Review of The Predator (2018) by Thequietgamer — 27 Dec 2018

Shane Black resurrects Predator to parody the modern blockbuster. It adopts a prominent sense of humor like every major franchise has done and breaks nearly ever rule in the series' mythos to ensure there's never a dull moment. It then turns these conventions on their heads by making the jokes vulgar and sometimes anti-PC, while keeping the action as gory and hyper-violent as any '80s flick. It's the antithesis of the Disney formula. Even going as far as to take shots at the whole concept of Hollywood reviving dormant properties in order to cash-in on nostalgia with its own sarcastic callbacks to the original film.

It does take the joke too far with the ending though. The way it goes about mocking how so many wide-releases set themselves up for sequels by leaving the door open for its own future installments is terrible. It's clear that Black let his inner 12-year-old run wild with this movie. Which is a blast for the majority of its running-time, but that final twist is ridiculous to the point where even thinking about basing a follow-up around the plot device is jumping the shark. Which means the only thing left to do now is either end the series here or have the next movie pretend this one never happened Halloween style. I'd hate to see Predator become the next Sharknado. Some notes:

-The practical effects are great with cool looking spaceships, alien weaponry, and one sweet Predator suit. The CGI however is the worst I've seen since Black Panther, although not quite as bad as those PS2 quality graphics.

- Jacob Tremblay is fantastic in everything.

- That joke about Thomas Jane kind of disappearing from large movie roles is perfect.

- The best part is the final action sequence in the woods as it's a return to the hunter/hunted setup of the previous films and is just thrilling.

- Alfie Allen has like zero screen time. Which is sad because Game of Thrones.

While the future of the franchise has been placed in jeopardy with this installment, this is the gleeful middle finger to the play-it-safe superhero movie establishment that Deadpool and Suicide Squad should have been.