The original Predator was and still is one of my favourite movies. It is nonsensical and just that right amount of insane for an 80’s action film (plus its directed by the same guy who did my favourite movie of all time; Die Hard!). If you haven’t seen it before, I highly recommend it, if that’s the vibe you’re feeling when you put a movie on tonight. Although the main question at hand is, should you watch that movie instead of this new one? Allow me to answer thusly.
Yes.
This movie is a conundrum to me. I feel that if this movie was shot, written and made in the same year as the original, it would be considered good. I don’t know how to explain this very well and I’ve been sitting on this theory for a while now and I think its due to the script and pacing. The movie was directed by and had its script half written by Shane Black (of Lethal Weapon fame) and I don’t know if Shane Black understands what flies for movies that aren’t in the 80’s? But his last major effort, the unfortunate Iron Man 3 was about as good as this movie. The script is outdated in its methods, processes and general ideas about anything and everything. Normally I like clichés, I find them somewhat comforting but when it comes to this movie, it instilled the opposite. There were just too many, and not even the good ones. There is the usual case of a character being skilled for no reason (see professional shooter/sexy scientist). It also handles mental disorders pretty poorly which includes another Hollywood trope that needs to die as well, I’m not going to go into it, but this movie was a culprit for many issues.
I guess my point is that the 80’s was a simpler time and maybe I would forgive this movies faults if it was a result of its time and not a misplaced mess of a movie. That being said, all the stuff where the Predator kills things, is rad, although I would’ve preferred more of that and less of the bland boring humans. There are many missed opportunities when it comes to story development and enjoyment, but I did take away one thing that was impressive and that was Tom Janes acting. In this movie, he has
All in all, though, this movie isn’t very good. I think it will probably make money and who knows, we may even get a sequel. But if that movie continues from the point that it seems like it may, I really don’t want to see it. If you like predator and you really want to leave your brain at the door, you may like it. I tried, and I was still annoyed but hey! Who knows, maybe what we need in 2018 cinema is a reboot/remake? People like those right?