Shane Black has consistently been one of the best action-comedy directors in Hollywood. From the start of his career as the writer of Lethal Weapon to his directorial efforts of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Iron Man 3, and one of my favorites, The Nice Guys, Black has continued to capture audiences with jaw-dropping action and sharp-pitch black humor. When he was announced as the director for The Predator, I was incredibly thrilled. His effort would be something to reboot the franchise, in my mind. Even with the problematic casting of a convicted sex offender, and all the controversy surrounding it (his scenes were removed in post-production) I still was ecstatic to see what Black could do with our favorite alien killer. All I can say was, everything I thought this movie would be was absolutely wrong.
The Predator has absolutely no plot, has disjointed and flat-out offensive comedy, and no touch or taste at all. Thee jokes in the screenplay make it feel like it was written by College frat boys who took a break in between writing Old Row blog posts. There was literally a shot where the camera focused in on a house number that said 420. Do I have to say more? Using crude, inaccurate stereotypes of various illnesses such as Tourette's Syndrome, PTSD, and Autism Spectrum Disorder, the film's way of portraying and creating and continuation of mental health stigmas for the pleasure of the audience was absolutely disgusting. Olivia Wilde has since made comments about being the only primary female character on the set. This was various obvious that almost no females were present on the set. One of the scenes dealt with a scenario in which was a flat-out approval of rape culture, and the reasoning for why we need to Me-Too Movement. There were incredible moments where there were nudity and gore for absolutely no reason to move the plot forward, but the approve to the dimwitted, low-IQ minds this film was so obviously prepared for. I don't expect a Predator movie to have a lot of smarts, but I expected so much more than the sheer idiocracy displayed throughout that miserable 2 hours I sat in the theatre.
I want to say a few redeeming things about the movie. The only performances I remotely enjoyed where Trevante Rhodes, who proves he is not a one-trick pony after his success in Moonlight. Sterling K. Brown did the best he could with the miserable screenplay and proves he should be in more starring roles. The actor I feel most disgusted for is little Jacob Tremblay. the actor has proved that he is worth so much more than erroneous and unnecessary films like that. His presence as a foul-mouthed, poorly written child with Autism Spectrum Disorder, which was mislabeled as "Asberger's" and "retarded" in the film, which are both defunct terms. This film's role for him almost set up several sessions for Tremblay's eventual counseling for the pitfalls he will face as a child -star in Hollywood.
I have never wanted to walk out of a movie as much as I did to this disjointed and unpalatable movie. This is coming who sat through Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. By the end of the film, I wanted to build a time machine to throw back Shane Black into the 1980's, where is poor style would obviously work. His entire filmography means near to nothing to me now, and I wish I was graced with new eyeballs and a new brain after seeing this poor excuse for a movie.
Score: 3/10
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