The Predator film reviews: What are critics saying about The Predator?

Shane Black is in hot water over his choice of extra for The Predator.

With its release imminent in the UK and USA, journalists have turned their attention to the cast list.

Olivia Munn recently, and heroically, spoke out when she discovered a specific scene (now cut) featured an extra who was a registered sex offender with a 2010 conviction for sending pruriently inappropriate emails to a 14-year old relative.

The controversy has, perhaps, had an impact on the movie, with Shane Black coming to defend his repeated casting choice of his friend.

Whether the casting of Steven Wilder Striegel has lingered in reviewers minds will never be known, but here’s what they’re saying.

Right now the movie holds a 48 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the reviews aggregator.

The critics’ consensus reads: “The Predator’s energetic blend of black humour and fast-paced action hits just hard enough to nudge this oft-waylaid franchise back on track while setting up sequels to come.”

Barry Hertz at the Globe and Mail wrote “If the Predator series had to be revisited, it could have ended up in far worse hands than Shane Black’s,” and gave it three out of four stars.

Likewise, A.A. Dowd from the AV club said: “Black has captured the spirit of that bygone era of adrenaline-junkie junk without getting all retro-fussy about it.”

Also positive was Julian Roman for Movie Web: “The Predator is a bloody, shotgun-paced actioner, loaded with expletives. The film entertains, but feels inordinately lighthearted.”

But other reviewers were not so kind.

For Nerdist, Katie Walsh wrote: “Black may be a part of this franchise’s origins, but as the messy, chaotic, and convoluted The Predator proves, he’s not the right filmmaker to shepherd this property to its next evolution.”

ScreenRant’s Sandy Schaefer wrote: “The Predator aims to revitalize the sci-fi action franchise with fresh ideas, but succeeds at delivering mindless action more than cohesive mythology.”

Time Out writer Joshua Rothkopf said: “It’s aggressively pacey, overloaded with smug one-liners, gore-laden and unlikely to have much of a future.”

The premise of The Predator begins with a young boy, Rory McKenna, living in the suburbs with his single mother.

He accidentally triggers an alert which brings the return of the Predators to Earth.

The universe’s most lethal hunters are now stronger, smarter and deadlier than ever before, having upgraded themselves with DNA from other alien species.

The official synopsis adds: “Only a ragtag crew of ex-soldiers and a disgruntled science teacher can prevent the end of the human race.”

The trailer shows Quinn, played by Boyd Holbrook, being picked up to assemble the team to take down the Predator.

His rag-tag team are a real-life suicide squad; a jumble of mental health issues and risk-taking behaviours whose special skills and instability make them just the right men (and woman!) for this kind of death mission.

Whether the movie can pull itself out of the mire of controversy remains to be seen.

And once the theatrical release allows for more reviews, the rotten tomatoes score is bound to change.

Until then, you’ll have to wait one more day to see for yourself.

The Predator is in UK cinemas on September 12, 2018.