The Predator

"Homages to the 1980s are a dime a dozen these days, but here’s a film that salutes the decade in sentiment as much as aesthetic. Fifty-six year-old writer/director Shane Black, who had a small on-screen role in the original 1987 Predator (released the same year his first film as a writer, Lethal Weapon, became a hit) is a kind of trash-talking Peter Pan auteur: the action junkie and banter-maker who never grew up, and whose style is synonymous with the era he professionally came of age."

"Writer-director Shane Black has seemingly set out to make the biggest, loudest, popcorn-munching-est, most audience-friendly (while still R-rated) Predator film he possibly could. To do so, he’s stuffed it full—too full—of Black-ian quips and gags, a potentially confusing number of characters, intersecting narratives, and callbacks to 1987’s Predator, many of which fall right on the line between cheer-inducing and groan-causing."

"It's an exhaustingly energetic mess in which a coherent plot and credible characters aren't even on the cluttered menu."

"What Black's movie really has going for it is pace. It starts with a crash, followed swiftly by a bang and vast swathes of wallop. The relentlessness doesn't allow you any time to catch a yawn, but it's also not too conducive to tension or suspense."

"It's aggressively pacey, overloaded with smug one-liners, gore-laden and unlikely to have much of a future."

"The frat house atmosphere eventually gives way to tedious bloodletting. In that regard, "The Predator" hasn't evolved at all."

"Black populates his film with recognisable tropes and character types as well a grand throwback score, and there's a certain charm in his ability to conjure up the past without resorting to pastiche."

"The Predator is a lesson in exactly how to trash the memory of a risible, but loveable original."

"Black's movie is so cleverly over-the-top that it's easy and pleasurable enough to watch, though never exactly scary or suspenseful."

"There are sparks of Shane Black's humour and style lining up with the brutality and bite of the 1987 original, but they are few and far between because the end product feels misguided, and like it's been sliced and diced to the point of semi-incoherence."