Screened at Village East Cinema, 2:05pm showtime. Movie Theater Snacks: Smoked salmon sandwich and a banana/peach smoothie. Bougie, I know.
Where to begin on the latest entry in the Predator franchise? Let’s keep it simple. I hated it. This film is so far removed form what the original films used to be. The series began with Predator in 1987. Followed by numerous sequels: Predator 2 in 1990, Predators in 2010, and the alien movie cross-over garbage, the two Alien vs. Predator movies in 2004 and in 2007.
I don’t really care about keeping things original. As cinema grows it’s totally cool to keep enhancing and growing and changing franchises. To piss and moan saying this isn’t like the original films because it “changes the canon” is a lousy complaint. But what I will say is this movie is a terribly made movie.
The first two films (in my opinion the only good movies in the series) we’re slow and steady, chilling, thrillers. The later films have become loud, explosive action films. Everything about this latest movie is necessary. My biggest annoyance is the movie moves so quickly, you as the audience and even the characters have no time to breath. Every single scene in the film lasts no longer than 90 seconds, before we are whisked away to the next location to fire more guns and blow things up. This doesn’t even give us time to meet all the characters, and there are way too many of them. This movie has a total of 17 named characters, and you couldn’t pay me to remember a single name of any of these people. We never get to learn about them because they are never on-screen for longer than a few seconds, and if they are, they are smashed together with numerous other characters.
A major problem this movie has is butchering an underlying commentary it’s trying to discuss: respect towards American soldiers. On one end, it’s talking about the physical and mental trauma that soldiers have to endure, and gives a great amount of respect towards those who have fought for this country. But at the same time, it’s bringing light to the fact that soldiers are murders (which, letsbereal, they are). There are six American soldiers in the film that are painted as the American heroes. The main character himself even gives a talk to his son where he says, “The difference between soldiers and murderers, is murderers enjoy killing.” Then, no later than ten minutes after that, the same “American Hero” says “You made me lie to my son… because I’m going to enjoy this” right before putting numerous bullets into two different men. The film wants to bring attention to what soldiers do (i.e. murder), but at the same time enthusiastically glorifies guns and murder, all in the hands of the characters playing American soldiers.
The Predator does not do well for itself. It’s a bad entry in the series, both in terms of fan service and in terms of genuine filmmaking. It’s not a good movie and should absolutely be avoided. Even for fans of the series, go with caution.
Yagi Film Reviews 