I finally got to see The Predator last night, my thoughts? No way near as bad as the final batch of reviews were claiming. I think the Empire mag review is probably the fairest (quite unlike them tbh) - yes, it's occasionally messy and often looks like there was a better film underneath the (possibly unnecessary) reshoots.
The whole thing reminded me of an 80's / 90's Blockbuster video rental - something that didn't make it to theatres but you'd pick off the shelf to keep you amused on a Tuesday afternoon (remember the Barbarian Brothers? Maniac Cop?). The main difference being The Predator clearly had some money thrown at it.
Couple of questions; What happened to the Bulldog (last seen dashing to the little boy) and what happened to the Predator dog? I know, "who cares?" But they're examples of niggling things that were never tied up that undermine the films narrative. I'm surprised that Shane Black, with all of his experience, allowed the release of this messy edit. Maybe he didn't, maybe the producer's took over.
Shout outs to the cast; they were fantastic, but evidently struggling with the volume of material. I would have lost a couple of the characters to allow Sterling K. Brown etc to breathe.
6/10 for me - not horrendous, but not a patch on the classic either...I doubt we'll ever see the sequel the final scene promises (that was pure 80's btw!)
