In this fourth instalment, I’m slightly concerned at the lack of an attached name in the cast. I’m not usually concerned about big name stars, but films like this often have them and The Predator being bereft suggests no one was interested. Granted, look at the posters. Only Arnie got top billing, ever since, it’s the monster that’s been the star. Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook) is the first to encounter a crash landing Predator. He’s an army dude, who’s now seen too much. Traeger (Sterling K. Brown), he’s the government bad guy who’s read the files and wants to capture the returning visitor, whilst denying its existence to the public. So far so standard. Enter Rory (Jacob Tremblay), gifted kid and Quinn’s estranged son. He lives in small town America, where he’s bullied at school for being autistic. This might actually have some depth. His mum, Emily (Yvonne Strahovski) throws me for a second until I realise she was the evil woman in The Handmaids Tale. She’s much nicer here. We also have an actual space expert too in Casey (Olivia Munn) who’s picked up mid dog walk to help out, but the focus is on Quinn and Rory. Despite being a solider, Quinn isn’t good with orders or things like removing evidence, so he mails a fancy alien bracelet and mask he finds to young Rory, who presses a button and sparks a Predator invasion. Excellent. Winding up in a military asylum, Quinn meets a cast of walking tropes, the ones to watch being Coyle (Keegan-Micheal Key) and Nebraska (Trevante Rhodes), who’s playing a very different role to the one in Moonlight. Meanwhile poor Casey is lead to a top secret underground bunker where Gary Busey’s son, Jake is pretending to be a scientist. They’ve got a Predator from the crash on ice. This might all seem convoluted and it’s certainly clunky. You really don’t have to think, but that’s nothing new with this franchise. The question is, is it fun. Well, it kinda is. The Predator escapes. Of course he does and he’s headed for Rory who’s got his stuff. Cue Quinn and his mates to the rescue, with the help of Casey. With a bigger badder Predator arriving in a spaceship with his dogs, it’s not short on action. It’s not short on comedy either. Not great comedy, but it might make you smile if not laugh. It’s as much aligned with ET and Flight of the Navigator as it is a Predator film. It’s silly, it’s ridiculous, utterly bonkers in fact, but it does have some heart and its characters are genuinely likeable. The Predators are evolving, getting even more deadly and usually this would mean everyone gets picked off one by one, simple. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not complicated, but when I said it’s kinda fun, I meant it. Daft one liners and a lot of gore turn out to be more engaging than you’d think. I’m sure the purists, if they exist, will hate this, but more fool them. It’s a rollercoaster and holds nothing back. I genuinely enjoyed it. Who needs a big star action hero!
7/10
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