The Predator Review

Predator : Stronger yet less on entertainment

Three decades back, Arnold took over an alien that had wandered of into. Predator made in 1980's was glorious for various reasons, macho-ism, a raw monster, action cuts and its brilliant direction. Now Hollywood seems to be running dry of new ideas and no wonder they are trying to revive classics, try to suit the current trend and think people will still love the latest better than the original. Sadly, all those remakes or revived movies do are spoil the originality of first movie. Predator is not so gritty as the original, rather tries to ooze humor like old school but does not meet the standard of the first in either way.

After escaping from its own kind for reasons not initially clear, a predator crash lands on Earth. The escapee is quickly followed by a bigger and bad member of his kin that comes chasing after it, bringing along a couple predator pups. What heavily works in Predator is certainly the fun quotient, the casual jibes at death, action between the characters is unexpected and that is what makes it laughable. That generic opening sequence could have been sourced from any number of other science-fiction movies. Fortunately, the film’s human characters do begin to gradually come into focus. Chief among them is Quinn a mercenary who has discovered an alien spaceship that crash-landed in rural Georgia. Quinn sends some of the wreckage back home, where his 6-year old son, who longs to reconnect with his mostly absent father, tries to figure out how the alien technology works.

Into this broken-family plot, Black introduces group of veterans suffering from rare disease. These characters, who include the talkative Coyle and tough guy Nebraska, are there for a little comic relief; their banter is what lifts the dull screenplay now and then. So are the bunch of weird amigos able to stop one of the baddest creatures in the universe? That’s to wait and watch. The first 10 minutes open with a scene by scene recreation of the original: An opening shot of outer space, the whoosh sound and entry  of a spacecraft, commandos in the jungle, bloody victims hanging upside down ( a gory sight indeed ), an invisible alien leaping from tree to tree, even someone saying, “Get to the chopper!”, “What the heck is going on”. Yes, you have seen these in Arnold’s 1987 Predator movie. But that’s where the similarities stop, as the plot shifts gears into vastly different territory. While the original was confined to the jungle, the reboot shifts to the suburbs where the hero’s son wears the Predator mask for Halloween, blasting bullies with lasers. While somewhat intriguing, the concept of the Predator genetically "upgrading" itself using human DNA is completely illogical and no proper justification is done.

Black's predator is for people who love action, no matter what. An alien invading earth with a notch to run over humans? Well, heard that plenty of times and why not once more. Predator releases amidst a busy weekend in TN, for those who like fist pumped action, Predator should definitely give you some relief, but for those who expected to see something better than the original, they should return crestfallen.