This is my review of the new Shane black movie “The Predator”. I will be honest and say that I was a little skeptical of how this was going to play out given some of the recent reboot movies that have come out. I am glad to say that this one is not a reboot, more or a linear continuation of the predator universe. It was nice that they referenced the original movie from 1987 and no mention of the of those “other” movies that were made just to make money.
The movie opens with a space battle with two ships attacking a third that opens a worm hole and escapes only to reappear in earth orbit and then proceed to crash close to where an American special ops unit are on a mission. The films hero finds the crashed ship and helps himself to some souvenirs before the rest of his team arrive and are promptly butchered by the predator, with him being the only survivor. He manages to get said souvenirs somehow posted to his American post box, which surprise surprise he has not been keeping up on payments so the contents are then forwarded onto his ex-wife’s address where his autistic son comes into contact with the alien technology.
The hero by this time has been questioned by the military regarding what he say in the jungle and has been classified as crazy. He is promptly put on the loony bus with other soldiers that are being transferred to the secure army medical facility.
During this time another Predator has arrived on earth with 2 Predator hounds and we assume he is here to confirm that the Predator from the original crash is dead and that their technology has not fallen into the wrong hands.
Unlike the previous films this time there is a covert government agency with knowledge, weapons and somehow a live predator. It is explained that they have been aware of all the previous visits to earth and have been keeping tabs on the Predators as best they can. As expected the predator soon escapes and kills anything that gets in its way.
From here the story takes a big twist compared to the previous movies. It turns out that the predators have been killing the most feared life-forms from each planet and ripping out there spinal cords to extract DNA so that they can better themselves. This has also caused a split in the Predator species with a newer larger more powerful faction trying to eradicate all the lesser Predators. This time we are working with a faction of the predator race who have agreed to help humanity by giving them a ‘predator killer’ weapon.
So now we have the two predator clans fighting with the humans inevitable caught in the middle. So as the predator clans fight each other, the humans are also fighting each other and the predators.
The action is well presented and the story moves at a steady pace. The fight scenes, although some are CGI, are good. Personally I would have preferred more practical effects but with the premise of the story this is not practical to do. I won’t give away any details about the movie, but I will say that it positions itself very nicely for a sequel.