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.)

Logan - Movie Review

Starring Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Boyd Holbrook, Dafne Keen, Stephen Merchant, Richard E. Grant, Eriq La Salle, Elise Neal and Elizabeth Rodriguez.
Written by Scott Frank, James Mangold & Michael Green.
Directed by James Mangold.

★★★½

This is Hugh Jackman's seventh and final time to play Logan, the Wolverine, (nine if you count his uncredited cameos) and I don't think the actor could have asked for a better swan song for the character that made him famous.

It's 2029. Almost all of the mutants are dead. Logan is working under his alias James Howlett as a limo driver, scrimping and saving for a boat that he and the 90-year-old Professor X (Patrick Stewart) can buy. It's rated R so these X-Men have fouler mouths than we've heard, and we see Wolvy's claws kill quite a few people.

It turns out there's a little girl named Laura (Dafne Keen) who has similar abilities to Logan, and mean men with guns want to find her. Logan would love nothing more than to send her away, but Professor X urges him to help her. They're just south of the border from El Paso but they need to get her to a safe haven in North Dakota.

The main hunter of Laura is named Pierce, played with evil drawling glee by Narcos's Boyd Holbrook. He has an army of Reavers to help him catch Laura, but after Laura or Logan killed the twentieth guy, I can't help but think if any of the Reavers questioned if they're in the right line of work.

There's a gritty sadness to this film. Logan's a tragic character. His quick healing and slow aging means he has outlived all of his friends. I honestly would support acting nominations for Jackman and Stewart for their work here. The script gives them a lot to tap into.