Army Ranger sniper Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook) witnesses his team get wiped out by a Predator (who crash lands on Earth) during a hostage rescue mission. McKenna injuries the Predator and escapes, but he manages to take some of the Predator's gear and has it mailed to his post office box in the United States before the government rounds him up. Secret government agent Will Traeger (Sterling K. Brown) takes the injured Predator to a secret government lab at a remote dam. He recruits evolutionary biologist Casey Bracket (Olivia Munn) to help study it. Discoveries are made about what the Predators are doing with DNA of other species. Meanwhile, McKenna meets a group of crazy PTSD soldiers he dubs the Loonies. They are transported to the secret lab because Casey wants to question McKenna before the government lobotomizes him.

While these events are happening, McKenna's package gets delivered to his estranged wife's house because he didn't pay up on his P.O. Box and his autistic son Rory opens his dad's package and starts to quickly learn the predator's armor's operating language like it is a code to break. Rory accidentally activates a signal that alerts another Predator to come to Earth to hunt the injured Predator who escaped from the rest of the Predators with a special cargo. The injured Predator awakens at the lab and breaks from its bonds to go on to kill several people in the people, but it spares Casey. Casey soon must team up with McKenna and his Loonies to track down the injured Predator and the stolen technology, but they have walked into a big mess with the secret government agency on one end and the other Predator on the other end.

THE PREDATOR is the fourth movie in the Predator series which takes place somewhere between PREDATOR 2 and PREDATORS. It has great character writing and direction, but the story fumbles as it wastes several opportunities to develop a great sequel. It becomes a big budget B movie with plenty of loose ends and a MacGuffin reveal ending that sets up a possible sequel. I know 20th Century Fox and other circumstances had led to various things being changed in the movie from the script to reshooting the third act's climax due to poor test screenings. Shane Black originally wanted Arnold Schwarzenegger's character of Dutch to return, but Arnold passed on what might have been just a cameo. THE PREDATOR ends up being an entertaining popcorn flick sequel that is better than PREDATOR 2, but it the original PREDATOR and PREDATORS outshines THE PREDATOR. If there is another movie in the PREDATOR series, I hope the next writer manages to fully develop the story and expands upon the mythology in the first four movies and the ALIEN VS. PREDATOR movies instead of an undercooked B movie which feels like a 1980s/ 1990s nostalgia trip you would rent from the video store on VHS.

SPECIAL FETAURES:
Three deleted scenes and outtakes reel of one of the characters- I am surprised they didn't include some of the stuff they reshot in the third act to change the tone (and talk about how it changed to what you see in the theatrical cut)

A TOUCH OF BLACK- the focus is on Director/ Co-Writer Shane Black from being an actor in the original Predator movie and what he brought to the new movie as a director (and co-writer)
PREDATOR EVOLUTION- a look at the man in the Predator suit and what they did to create the Predator for the movie
THE TAKEDOWN TEAM- focus on the main characters- McKenna and the Loonies
PREDATOR CATCH-UP- a ten minute recap of the other three movies in the PREDATOR series (not including the ALIEN vs PREDATOR movies)

Pre-production Art Gallery
Theatrical teaser and two theatrical trailers
Previews for three other 20th Century Fox releases including DEADPOOL 2

FINAL ANALYSIS: THE PRADTOR isn't a bad movie that has good action, likeable characters, and Easter eggs to previous movies. It just doesn't really break new ground except for the final scene hinting at an interesting sequel beyond this movie. I wish they had more extensive extras going in more detail of the development of the movie, the production, and how it changed in post-production with reshoots. Maybe we will get a special edition of THE PREDATOR in the future when the Disney and 20th Century Fox deal is done; and Disney allows another company to license it.

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