At last another big budgeted action movie playing in the cinemas after we were shown horror, thriller, rom-com genre for a while. It was actually quite odd that this kind of movie did not play during the US summer time. But anyway, I am just glad we have this in the month of September. Oddly enough, there were not a lot of cinemas with Dolby Atmos system playing in Jakarta yesterday, so my options were quite limited. I decided to see this one with my wife at the cinema nearest to our home. OK let's get on with the movie now.
Brief Story Line
During one of his mission, Captain McKenna (Boyd Holbrook - Logan, Jane Got A Gun etc) encountered a spaceship that was having the Predator inside it. Worrying that he might be leaking the information about alien, the CIA led by Agent Traeger (Sterling K. Brown - This is Us TV series etc) tried to imprison him. While being transported to the place where he would be locked up, McKenna met with other soldiers to be imprisoned as well. They were the never-afraid-to-die "Nebraska" Williams (Trevante Rhodes - 12 Strong etc), the funny guy Coyle (Keegan Michael Key - Why Him?, Storks etc), the twitching guy Baxley (Thomas Jane - Before I Wake, Dreamcatcher etc), Lynch (Alfie Allen - Game of Thrones TV series etc) and Nettles (Augusto Aguilera).
Meanwhile a renowned biologist Casey (Olivia Munn - The Lego Ninjago Movie, Mortdecai etc) was being asked to assist in the alien analysis by Agent Traeger. However, one thing led to another and Casey would soon be joining McKenna and his new friends to chase after the Predator. Things got further complicated when McKenna's son Rory (Jacob Tremblay - Room, Wonder etc) and his mother Emily (Yvonne Strahovski - Chuck TV series, The Handmaid's Tale TV series etc) were somehow caught in the crossfire with the Alien's chase.
So would this team of "crazy" soldiers be able to stop the Predator's mission? Find them all in this full action movie.
End of Brief Story Line
OK, I got to say that this movie was unlike the usual Predator movies. My first experience of this series was when I saw the original 1987 movie titled Predator with Arnold Schwarzenegger as the lead star. That was one of the coolest experience I ever had watching such movie, cause it was quite horrific then seeing the Predator killing off the soldiers one by one. And at that time the special effects were class A as it was good in term of the camouflage and the really ugly alien face was shocking. That movie honestly left a lot of impression to me as a kid. I did not see the second one (as it did not have Schwarzenegger in it), but I did see the third movie back in 2010 titled Predators with Adrien Brody and I also enjoyed that as it had the same tone and similar plot of hunter being hunted by Predator.
But this movie was having a totally different tone and was taken from different perceptive. First notable difference was the humor which was quite abundant at least after the first half hour. This different approach most likely due to the movie being directed by Shane Black whose works included Iron Man 3 and The Nice Guys (which explained the humors). Second the hunting was done not only in the jungle but also in the city and because it involved the CIA, obviously there would be more people which translated to a lot more victims. The killings by the Predator were all done in really violent fashion and very gore. And there were also a lot of cursing by the cast (including by Jacob Tremblay!). So it's definitely not movie for kids.
Another thing that I felt different was the actual hunting by the Predator (the so called trade mark of these movies) were only towards the end. The early part I felt was a bit too slow and somehow overly complicated. Then the cast introductions in the bus did not feel interesting to me, although the good thing was once they seemed to know each other, the humors were pretty amusing and my wife seemed to enjoy them as well. I also could not help feeling there were a lot of illogical moments (which normally I would not care for science fiction action movies), but this one was a bit disturbing, mostly involving Olivia Munn's character (like how good she was in action when she was supposed to be a biologist, or the scene during the climax battle). The special effects involving the alien was awesome but I did not really like the space ships effects as they did not seem good enough. The sound effects for Dolby 7.1 was quite amazing (I believed Dolby Atmos would give more satisfaction though).
Now I do not mind different approach taken by the film maker on a movie franchise, but being a fan of the original movie, personally I did not have optimum enjoyment watching this one. I felt it was lacking the hunting element and the suspense of people being hunted. In this movie, I somehow did not feel the suspense, because most of the time it was not taken too seriously. However, if we see this as an independent movie and consider it as a brand new movie about Predator, then it might be a good start. It certainly had the potential of having a sequel, especially if you see the ending. Btw, there was no mid or post end credit scenes at all in case you are wondering.
Overall if you are looking for a Predator movie with qualities as I mentioned, you might be better off watching the 1987 original or the 2010 sequel. But if you are looking for a science fiction action movie with some humors here and there, and you don't mind the bit complicated plot & some illogical moments, then you are definitely welcome to give this one a try. I think there is no need to see the previous movies first to understand the story. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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