After staring in the 1987 original, Shane Black returns to the Franchise as director for this hotly anticipated sequel. The fourth in the Predator series.
Boyd Holbrook stars in the lead role of Quinn McKenna. A solider, who after escaping a Predator attack on his platoon, sends proof of his encounter, in the form of the Aliens face mask, back to his family home.
However when his young son mistakenly activates the masks homing signal, he summons a new genetically enhanced Predator to the suburbs.
So with his family in grave danger, McKenna must team up with a rag tag group of soldiers and Olivia Munn’s geneticist in order to save his loved ones from a deadly alien threat.
Unlike the original, there is no tense build up here as Black chooses to show off the Predator in the very first scene, and jump straight into the action. The problem with this, is that it doesn’t really leave the film anywhere else to go, except more action. The New predator is bigger and stronger, but much too sleek to recapture the grittiness of the early films.
For a franchise that is at its best when things are kept simple, the plot is unnecessarily complicated and viewers may well find themselves getting lost amidst the relentless action.
Keegan-Michael Key is amusing in places and gets the funniest lines, however, Blacks attempt to recreate the crude banter of the original mostly falls flat.
A bizarre performance from Thomas Jane as a Tourette’s sufferer, played completely for laughs, feels particularly misjudged.
Moonlight star Trevante Rhodes is the standout performer, excelling as suicidal army grunt Nebraska Williams. A role poles apart from his subtle portrayal of Chiron in the Oscar winning Moonlight and shows the actor is destined for much bigger things. He completely overshadows the rather bland Holbrook, and would arguably have been a much better lead for the film.
To pair such a popular franchise with a successful and critically acclaimed director seemed like a dream partnership, but the final film is one of the biggest disappointments of the year so far.
A confusing film with a muddled tone and a baffling plot which will prove unsatisfying to old and new fans alike.
⭐️
Paul Steward
@Grittster
20/09/18