Review of The Predator (2018) by Drew P — 05 Jan 2019

This movie is produced in a way that reminds one of a 1980's family sci-fi movie. It also hearkens back to the first Predator with the adventurous and dramatic music.

But then there's the language. The level of obnoxiousness and awkward timing of the crude language makes me believe that the writers/producers simply wanted to take advantage of a cult following but couldn't quite formulate depth in character conversation.

I didn't believe Olivia Munn as an evolutionary biologist (nor Boyd Holbrook as an Army Ranger) but her revelation at seeing an alien and remarking "you are one beautiful mother f*****" certainly makes me not believe that there was a true writer of dialogue involved either. The bus ride between the military convicts was reminiscent of a high school locker room but the conversations were so riddled with the F word that there would actually be no dialogue if the word was removed. Even the young child tells a man not to "go f*** himself" when tooting his own horn.

I'm no stranger to foul language, even feeling like the Departed made it work well, but this was just obnoxious. The Lord's name in vain, the loonie representation of the Bible, and the pure dislikable quality of the characters is disappointing.

There was certainly more personality given to the Predator aliens in this movie but I'm not sure I dig it. I also find it a little unbelievable that the mentally questionable band of military convicts have more of a fighting chance against otherworld hunters instead of the cohesive trained soldiers and mercenaries in pursuit of them all.

Admittedly, the exchange and wit at times do actually make for good timing and humor. So depth may be lacking but crude humor is definitely in tact.

The nods to alien/animal evolution, Asperger's/autism as the next step for human evolution, and climate change are throughout, as well as hybrid forms of species. I find the latter more believable than the three former.

In the end, it's set up like a movie that only kids will be entertained by only adults should hear. Tricky territory.