Runtime:
101 minutes
Directed
by: Shane Black
Starring:
A talented cast that I wish was given different material to work with
From:
20th Century Fox
Thursday night I saw Smokey and the Bandit on the big screen, followed up by this. Smokey I've seen many times before in my life and it was great watching it that way. This motion picture... not the worst in the franchise by any means yet it still does not hold a patch to the original or even Predator 2:
Talk about a movie that was behind the eight ball even before it got
released. Words of reshoots & other tinkering along with fanboys not
being happy with the tone and nature of the trailers is bad enough...
then it turned into a fiasco with Shane Black having a one scene role
for a friend... who knows what Black knew or did not know before then,
it became a scandal that overshadowed the movie, made a lot of people
look bad, and poor Olivia Munn-a lot of people don't like her for a
variety of reasons but it is crappy that she feels ostracized because
she felt no one else supported the stand she was trying to make.
As for the film itself, I've seen more bad movies involving the Predator than good ones so I can't get too mad that this isn't legendary like the first one or pretty good and zany like Predator 2. But it should have been better. I imagine most have seen the trailers (where of course not all the footage there made it into the finished product) so I won't dwell too much on the plot or how a bunch of unfit soldiers have to save the day with Olivia Munn and Jacob Tremblay-more on him later-as a Yautja then a highly evolved version of a Yautja wreck s*** in the Southeastern United States.
The trailers were accurate in both noting this is a hard-R movie with a lot of cussing (too much of it, IMO), graphic gore, and... comedy? Yeah, a lot of humor is attempted so no surprise I already have seen plenty make a comparison to the MCU. Here, there was too much of it and only a percentage was actually funny and not annoying... so yeah, just like the MCU. To steal a line from a review, not every character needed to utter wisecracks all the time. Now, I did not need or want this to be an uber-macho testosterone-filled extravaganza like the first one was as this was what Predators was and because of a lousy story (among other issues) Predators was just a weaksauce version of the original. But all the humor... I was not a fan of that aspect and it just came off as trend-chasing and as typical, too many in Hollywood are trying to play catch up.
All that stated, the film was still at least watchable for me, even if the action wasn't as coherent or clear (a lot of it is in the dark) as it could have been. Then the third act happens, and talk about derailing the movie. It was a gigantic mess-not that such issues were not present in the first two acts-and a lot of poor choices were made... not by the characters, but by the filmmakers and 20th Century Fox. The final scene is the worst and did not end things on a bright note for me.
The Predator has a character with Tourette Syndrome and that is played for laffs; by this point why is that still deemed acceptable? But what will make many unhappy is that Tremblay's character is on the autism spectrum, and it's as stereotyped as you'd expect. Not all people on the spectrum have all the traits connected to autism, despite what Hollywood would like you to believe. What are supposed to be positive traits for the character (such as being a savant) are also stereotypes and I am sure those with autism will be frustrated with that aspect also.
I did not hate this motion picture, and at least if you get to hear the Atmos mix (such as at a Dolby Cinema, which is where I was at last night), that was the best aspect of The Predator. The expectations were not high for me going in and even then, the talented cast manages to do a lot to even make this an average experience.
As for the film itself, I've seen more bad movies involving the Predator than good ones so I can't get too mad that this isn't legendary like the first one or pretty good and zany like Predator 2. But it should have been better. I imagine most have seen the trailers (where of course not all the footage there made it into the finished product) so I won't dwell too much on the plot or how a bunch of unfit soldiers have to save the day with Olivia Munn and Jacob Tremblay-more on him later-as a Yautja then a highly evolved version of a Yautja wreck s*** in the Southeastern United States.
The trailers were accurate in both noting this is a hard-R movie with a lot of cussing (too much of it, IMO), graphic gore, and... comedy? Yeah, a lot of humor is attempted so no surprise I already have seen plenty make a comparison to the MCU. Here, there was too much of it and only a percentage was actually funny and not annoying... so yeah, just like the MCU. To steal a line from a review, not every character needed to utter wisecracks all the time. Now, I did not need or want this to be an uber-macho testosterone-filled extravaganza like the first one was as this was what Predators was and because of a lousy story (among other issues) Predators was just a weaksauce version of the original. But all the humor... I was not a fan of that aspect and it just came off as trend-chasing and as typical, too many in Hollywood are trying to play catch up.
All that stated, the film was still at least watchable for me, even if the action wasn't as coherent or clear (a lot of it is in the dark) as it could have been. Then the third act happens, and talk about derailing the movie. It was a gigantic mess-not that such issues were not present in the first two acts-and a lot of poor choices were made... not by the characters, but by the filmmakers and 20th Century Fox. The final scene is the worst and did not end things on a bright note for me.
The Predator has a character with Tourette Syndrome and that is played for laffs; by this point why is that still deemed acceptable? But what will make many unhappy is that Tremblay's character is on the autism spectrum, and it's as stereotyped as you'd expect. Not all people on the spectrum have all the traits connected to autism, despite what Hollywood would like you to believe. What are supposed to be positive traits for the character (such as being a savant) are also stereotypes and I am sure those with autism will be frustrated with that aspect also.
I did not hate this motion picture, and at least if you get to hear the Atmos mix (such as at a Dolby Cinema, which is where I was at last night), that was the best aspect of The Predator. The expectations were not high for me going in and even then, the talented cast manages to do a lot to even make this an average experience.
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