I don’t know about you, but when I see a Predator movie, I’m in it for a moving message about climate change.
Anyone…?
Anyone…?
Well, that’s what you get if you go see the new Predator movie. Now there’s not really much to write as a review for a movie like this…you know what you’re getting into and what you’re signing up for, you just hope that they give you what you’re paying for in a fun, interesting, and possibly compelling manner. The original Predator movie was definitely scary and intense. I haven’t re-watched it recently, but I have re-watched it several times, and it has held up each time. It’s the perfect balance of camp, action, and suspense, as well as a splendid primary source for 80s one-liners. Needless to say, I’m a big fan.
All I wanted or expected from this movie was a few mindless action scenes and some unoriginal but fun kick-assery. Unfortunately the action was more mindless and the kick-assery was even less original and fun than I had hoped (as opposed to, say, the last two Mission: Impossible movies, which I highly recommend for compelling action). But the Big Annoying Thing That I Can’t Ignore had to show its ugly face again: blatant political messaging from some more “very brave” Hollywood writers. It’s not spoiling anything to say that a major plot point revolves around the Predators coming to earth because of climate change. It’s even painfully and obviously belabored for the better part of a minute as one by one the characters awaken to the “totally obvious” realization that we only have a generation or two left of a habitable earth, and that the inescapable Predator Logic is drawing them here to replace us once our time is up.
I’m sorry, but can I just go to one f’ing movie without getting “messaged” hard right in my face?
*insert your own imaginary gif for this*
*sigh*
I guess not. It seems now like nearly every time I go to the movies I’m going have some moral authority in Hollywood telling me what and how to think. I don’t know if it’s worse when it’s subtle or when it’s overt, but I’m pretty sure most people aren’t noticing either way, and are just absorbing it all as “patently true” social commentary. As I’ve stated before, the nonstop 24/7 political messaging in nearly all television and film is a propaganda machine/weapon that fascist regimes of the 20th century could only dream of. And no, any one instance is not that big of a deal, nor too much of a cause for outrage. It’s the cumulative effect of hundreds of these message a year and thousands of them over the course of years, subliminally sneaking is as “normal” and “RightThink.” If this doesn’t bother you because you’re liberal and think it is indeed the right way to think, and people need to be told as much, just reverse the polarity of the messaging and think about how you’d view, for example, the nationalistic or imperialistic or anti-communist/anti-liberal or pro-war social messaging and conditioning of the early and mid 20th century being broadcast in almost every sort of media that people consume, all day, every day.
Alright, this otherwise awful movie has already taken up too many words and too much time. But as movies are a passion of mine, I wanted to take the time to make a note of this for the record, to add this entry to the ledger of obvious Hollywood brainwashing. The movie is regrettably not worth seeing on its merits apart from this (and I would recommend it if it was), so for any 80s/Ahnald fans who may be looking forward to a fun, campy stroll down Memory Lane, I’ll just say:
Symposium 
Climate change is just the major environmental struggle of today and movies reflect that. Before it was nuclear winter (still the biggest threat in my mind). I disagree that it’s political or rather that it should be. Climate change is and should be about science. It’s unfortunate that rather than having a productive debate on what to do practically it’s turned into a polarizing position. Also, the earth won’t be uninhabitable globally. Worst predictions from climate models have just parts of the currently inhabited earth as becoming too hot for human life. The larger issue is mass migration and how we’ll handle that as a world. Judging from previous refugee crises, not well.
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It’s political when they put it into a movie, because they’re making themselves part of “the message.” It’s no different than when they make rich people twirl their mustaches and laugh about starving poor people in movies with an anti-capitalism message. It’s political because it’s part of the left-leaning religion of the Hollywood writers. If you pay attention, you’ll see political messages of all kinds in many movies and tv shows.
And the issue is political because people want to radically change how our global economy works in order to prevent what they think is the end of the world.
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