‘The Predator’ brings nothing good to the people of Earth

Angel Rosas, News Editor

No amount of “your mom” jokes or machine guns can save this fundamentally flawed attempt at entertainment.

This most recent installment of the “Predator” series continues the long-standing tradition of finding a beloved franchise from 80s and trying to bring it to the present.

Director Shane Black brings back the meathead mentality of the first film of the series.

Although Black was part of the cast of the original 1987 film, his modern interpretation of the material, using the tried-and-true format of making everything bigger and bloodier in the sequel, somehow does not translate well.

The pacing and continuity of character traits makes this a weak entry in the iconic franchise.

The ‘story’ follows a team of ragtag soldiers as they attempt to survive the titular alien invaders who come to Earth with unknown motives.

They attempted to mix up the worn-out narrative of being picked off, one by one, in succession by the predator by adding some new character interactions and more backstory to the aliens.

But as you can probably already guess, those scenes seemed forced and out of place.

Even the action scenes went nowhere and added nothing new or fun. There was an entire two-minute scene where everyone was shooting and absolutely nothing happened as a result.

The only saving grace of the film was the cast. There is a ton of fun to be had with the banter between the outcast soldiers.

However, Olivia Munn’s character, Casey Bracket, seems out of place. She is supposed to be a scientist sent to study the alien. Then, suddenly becomes a foul-mouthed action hero.

The crude language takes me back to the middle school lunch tables where nothing was off limits — let that also be a warning.

But as mentioned before, the adolescent humor and intense gore could not save this action flick even though it might make your inner 12-year-old giggle.

The lack of tension, save for one moment toward the beginning, and the boring action scenes left not a single memorable moment.

However, my main gripe with the movie was the rushed ending and the shoehorned post-credit scene.

The ending was so choppy and disorganized I honestly thought the movie was going to end three different times, but to my disappointment it continued.

In short, skip this one. Wait for it to come out on streaming if you want to see some elite soldier guts spilling in every other scene.