The Predator promises to bring back an iconic franchise and take it back to its roots. Writer/director Shane Black is returning to the series since his role as Hawkins in the original film. And if the trailer we saw is any indication, fans are going to be very happy with this newest installment.
Check out our reaction and trailer description below.
Not Your Daddy’s Predator
The trailer starts with a young boy (Jacob Tremblay) opening a package in a basement. He pulls out a giant piece of technology — possibly an arm cannon or mask? — and a smaller piece detaches from it. He plays with it like a spaceship and then the footage cuts back and forth to an actual Predator ship landing in Earth’s atmosphere. It’s a cute and effective scene that perfectly demonstrates Shane Black’s aptitude for blending comedy with whatever genre he’s working in.
The rest of the trailer is framed around an interview with a special forces sniper (Boyd Holbrook) who is being asked if he feels like a stranger on his own planet. “You mean, like an alien,” he replies. Turns out he and his team were at the crash site for the spaceship. We see them investigating the site and coming across the iconic Predator mask.
Things move pretty fast after that. We see the special forces team which includes Keegan-Michael Key and a laboratory featuring a scientist played by Olivia Munn. Then, the Predator shows up and starts wrecking house. There is a shot of a lab technician getting sliced open and his blood spraying against a window. Fun!
But, the big reveal comes from Olivia Munn’s character. “They seem to be hybridizing,” she says. She discovers that the Predator species has been evolving with each planet they visit. They seem to be assimilating DNA as they go about their hunts and that is making them stronger. This is a huge addition to the Predator mythology. It’ll be interesting to see exactly how that changes the entire franchise. Also, it means we’re probably going to see some kind of human-Predator hybrid. Reminds me of the Newborn from Alien Resurrection. Take that however you want (I love Alien Resurrection).
A Studio Film Style
The plot of the film looks great but the look of the film left something to be desired. It has a very distinct studio sheen to it. Things look very uniform and polished in an unexciting way. We didn’t see any of the clever direction that Black brought to films like Iron Man 3 and The Nice Guys. Hopefully, that stuff is in the film and just doesn’t cut well into a trailer. We did get a VERY Shane Black line to close out the trailer. Olivia Munn is asked, “You’re pretty handy with a gun. Where did you learn to shoot?” Her reply: “America.” A little groan-inducing but in an enjoyable way.
Otherwise, The Predator looks to be the movie fans have been wanting for a long time. It’s doing something new with the mythology and still seems like it will deliver the grisly, big scale action that made the first film a bonafide classic.
The Predator opens in theaters on September 14 in the US and UK.
