligible. Ridiculous scene jumps constantly defy rational chronology. At one moment, a protagonist marvels at how complex alien technology yet also knows exactly how to tackle it another instance. At one time, a pit bull goes to battle monster alien dogs, but the fight ends before its even begun. We never know what happens to the poor canine. Continuity glares abound – a character that suddenly has sunglasses on — at night, may we add —had none in the previous scene. Then a really important member of the film dies with the fanfare of swatting a fly. Amidst a serious combat sequence, two people face-off each other in a murder suicide: one is impaled to a tree branch, suspended in mid-air while the other has their entrails spilling into his lap.
If the dismal unravelling of the film’s plot isn’t oppressive enough, its tone-deaf screenplay will dance on every last nerve. The comic relief is centred around an ex-military man’s Tourette’s syndrome. Director Black not only let his friend, a known sex offender, be a part of his film but he allowed lines like "tone down the psychosis" and "his son is retarded" to make the final cut. The Predator is a let down on so many counts that any and all redeeming factors go unnoticed while its mammoth flaws haunt your memory long after this debacle of a film is over.
