When a young boy accidentally triggers the universe's most lethal hunters' return to Earth, only a ragtag crew of ex-soldiers and a disgruntled scientist can prevent the end of the human race.
Review
Like the Alien franchise, Predator has a long running history. Put into it's most basic terms, the predator species hunt those who are worthy for sport. This is seen in all three predator movies pre-dating this one, in AVP, and AVPR although with mythology expanded. Writer / director Shane Black (Iron Man 3) has tried to expand further - giving new motivations to the actions of the species, and trying new "subsets" of them.Sadly, the story telling aspect of the movie fails badly. Black's direction is solid enough, but the writing is weird to the point of flaw. Just about everything from global warming to autism to the kitchen sink are thrown in, to what likely should have been a big game hunt movie. The human antagonists swirl their mustaches, while predator dogs get shot in the head becoming domesticated...it's all a little strange.
The cast are pretty solid - doing well with what they are given - but it felt like Black was trying to recreate the rag-tag misfit feel of the team from the first film in the franchise, who were a tight team to begin with, ready to lay down their lives for each other - and in this, they had only just met, but aside from a couple of expositional dialogues seemed to feel the same way. None of it gelled the way it should have.
It's mindlessly a fun movie, but does nothing for the franchise. I doubt it will be the franchise killer, but may stall another sequel for some years - perhaps even being used as a push off to allow a remake. Which would be sad.
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