Kathy vs. TK’s View of THE PREDATOR – Rated R

THE PREDATOR – 1 hr. 47 mins. – Rated R – MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS 

DIRECTOR:  Shane Black

WRITERS:  Fred Dekker, Shane Black

Based on Characters by Jim & John Thomas 

STARRING:  Boyd Holbrook, Sterling K Brown, Trevante Rhodes, Keegan Michael Key, Olivia Munn, Jacob Tremblay, Thomas Jane, Alfie Allen and Augusto Aguilera

And for the 4^th installment in the Predator film series, which managed to scare the bejeebers out of me with its original film back in 1987 ~ we meet Solder Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook), who has encountered the return of these Alien Predators to Earth, only to realize that this time they seem to be larger, meaner, and deadlier than ever before…

When Scientific team lead Traeger (Sterling K Brown) gets n strapped with containing the beast, he calls upon Scientist Casey Bracket (Olivia Munn), to give her take on McKenna’s incredible find…

But why have these creatures returned to Earth now?  Seems that McKenna’s super genius youngster Rory (Jacob Tremblay) has mastered communication with the Predators…leaving his father, and his band of ex-solders no choice, but to take on these creatures to try to save Rory, and our world as we know it…

I give THE PREDATOR a rating of WAIT AND CATCH THIS FILM ON NETFLIX or STREAMING:  Even though I was super pumped at the fact that I could watch this film without totally jumping out of my skin, I’m guessing for A PREDATOR FILM, that isn’t a good thing.  And even though I liked the fact that the men were relying on a women’s take on things to know what to do in fighting against these creatures, I wasn’t buying their ineptness along the way either.  And I know, a lot of you are going to say, “she just becoming a picky bitch now”, but If I have to watch one more action film with a woman who can’t run, well, I’m going to start a revolt.  In Munn’s defense, it may have been the flat bottom Adidas sneakers they put her in, but if you are running from a Predator, you need to be able to run like the wind, if I’m going to buy you getting away!!  And even though there is lots of action to keep your interest throughout, the cinematography/CGI in places this time around is totally sloppy, along with the fact that the editing throughout is totally sloppy too, as I’m not even sure when we lost Sterling K Brown along the way, and since he’s our beloved “home town boy”, I kind of wanted to know how he met his demise, as I truly was not sure L.   Needless to say, if you love these films, and Black’s previous work too, then don’t let me stop you from heading to a theater near you to catch this next installment.  But, if you’re not a fan of these films, or Black’s work, then I suggest you wait and stream this film, a few months down the road…

Kathy Kaiser

This humble opinion is brought to by you T. K. Edwards

THE PREDATOR  – Rated R –  1 hr. 47 mins

Director by:  Shane Black

Cast:  Boyd Holbrook, Olivia Munn, Trevante Rhodes, Keegan-Michael Key, Thomas Jane, Sterling K. Brown, Jacob Tremblay, Yvonne Strahovski, Jake Busey

An elite soldier accidentally sends his son sophisticated alien hunter technology and now must stop the actual “alien hunters” from hunting down his family and taking it back.

THIS SEGMENT MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS, BUT I TRIED NOT TO

The latest installment in the PREDATOR franchise is the new movie entitled THE PREDATOR (btw, I hate this title bc it’s too damn close to the original 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger film title PREDATOR), don’t just put a “the” in front of an old title and say it’s new…it’s not new, it’s dumb and it’s confusing, next time take the time to work up a better title to your movie.  Anyways, this new film by Shane Black is by far the second best in the franchise. My new order of these films (not counting the AVP crossover films) go as follows:

1. Predator (1987)
2. The Predator (2018)
3. Predator 2
4. Predators

My reasoning for putting THE PREDATOR in second place now is because it reminded me of the original more than the other two movies did.  One of my favorite things about PREDATOR (1987) is the comradery between Arnold and his soldiers. If you took the actual “Predator Alien” out of the film and just made an action movie with those actors playing those characters, you would have a pretty damn good action movie.  The care and thought that John McTiernan (Director of the 1987 PREDATOR movie) put into each soldier and their background is subtle and modestly plentiful, which is what makes the first film so good. McTiernan lets the audience get to know each character and then puts them in a “being hunted” scenario where you care about who will die and who will live.  This is exactly what Shane Black does with the new film THE PREDATOR. He took a toll from his old director (btw, Shane Black played Hawkins in the original film) and he focused more on his characters personalities, which in turn allows his audience to get more emotionally attached to them when or if their time comes in the movie for an enormous alien with dreadlocks deciding to ram their giant jai alai glove made of razor sharp alien compound metal into their victims chest (No spoilers there…it was just fun to write, LOL).  Another reason why this film gets the silver medal in my book, is how well Shane Black mixes the comedy and the gore. There is just enough balance of the two throughout the movie to make this film a perfect new addition to the PREDATOR franchise. Go see THE PREDATOR in theaters, it is worth your ticket money. It has everything you want and are expecting from a Predator movie. Until next time, thanks for reading.

P.S. – There is no post credit scene, but the movie itself has loads of easter eggs and tons of references to the first two films.  Here’s a hint to my favorite one – Jake Busey.