Reviewed by Victor Rebikoff.
Director: Shane Black, 20th Century Fox, MA 107 Minutes.
This latest addition to the ‘Predator’ franchise is an entertaining rendition from director Shane Black (‘Iron Man 3’), a renowned screenwriter and former actor who played a mercenary role in the original film released in 1987 featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The story starts in outer space where a Predator spaceship is seen crashing towards Earth just as Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook –‘Logan’) a military sniper is combating drug cartel criminals in a Mexican forest before encountering the extraterrestrial.
No sooner has McKenna disabled the Predator than the government team arrives to take away the alien after concealing the predator’s objects such as his gauntlet/helmet to send to his son and then swallowing the invisibility device.
His autistic son Rory (Jacob Tremblay –‘Wonder’) lives with Makenna’s ex-wide Emily (Aussie actress Yvonne Strahovski –‘Manhattan Nocturne’) wasting little time in unpacking the package from his dad.
It is in relation to one device he accidentally activates which results in a superior Predator coming to Earth in search of the apprehended alien and his space-like equipment.
At the same time, McKenna has been placed in custody alongside other government prisoners including ex-marines Williams (Trevante Rhodes –’12 Strong’) and Lynch (Alfie Allen –‘Pandemic’), the neurologically-afflicted Baxley (Thomas Jane –‘Standoff’), funnyman Coyle (Keegan-Michael Key –‘Tomorrowland’) together with Nettles (newcomer Augusto Aguilera).
As McKenna’s band of outcasts attempt to find a solution to their predicament they encounter the government’s team leader Traeger (Stirling Brown –‘Black Panther’) and the recently recruited biologist Casey Bracket (Olivia Nunn –‘Mortdecai’) before joining forces to confront both Predators.
In some respects Black is paying homage to the 1987 movie having played a part in the original realising that he is unable to match either the calibre of the casting or the thrilling suspense-filled storyline.
To Black’s credit he has reinvigorated the franchise with his own rendering of a more powerful Predator accompanied by pleasing performances by Holbrook and Brackett, specially Tremblay as the autistic but gifted child, recalling his perfectly-pitched performance in ‘Wonder’.
Vic’s Verdict: 3 Stars
