[wpdevart_youtube]50_Ala5BKBo[/wpdevart_youtube] THE PREDATOR ****
Dir: Shane Black (15, 123 mins)
After a string of very underwhelming sequels, from Alien Vs Predator to Predators, director Shane Black gets back to basics with a no-holds-barred thrill fest that reclaims the weird-faced alien slaughter machine for a new generation. A young boy, played by Room’s Jacob Tremblay, inadvertently triggers the Predator’s return to Earth. This isn’t the Predator of old, however – it’s had an upgrade, combining the DNA of all the species it has hunted down, 10 feet tall with spines, organic armour and it still has that scary split-apart mandible face. A ragtag band of military misfits called the Loonies end up squaring off against it, including the likes of Thomas Jane, Alfie Allen, Keegan-Michael Key, Boyd Holbrook and Trevante Rhodes, alongside Olivia Munn’s evolutionary biologist who knows a thing or two about kicking ass. Sterling K. Brown is on charismatic baddie duties acquiring objects from the sky for a shady government company, tasked with keeping the Predator’s visits to Earth a secret and conducting experiments of his own. A hymn to the 1987 original with less bulging oily biceps and homo-eroticism, The Predator should prove an essential genre watch for any fans of the original. Let’s hope at some point they all have to “get to da chopper”, in infrared, covered in fluorescent alien blood.
Opens Sept 12