The Predator - Movie Review

Starring Boyd Holbrook, Trevante Rhodes, Jacob Tremblay, Sterling K. Brown, Keegan Michael-Key, Olivia Munn, Thomas Jane, Alfie Allen, Jake Busey, Yvonne Strahovski and Augusto Aguilera.
Written by Shane Black & Fred Dekker.
Directed by Shane Black.

★★½

None of the Predator movies have been high art, but the original 1987 classic with Arnold has enjoyed good will over the decades. Predator 2 was okay, but people rarely talk about it. The Alien v. Predator movies are wisely ignored by the Alien and Predator franchises, and Predators (starring Adrien Brody) wasn't bad, even though it did feel like the script was the winner of a fan-fic contest.

The Predator is about on par with Predators. I was entertained. It's fine. It has some unique kills; it has some Shane Black dialogue. Some members of the cast are better than others. When you have Jake Busey show up as a scientist, you know how unseriously it's taking itself. The ending is bad, in the way most "keep things open for sequels!" endings are.

But for me, the weak parts were the giant leaps in expositional logic. Humans keep figuring out what the plot is without enough evidence to support their theories. "This must be his motivation!" Wait, based on what exactly?

Boyd Holbrook (Logan, Narcos) is good as the lead. He's a soldier who winds up getting lumped in with some other crazy ex-soldiers called the Loonies. I appreciated how none of them started dying until late in the movie so we could get to know them, and each of them are interesting. (Moonlight's Travente Rhodes shows he was no fluke. Keegan-Michael Key can credibly fire a gun. Augusto Aguilera's going to start getting offered "younger Michael Pena" roles. Etc.)