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The Predator: Given how this movie ended, it seems that they certainly have ideas about taking this franchise further. So we can probably expect more movies like this one.
And when I say more movies like this one, I mean much like some of its predecessors, a perfectly good concept that is – unlike most of the victims of the iconic space alien – executed very poorly.
Not only did the very first Predator movie have the wisecracking Arnie at the helm surrounded by a fantastic cast of quirky equally tough characters, but it also had that all-important mystery wrapped up in a lot of tension. We knew nothing of this killing machine that was hunting elite soldiers in the Central American jungle.
We didn’t know exactly what it could do and thanks to some rather nifty light-bending technology, we couldn’t even see what it looked like until much later in the movie when Arnold took that most stealthy of weapons out of its arsenal.
Speaking of arsenals, The Arsenal could very well do with a bit of a bolster to their defence too. I digress….
So, now we know all about these aliens, their capabilities and even a bit about their history in relation to our history. So the intrigue is gone right off the bat. So now we need bigger, better and bolder ideas and reasons to make good stories.
In Predator 2, we were taken from the jungle into the city of LA and rather than an elite soldier we had an ageing cop. Hmmm…. *chin scratch* ….not a bad way to go and a decent enough follow-up to one of the greatest science fiction movies of all time. One particular highlight in that sequel was the Easter egg near the end letting us know quite categorically that the Predator and another iconic alien….the Alien, existed in the same universe.
Brilliant, enter Alien Vs Predator.
Not everybody’s cup of little green tea, but there were two amazing alien creations having a right old ding-dong for our viewing pleasure in a non-pretentious nicely paced movie with an historical subplot to see who was the biggest and baddest alien life form in the galaxy. The Predators and the Aliens fought draw and in the end it turned out to be Sanaa Lathan, so that sorted that.
Nothing overly complicated and everyone is quite happy.
Alien Vs Predator: Requiem. The PredAlien! A hybrid between the two! What a great idea! What great potential! But….oh dear, could they have made a worse movie in the ongoing franchise? I think not.
It was preddy bad. See what I did there?
Then in Predators, Adrien Brody and a merry band of the baddest evil-doing murdering monsters from this planet are transported to PredatorWorld where they are hunted on the Pred home turf for a change. Then we see bigger Predators and scary Pred Dogs.
Ooh, scary Pred Dogs. Not really.
A great concept and again, executed badly. Very badly indeed. Let’s not even talk about loony Laurence Fishburne’s part in that debacle.
And now in The Predator, the bigger Predators are back chasing smaller Predators and so are the Pred Dogs in yet another weak attempt at somehow emulating the inaugural greatness of the Predator franchise, with quips that fall dismally flat and a team of quirky blokes that you couldn’t care less about if you tried.
It all fails miserably in a movie that jumps all over the place and has you thinking “What the bloody hell is going on here?” for most of it.
The Predators again have interesting designs on us and our beautiful blue and green planet, but alas they’ve left their grandiose designs to a bunch of moviemakers that really couldn’t tell a story properly even if they were sat around a cosy campfire. Of all the planets in the universe, please go and visit some that have some good screenwriters, get them to make a movie, and send it here please.
As I say, the end actually promises yet another good idea from our dreadlocked friends from outer space, but I’m quite sure that will equally disappoint.
What did you think of this film? Let me know in the comments below.
The Predator is available to pre-order on Blu-ray, Amazon Video, 4K Blu-ray and DVD.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 107 minutes
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Year: 2018
Format: 2.39:1 (ARRIRAW (3.4K))
Released: September 12th 2018
Rating: 4/10
Director: Shane Black
Producers: John Davis and Lawrence Gordon
Screenplay: Fred Dekker and Shane Black
Based on characters created by: Jim Thomas and John Thomas
Music: Henry Jackman
Cast:
Quinn McKenna: Boyd Holbrook
Nebraska Williams: Trevante Rhodes
Rory McKenna: Jacob Tremblay
Coyle: Keegan-Michael Key
Casey Bracket: Olivia Munn
Traeger: Sterling K Brown
Baxley: Thomas Jane
Lynch: Alfie Allen
Nettles: Augusto Aguilera
Keyes: Jake Busey
Emily: Yvonne Strahovski
Predator: Brian Prince