The Predator

Just my type of movie. I pity the people who expected what had been written about it. A new Predator that refreshingly shatters people’s conventional expectations. Black serves up a wacky team movie in which the toughest badass grandmaster killer is a kid with Asperger’s. The great cast led by McQueen’s badass Holbrook has great dynamics. The best scenes are those without action, with dialog and tinfoil unicorns. The deaths are cool (Tomas Jane rules) and the only problem is that sometimes the creators overdo it and the story loses its logical progression and they make too much fun of the genre. The ending relies exclusively on strength. But full marks for entertainment value. If Forrest Gump looked at the back, he would know what he was about to eat. (13/09/2018)

As if the Predator got into the hands of Carpenter in the mode of Big Trouble in Little China / Escape from XY. Yes, it's a truly B-rate nonsense. Yes, it's stuck time. Yes, it has little in common with the Predator. But it's extremely fun; sometimes intentionally (it typically uses one-liners in a Black style) and sometimes not (it does not hold together and does not make the slightest sense). Which doesn´t mind because whether it's silly, degraded, B-rate in terms of one-liners, it's just fun at all times. I this movie had been made a decade earlier, it would have been a cult movie today. So, the worse Predator, the better the B-movie. And it´s a damn good B-movie. (12/09/2018)

It's not as bad as the ratings and reviews say, but from one of the most anticipated films of the year and the guy who wrote the screenplay for The Last Boy Scout, the untapped potential hurts quite a bit. As an action B-movie, though, the film works reliably. There's quite a bit of action, blood is not spared, and especially at the end it's a pretty decent carnage and the characters are pretty good. The prevailing triple combo is the likable Boyd Holbrook, the beautiful Olivia Munn and the witty Keegan-Michael Key, who finally has a role tailored to him and quite a lot of space. Disappointingly, the atmosphere is almost non-existent, the suspense is also lacking and I couldn't find any Wow effect or scene that made me want to see the film again. That the story is uninteresting and naive I won't criticize, because the old Predator doesn't have a sophisticated script either. For me, the film is hurt quite a bit by the fact that it takes place in a city instead of a jungle. Anyway, the film fulfils its purpose of entertaining, but unfortunately you will not take anything more away from it this time. 65% (15/09/2018)

I love that Shane Black wrote and filmed it his way and didn't merely need to slavishly reference the original, like Predators did last time. He simply made a typical comedy full of verbal wars and unexpected situations (in which once again a child in danger plays an important role, but who is far from defenseless), and although he was mostly interested in entertainment, there is also a decent amount of tension. Even though I have a few reservations, mainly about the beginning and the end, I'm still very satisfied. I was also pleased by the unknown but sympathetic actors (Black's screenwriter helped them a lot by ensuring the viewer would like them, and their deaths are therefore seriously impressive), and I have to praise Henry Jackman, too, who played with Silvestri's music in a much more original way than John Debney did last time. (13/09/2018)

I wish it was an homage to the classic, a witty, self-absorbed genre film, or at least a guilty pleasure for a Predator geek, but it’s none of that. A wannabe comedy, stupid action movie where one situation out of a hundred is funny, with a story written by someone who is either from high school and loves the Predator universe or a professional screenwriter who hates the universe and was under the influence of narcotics. Moreover, the solid bloodbath is ruined by unnecessary and not very accomplished CGI. Only put it on if the hunting toys, the killer instinct of the villain and the music from the original film were something memorable for you. (19/12/2018)