The Predator
Old-school fun - 7/10
by Anis Tabet
I gotta be honest with you folks: I didn’t expect to have so much fun with this movie. While the original 1987 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger is highly regarded as a classic in the action genre, the sequels/spinoffs were pretty terrible (except 2010’s “Predators” which was pretty entertaining). Enter director Shane Black, who, incidentally, has a role in the original film, and who seemed like the right guy to revive this franchise. The result is campy fun, fueled by non-stop action scenes and over-the-top acting, the kind you would except from an old-school Predator film. In terms of plot, all you need to know that the Predators return to earth many years later, and it’s up to a new crew of “misfits” to try and save the day. It’s true that the film is covering old grounds, but it does it well enough to satisfy fans of the series. The strongest asset here is the tangible feeling of a team at work. Black has assembled an interesting array of characters, and they all deliver the goods. References to the old films? You’ll find plenty of those, and you’ll definitely enjoy pointing them out to your friends. Weaknesses? I would say that the movie gets chaotic at some point, but not enough to ruin the whole experience. Let’s put it this way: if you’re going to revive an old franchise, you can’t ask for a better way to do it. “The Predator” doesn’t pretend to be more than it is, and the result is old-school entertainment.
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