‘The Predator’ is a film of its time and isn’t perfect, but delivers fun

Posted on September 21, 2018

By MARK VIOLA

As much as I like to watch movies, and spend much of my time writing about them, I haven’t seen everything out there, and there are films I have not watched that might surprise you. One such movie was “Predator,” which never really caught my attention despite the various sequels and spin-offs that have come out since.

With the release of the latest installment, however, I decided to finally watch 1987’s “Predator,” as well as 1990’s “Predator 2.” The first film is the quintessential 1980s action movie, with lots of guns, blood and Arnold Schwarzenegger one-liners. It holds up surprisingly well 31 years later, although I’m not sure how much someone who didn’t live through the 80s will appreciate its many qualities firmly rooted in that decade. “Predator 2,” meanwhile, is pretty much exactly what you’d expect a “Predator” movie made in 1990 to be.

And, in a lot of ways, “The Predator” — the newest installment in the franchise — is also very much a product of the time in which it was made, for good and bad. The movie is directed and co-written by Shane Black (“Iron Man 3,” “The Nice Guys”), who also starred in the original film as the foul-mouthed Hawkins. (He was reportedly in the movie just so director John McTiernan could have him on hand for any last-minute script polishes.)

Black gives us a “Predator” film that has many of the trappings of the first two films, but still manages to forge its own path, which might turn off some hardcore fans. This is not just another a film about an alien hunter tracking down humans for sport. There are government conspiracies and interstellar intrigue thrown into the mix, which helps the story feel like it’s trying to do something new, but the film does lose a bit of its core “Predator”-ness along the way. Not helping matters is a script that has some pretty sizable plot holes and inconsistencies.

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