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FILM | SUNDAY • 16 SEPTEMBER 2018 maltatoday 10 IT'S safe to say that the Preda- tor enjoys a privileged posi- tion in the pantheon of movie monsters. The stealthy and ef- ficiently brutal alien hunter who first debuted in 1987 courtesy of John McTiernan's eponymous, Arnold Schwarzenegger-star- ring action-horror-sci-fi classic can confidently rub shoulders with the likes of Dracula, Frank- enstein and, of course, 20th Century Fox's other iconic creepy offering – the xenom- orphs of the Alien franchise, with whom the Predator has duked it out in countless comic books and video games; a slug- fest that even extended into two (disappointing) cinematic for- ays in the early noughties (Alien vs Predator and Alien vs Preda- tor: Requiem). Now, writer-director Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, Iron Man III) returns to the fran- chise that marked his main- stream debut... at least, as an actor. Yes, Black was actually among the unfortunate crew mowed down by the Predator in the jungle that marked the creature's battleground in that iconic first film, playing the be- spectacled Rick Hawkins along- side a felicitously put-together cast crowned by Arnie. And what should have been a triumphant Hollywood arc – that actor subsequently became the go-to name for action-com- edy directing, making his return to the Predator franchise a truly poetic thing – seems to have been quashed by a lack of con- fidence on the part of the stu- dio. Though it may be tonally uneven and at times a tad too chaotic for its own good, Black's film certainly did not deserve the buzz-killing trailer it got a month or so ago, and neither should it have been dumped during the blockbuster dead zone month of September. Penned by Fred Dekker and Black himself, the story gets rolling down its pulpy, messy way straight away, as hardened Army Ranger Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holdbrook) witnesses a rouge Predator while scoping out a drug pick-up – an inci- dent that leads to at least one dismembered colleague and Quinn in the centre of a cov- er-up. Mailing the remnants of the Predator armour to his estranged wife Emily (Yvonne Strahovski) and autistic son Rory (Jacob Tremblay) – like you do – Quinn ends up tagged, bagged and put on a prison bus with other military undesira- bles. Among them are Gaylord 'Nebraska' Williams (Trevante Rhodes), Lynch (Alfie Allen), Coyle (Keegan-Michael Key), Baxley (Thomas Jane) and Net- tles (Augusto Aguilera). But the Predator – soon revealed to be one among several keen to cap- ture the original rogue and es- tablish dominance – is keen to collect, and poor Rory ends up in his cross-hairs after he mis- takes daddy's package for a fun video game. Fighting to evade the mili- tary – led with mint-chomping, amoral gusto by Will Traeger (Sterling K. Brown) – with the help of scientist Casey Bracket (Olivia Munn) the rag-tag team of mad losers are pitted for a collision course with a preter- naturally strong and agile inter- galactic enemy... and their dogs. Schlocky to its core and pack- ing more one-liners than any Marvel romp would deign to shake an infinity gauntlet at, The Predator is not a film to be taken all that seriously... but it's all the more fun for it. Wisely deciding not to attempt the fool's errand of emulating the first film, Black keeps things quick, breezy and brutal, while still throwing a couple of jokey nods to John MacTiernan's classic. There are leaps in logic and lo- gistics aplenty, and you get the impression that the characters exist to be repositories of gags rather than fully fleshed out roles – the magic ingredient of the 1987 debut film, it must be said. Still, viewers will get bang for their buck aplenty here, in a way that differs from the fastidious and overly-cautious franchise-building fare of other tentpole blockbusters. In fact, perhaps delaying the film even further would have been the thing. If anything, this hilarious and blood soaked ac- tion-sci-fi-horror romp would have gone down a treat for Hal- loween. Returning to the franchise in which he first appeared as a bespectacled supporting actor, co-writer and director Shane Black crafts an unapologetically schlocky comeback for everyone's favourite dreadlocked interstellar trophy hunter PREDATOR PREDATOR 2 PREDATORS ALIEN VS PREDATOR ALIEN VS PREDATOR: REQUIEM T H E P R E D ATO R ( 15 ) Teodor Reljic ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ The verdict Critically panned for the most part and unceremoniously dumped during the inauspicious month of September, Shane Black's The Predator nonetheless remains a gleeful slice of contemporary B- movie film-making. Sure, it may not display the most disciplined storytelling you're likely to see, but as a showcase of action, gore and on-point humour it's hard to beat. Where other blockbusters and busy building meticulously con- structed franchises, Black gives us the gift of pure chaos – and it's a joyous experience for those look- ing for that sort of thing. The alien hunter comes to suburbia Out of this world The Predator (Brian A. Prince) has no time to waste in this fourth installment of the action-horror-sci-fi franchise that carries his name