Shane Black, writer and director of the terrific films Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and the Nice Guys returns to the franchise he was part of at the very beginning. Black played Hawkins…who told terrible jokes to Sonny Landham’s Billy that he constantly had to explain and Billy only finds funny once.
Predators did not reignite the franchise, and so eight years later we have an attempt to reboot the series. This film is firmly set in the continuity of the films Predator and Predator 2, with references and imagery to them, but not in a way that would be confusing to someone going in blind. It never acknowledges the third film, but it makes sense that nobody is aware of those events as they took place on another planet.
The film opens on Quinn McKenna, a military sniper with PTSD. He is on a mission when he comes into contact with a predator. The military tries to silence him by sending him to a military psychiatric hospital. There he meets a group of troubled soldiers. Meanwhile Dr. Casey Brackett is brought in to help study a captured Predator. She wants to speak with Quinn, so the prison bus is routed and they arrive as the Predator is breaking out and…well, okay…so the film is a bit all over the place in the beginning.
By this, I mean they introduce a ton of characters and that means it takes awhile to get to the meat. But when all the threads come together, the film begins to pick up. The finale is crazily packed with action and violence.
I like Black’s attempt to deal with human situations like Autism and mental illness. Admittedly, at times the conditions of the soldiers can feel a bit more like they are jokes, but I still found myself liking the characters enough that when the carnage starts, I wanted them all to make it out alive.
The film has a pretty solid cast. I always like to see Thomas Jane pop up and Olivia Munn gets to be pretty badass and have more character than her role as Psylocke a couple years back in X-Men: Apocalypse.
The Predator tries to give the Predators a larger goal than simply hunting people, and it is not terrible. It is good enough to work anyways. While it is a bit slow on the start, it eventually becomes a fun action sci-fi movie.
It is too bad that the film is mired in a controversy that was brought about by Shane Black. He skipped over traditional casting and gave his friend a small role hitting on Munn. What nobody, including Munn, knew was that he was a convicted sex offender. He had attempted to “entice” (legal term) his 14 year old cousin into a sexual relationship. Black knew his friend was an offender. Munn petitioned the studio to cut the scene, which they did. Munn faced little support in the beginning (with Black and the rest of the cast backing out of a press junkett, leaving Munn to be interviewed alone).
The cast has, since stepped up and Black apparently had been unaware of the seriousness of his friend’s situation and has apologized. He has said he is working with Munn privately to try and repair the damage. Considering the film clearly left open for a sequel, I would like to see Olivia Munn return. Black really dropped the ball with his actions, as he did not at least make cast mates aware.
That said, I still really did enjoy the film, and in spite of flaws, it is certainly an entertaining entry to the franchise.
While critics and plenty of fans pummeled the first film, it was more than successful enough to get a sequel greenlit. Directed by the Brothers Strause (that is what they direct under), Requiem is a real mess in more ways than one.
The Predator films went quiet after the second film, and Alien films were stalled by Resurrection seven years earlier. In that time, there had been a series of successful Alien and Predator comics by publisher Dark Horse Comics. In 1990, Dark Horse brought the franchises together, which was one of those crossovers that you never knew you wanted until you were given it. The Alien vs. Predator comics were very popular and fueled desires of a crossover movie from the fans of the franchises. There were attempts to bring this to life, but it seems nobody could settle on a story idea.
After the second film, the Predator series went dormant. The alien hunters only saw the screen in the “team up” Alien vs Predator films. It was not until about 2009 Predator was announced as getting it’s own new film. It was spearheaded by Robert Rodriguez (Desperado, From Dusk Til Dawn, Sin City) and was referred to often as a reboot. The problem with the tendency to treat every film as a remake or reboot is that it is not always clear what a particular entry is. These days, people tend to refer to a new film in a franchise as a reboot, even when it is in continuity. Admittedly, it is a little unclear here. Nothing discounts the previous two films, but they are not really acknowledge in reference (# 2 made reference to the first film).
Directed by Stephen Hopkins (Lost In Space, Nightmare on Elm Street 5 and Race), Predator 2 is an attempt at being very different. Instead of a jungle, we are in “the Concrete Jungle”. Instead of a heavily muscled soldier, we have have a team of police. The film tries to be different by being very opposite. There are vicious gang wars that are tearing up the street. Captain Mike Harrigan (Danny Glover) and his team are the cops on the front line. They start to find dead and mutilated gang members. Soon the cops find themselves as much targets as the gang members.
Predator is from Arnold Schwarzennegar’s action movie heyday. Directed by John McTiernan (Die Hard, Die Hard With a Vengeance and the Hunt for Red October) it is a capable action film. It is a simple plot, a mercenary group hired by the government goes into the jungles of South America on a rescue mission. Instead, they find themselves up against an unseen and unearthly killer.
Tripping Through Gateways 