I loved the original 1987 Predator. It got me absorbed into a cheesy musclebound war movie and then sprung a sci-fi survival horror movie on me. The 1990 Predator 2 followup was also an enjoyable break in movie formula where essentially Murtaugh from Lethal Weapon fought a space alien.
Sadly every Predator movie since then has been forgettable or plain laughably bad. The Predator seems to be yet another soft reboot like 2010 Predators or both of the sloppily executed Alien Vs Predator and Alien Vs Predator Requiem.
This time with Shane Black, the director behind the gaping plot hole that was Iron Man 3.
I don’t want to bad mouth Shane since he directed one of my favorite movies, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, but he clearly cannot be trusted to not ruin a movie in order to make himself feel clever.
Let’s just hope that the titular Predator doesn’t take off his helmet and turn out to be a drug addled British actor. Because from the trailer, the annoying child character from Iron Man 3 is back. Though it seems to be set around Halloween which might be the first Shane Black movie I see that isn’t Christmas.
The cast looks ripe with characters that will be killed off in increasingly bloody ways. Hopefully it won’t be as predictable as Olivia Munn’s sexy scientist and the kid being the only survivors.
Predator movies were at their best when they were subverting expectations. I’m hopeful that we will see that again. The trailer is filled with action and horror movie cliches, but so was the best Predator movie.
The Predator stalks movie audiences September 14th.
