'The Predator' A Review

The Predator is a scifi adventure movie the latest in the series which began with 1987's Predator. A rogue predator crash landed in Mexico pursued by another predator. The crash disrupts a military operation and ropes in Quinn(Boyd Holbrook) a US sniper. Quinn and the predator are captured by government agent Will(Sterling K. Brown) who calls on the expertise of biologist Dr. Bracket(Olivia Munn) and when the predator breaks from his constraints and another predator appears pursuing the first all hell breaks loose and Quinn and Dr. Bracket hook up with a bus full of mentally ill servicemen. I forgot, Quinn's autistic son is able to understand and manipulate the predator's alien technology. Sounds chaotic and confusing? It is!

The one real shining star in the whole mess is Sterling K. Brown who goes big with his mustache twirling, relish, and sarcasm and it pays of big time. Munn is decent as the ass-kicking scientist and could have shouldered, successfully, more of the movie. Holbrook is passable but boring, a throwback to a dated 80's archetype that has been boxed up and put away for a reason. The group of mentally ill soldiers who gather around Quinn are all great actors - Thomas Jane, Trevante Rhodes, Keegan-Michael Key- but aren't given much to do. Seemingly writer/director Shane Black wanted to combine Predator with another 80's classic The Dream Team along with many other storylines and inspirations. All taken together it's clunky and borderline incoherent.

There's an interesting idea in the script somewhere and the cast is excellent but the script feels overworked and the cut is bizarre. A clear cut example of too many cooks not enough restraint. Visually the movie is scattershot, some great set pieces counterbalanced by extended scenes of woefully underfunded CGI.

Entertaining in a lazy Sunday sort of way.

Stream It.