2018’s “The Predator” is a highly disappointing movie

A scene from "The Predator." (Twentieth Century Fox)

Eric Tyulyandin, Co-Head Editor
November 20, 2018

In 1987, the silver screens of America were blessed with the amazing, but highly stereotypical, action flick, “Predator.” This movie followed Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character, Dutch, trying to survive as the prey of an alien called a “predator,” hunting Dutch and his team of marines. This is replicated in the recently released 2018 “Predator” film, although with one major problem.

The movie acts as a sequel to the other movies, referencing the events of the first and second Predator movies released in 1987 and 1990 respectively.

This movie focuses on United States military sniper Quinn McKenna’s team being taken out by a rogue “predator.” McKenna is the only survivor. McKenna steals the mask and a weapon from the predator and sends it to his wife and son, Rory, through the mail. He does this so that people will believe he encountered an alien.

McKenna is questioned by federal officials and stripped of his honors, being called a traitor. He is then sent off to be exposed of along with a team of US military traitors and mentally ill soldiers. The group runs into the predator and ends up dealing with fighting one of the deadliest beings in the galaxy.

This movie, although decently entertaining, should not be allowed to call itself a “Predator” movie. The “Predator” film franchise prides itself on horror, suspense and thrills. They pride themselves on people fighting a horrific, deadly alien hunter with very little chance of survival. The movie does have plenty, almost to an excessive amount, of blood, and good action and thrills. There is one problem however.

This movie is just an R-rated comedy movie with blood.

There are constant jokes from cast members such as Keegan-Michael Key, Thomas Jane and Augusto Aguillera. Their characters all have mental disorders, such as turrets and dementia, but are used as jokes instead of character development or even as story driven plot devices. There were more “Yo Momma” said by Key than an entire flock of middle school aged boys. Jane’s turrets is used to talk about Olivia Munn’s attractiveness and other unnecessary topics.

These jokes do not add to the movie, only take away from the true, suspense-filled, thrilling masterpiece that was the 1987 “Predator” film. It no longer feels like a predator movie, but like another copy-paste horror and science fiction movie.

Another problem was the unnecessary, boring, uninteresting and unintimidating add-on villain, Sterling K Brown’s Traeger. There was no character in his portrayal and he just gave off a weird vibe the entire time. He was not a villain in any sense of the word. He was a presence that was just odd.

The film is more of a “nothing else to watch” type of film than anything else. If you are not interested in any other movie available or showing, watch it. A fair warning, however, would be to not get your hopes up too much with it sticking to the original material.