Shane Black movies always get our attention, from Kiss Kiss Bang Bang to Iron Man 3 and of course the underrated and underseen instant classic that is The Nice Guys. For his latest, some may be surprised where the wildly creative writer-director put his creative forces—a continuation of a film series started by Arnold Schwarzenegger—The Predator!
The universe’s greatest hunter is back as The Predator makes its debut on Blu-Ray, 4K Ultra HD, DVD and digital download formats. The film stars Boyd Holbrook, Keegan-Michael Key, Trevante Rhodes, Sterling K. Brown,Yvonne Strahovski, Jake Busey, Alfie Allen, Olivia Munn and the most talentedyoung actor working today, Jacob Tremblay from Room.
The next chapter of the Predator franchise finds those mad hunters evolving. They’re smarter, stronger and more potently deadly than ever before. Standing between us and their total annihilation is a group of ex-soldiers culled together for one mission: preventing those extraterrestrial killers from wiping us out.
Tremblay, somehow, has triggered a message to a spaceship that has come careening into our atmosphere,after crashing into a satellite. The Predator ejects before the ship crashes.Where does he land? Our heroes are led by Quinn McKenna (Holbrook), who is an Army Ranger sniper. He was about to take on some hostage holders in some unnamed jungle when he sees the fiery ship crash. Upon further review, Quinn finds the escape pod and it’s not Earthly, that much he knows. The craft must be alien and one thing’s for sure… whoever flew it is out there, cause it’s not in here!
Meanwhile, there is Munn’s character, Doctor Casey Bracket, who is enlisted (i.e. forced) to help the government (men in black!) at a top-secret facility where they have a Predator.They want her to revert back to what essentially is the tenth-grade biology dissecting of a frog—but without it being dead part.
In the original Predator, the best parts of the film were the ones where our black ops team (featuring Arnold) battled the being from another planet and the downtime where the military guys are just being guys hanging out. The same is true for Black’s The Predator. Casting did a stellar job culling together a team that looks good kicking butt on the screen, but also possesses solid chemistry for busting each other up and busting on each other. Don’t be surprised if a few smiles and LOL moments arise from those scenes.
Guess what? That captured alien that Munn’s doc is working on… it escapes! Guess who is brought in to find it… Quinn! Yes, it’s totally predictable, but you know what… one does not go to a Predator movie and except plot points that were put together with a million dots being connected across a grid to ensure accuracy and layered dramatic turns. This is about the action; the performers’ comradery and the canon of the series being treated with respect while it is updated.
I adore Black’s work and have for years. With The Predator, he may have overextended himself. Then again, this is a property that he had nothing to do with, so perhaps he was handcuffed by the constraints of working on something that wasn’t wholeheartedly his own creation. It’s a decent action experience for the home video market. Producers are probably hoping for a new series of films, like we got with the first go-around. Time will tell if this thing catches fire on home video because it didn’t do all that well in theaters, critically or financially. With international box office figured in, it made $160.5 million from a production budget of $88 million. So… who knows?
When it comes to bonus features, there are the requisite deleted scenes. As a Black fan, it’s interesting to witness the almost seven-minute lot of them because it truly gets into the head of the filmmaker in terms of what to leave in the film and what to cut out.
We appreciated the featurette Predator Evolution. So often bonus features are too short and leave us wanting more—sometimes that’s good, but most often it’s just not enough information provided, and the viewer can feel jipped. Predator Evolution is over 20 minutes and goes inside the alterations that the evil doers go through in The Predator that makes them such a formidable foe and downright terrifying at moments.
When it comes to what order to watch these featurettes, for fans like myself out there who adore Black’s work, A Touch of Black must be the first stop in the bonus features landscape. The just over ten-minute look at Black’s involvement in the franchise is fascinating and equally entertaining as it is enlightening.
As mentioned earlier, one of the highlights of The Predator is the team that is put together. Witness the evolution of the comedic and action chemistry of those military bad asses in The Takedown Team.
For those new to the series, producers crafted a truly smart featurette, Predator Catch Up, which does exactly what you’d expect it to—dive back through the series and offers highlights that are important in terms of their influence and backstory for the current film. Given everything that’s been stated throughout this review, after watching the Black-centric bonus featurette, regardless of where you are on the Predator awareness scale, Predator Catch Up should absolutely be your second stop.
Film Grade: C
Bonus Features: B