--Casey Bracket, The Predator
If Marvel made a Predator movie, I would expect the result to be something close to The Predator. The original Predator is an unintentional comedy, but I don't know why someone thought the Predator series needed a film with blatant, continual jokes. To be sure, The Predator has several scenes of brutal violence and action that might make a viewing worth it on their own, but it has the most conflicting tone of any film in its universe. If you want a take on the Predator universe that isn't comedic, intentionally or unintentionally, watch 2010's Predators. If you can stomach unneeded comedy alongside graphic action sequences, then you might enjoy The Predator.
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Production Values
Though the script suffers from a thorough lack of almost any consistent seriousness, the effects are outstanding. The "dogs," bodies, armor, and weapons of the Predators are wonderfully realized, and the fight sequences, as aforementioned, are brutal. Alien devices carve through human soldiers in a glorious display of CGI. The action, which is likely what many series fans consider one of the absolute most important parts of the franchise, is excellent at its best. The scene that best fits the existing film universe shows a Predator escape the confinement of a laboratory in a way that allows for a great carnage to unfold onscreen. Indeed, the movie's greatest strength is the graphic combat.
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The characters are not as well-executed. It's not that the actors themselves do a poor job with their roles, but that the roles they were given don't belong in a universe with the tone of the previous Predator movies. Take Boyd Holbrook--he did great in last year's Logan, and he handles his character (Quinn McKenna) well here too. But his character lacks depth, growth, and any coherent expression of gravity, like practically every other human character. Likewise, Olivia Munn's character (Casey Bracket) is acted well considering the nature of the character, yet she also contributes to the completely gratuitous comedy overtones of the film. Alfie Allen of Game of Thrones is given a secondary character who scarcely has a distinct presence amidst the loud, joke-prone members of the main group, so The Predator by no means taps into the best of his potential.
Story
Spoilers!
A Predator vessel, fleeing from another Predator spacecraft, crashes on earth after jettisoning some of its cargo, with sniper Quinn McKenna encountering the creature and being subsequently removed from public life. Quinn is placed in a bus with veterans suffering from various psychological disturbances or disorders. The body of the still-living Predator is retrieved by a government group, along with some of its armor. Evolutionary biologist Casey Bracket is summoned to study the extraterrestrial, something she has waited on government call for--but it wakes up and easily frees itself from captivity as McKenna and his companions also liberate themselves from their captors.
During an attempted escape, Casey crouches down, naked and weaponless, in a chamber that requires a contamination scan to leave. The Predator, of course, allows her to live because of her defenseless state--though she forgets to tell anyone else about this crucial experience! McKenna's young son has meanwhile received a shipment containing the Predator's helmet and its left gauntlet, the Predator pursuing him to reacquire its belongings. After an unnaturally large Predator arrives and kills the smaller Predator, it seems that the alien McKenna first ran into betrayed its race and meant to deliver a stolen item to humans.
After a prolonged series of fights, the mammoth Predator is defeated by McKenna and Bracket, and the gift to humanity from the rogue Predator is revealed as an advanced exoskeleton suit that will allow its user to repel Predator attacks and, seemingly, kill invading Predators.
Intellectual Content
There are few instances of rational planning in the movie, much less any significant conceptual ideas about extraterrestrial life forms. No one ever talks about the philosophical ramifications of the existence of intelligent aliens. Instead, some of the characters make enormous assumptions about the intent behind the increasing number of Predator appearances on earth, even going so far as to assert that the Predators are trying to obtain as much human DNA as they can before environmental forces exterminate humankind--and that they seem to have plans to inhabit the post-human world left behind. Talk about major non sequiturs! The character making the propositions had no evidence for some of his premises at the time he articulated them.
Conclusion
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The Predator could have been so much more than it is, with director Shane Black's inconsistent tones muddling a story that needed to be dark, frightening, and relatively humorless. The film tries to be both a hyper-violent successor to the Predator name and a Marvel-type comedy all at once, meaning each major tone conflicts with the other on a regular basis. It is certainly not the best in the series. It is also not a total disaster either, since the brutality and genetically-modified Predator are splendid. Whether or not a viewer will enjoy it largely depends on his or her tolerance for the style of comedy that the MCU has helped popularize in recent years.
Content
1. Violence: Several fights involve the dismemberment or brutal pummeling of humans and aliens. This is often because of Predator weaponry that splits bodies apart--and much of this occurs entirely onscreen.
2. Profanity: F-bombs are dropped regularly, even by a child character.
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