The Predator Review: 5 Ups & 6 Downs

1. The Garbled Mental Health Message Doesn't Quite Land

To get this out of the way first, what Shane Black has TRIED to do with his Aspergers/Autism message embedded in Jacob Tremblay's subplot is really quite admirable. For anyone with children on the spectrum, he's essentially made a superhero just for them (and a positive message about the bullsh*t idea of there being inherent limits to what they can do). But that aside, the rest of the film's portrait of mental health issues is plainly repugnant.

The members of the team that Holbrook's hero ends up a part of are veterans all suffering from some form of mental trauma and unfortunately, that's used as fuel to mock them. Thomas Jane's Tourettes sufferer is roundly and distastefully mocked, Trevante Rhodes' failed suicide attempt is a punchline and PTSD is used as a stand-in for "slightly cookie". There's also a line about the use of the word "retarded" and a gag about Jane unwittingly saying something sexual to Olivia Munn that is WAY too close to the bone.

This is not clever writing and it's not something that anyone should have to see in a film in 2018. Not least when the film tries at other times to be "progressive."

What did you think of The Predator? Share your thoughts below in the comments thread.