4 Star

Nº1 Just got an Upgrade.

From having a supporting role in the first film of the franchise, to writing some of our favourite films of the 80’s-90’s (Lethal Weapon 1 and 2, Last Action Hero) and now directing the 4th film of the franchise, Shane Black (Iron Man 3) brings in the producer of the first three films John Davis (Predator, Waterworld, I, Robot), so this 4th instalment has true pedigree and takes the story of humans vs the number one hunter in the galaxy forward into the 21st century.

In space no one can hear a space battle. A ship is being chased by a similar ship but the first one opens a rift in space and appears above planet Earth. It has been damaged by the other ship and is going down and the occupant gets into the escape pod and ejects, leaving the ship to it’s own fate.

Mexico at night and ranger Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook, The Host, Logan, Jane Got a Gun) has Mexican drug people in his sniper sight on a hostage rescue mission.

Just as he takes out the first kidnapper, the escape pod crashes into a communications tower and comes tumbling down on Quinn’s position.

Quinn finds the downed pod and as he searches through it he finds parts of the Predators armour, his helmet and bracer, which spits out as small sphere that can make you invisible. However, the Predator does what all the other Predators have done and they take out Quinn’s squad. But with the bracer on his arm, Quinn is able to injure the Predator (Brian A. Prince) and make his escape with his booty, which gets posted Stateside and ends up at his estranged wife’s house. Just as government agent Will Traeger (Sterling K. Brown, Black Panther, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot) flies in his helicopter with his black ops team and he captures the injured Predator. Traeger pulls in evolutionary biologist Casey Bracket (Olivia Munn, X-Men: Apocalypse, Iron Man 2) to study it.

Quinn is put into the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Chattanooga, Tennessee for a psych evaluation, or just to say space alien so Traeger can get rid of him, so he is shipped off in a bus with other soldiers suffering with some form of PTSD. On the bus with him include former Marines Gaylord “Nebraska” Williams (Trevante Rhodes, Bird Box, 12 Strong), Coyle (Keegan-Michael Key, Win It All, Keanu)  Baxley (Thomas Jane, Deep Blue Sea, Give ’em Hell Malone) Lynch (Alfie Allen, John Wick, Game of Thrones) and Army helicopter pilot Nettles (Augusto Aguilera, Snowfall (TV Series)).

At Emily’s (Yvonne Strahovski, I, Frankenstein, Killer Elite)  house her son Rory McKenna (Jacob Tremblay, The Smurfs 2, Before I Wake) takes a package from the army delivery man. Rory is autistic and he is picked on at school so he spends most of his time in the basement playing video games and when he opens the package he thinks the part that comes of the bracer is a game and starts to learn the alien language.

The bus gets an order to divert to where the predator is being kept sedated as Traeger and Brackett study the (‘sport hunter’) Predator and she realises that the race is trying to improve themselves by becoming hybrids using the best bits of the dominant species of each planet.

“Before you lobotomise him, I’d like to ask him a few questions,”

When the bus gets near the secret base the Predator comes awake and starts killing the scientists and anyone with a gun, but leaves a naked Brackett alive as it makes its way to the surface. This is when ‘Group 2’ in the bus become a squad when they see for themselves Quinn’s space alien.

Everybody is after the predator, Quinn, Traeger and other Predators as it and the others race to get the Predators equipment. See what is in the future for the Predator franchise. Considering the length of time between the original and the two sequels 1987-2010 it is understandable this incarnation got mixed reviews, but it has the pedigree to go forward and stand with its predecessors.

The Predator is available on Blu-ray and DVD