Shane Black Directing Predator Sequel! - Part 2

[TheVileOne]

All that is a lot to reconcile. If Holbrook were at least part of Stargazer then it would make sense but then they would have to find a way to get him into the prison bus too. I also wondered about that microscope thinking there is no way it would be powerful enough for her to get that kind of detail from it. And an even bigger headache is the kid with autism who is a genius and can learn to read Predator language in a few hours like it was a simple language.

Don't get me started on that kid who is also a bloody murderer.

 

[moviedoors]

The kid is easily my least favorite character, and not because of the performance, but conceptually. I thought we as a people had all agreed to stop with the autism-as-super-power trope in the 90's. It's such a tired, played-out, borderline insensitive cliche.

 

[The Infernal]

You'd have thought an autistic kid would have freaked out at something that noisy and traumatic, but he's only autistic when convenient. In the third act he turns into the chatty/cheeky 'my dad is gonna save me/kill you' which contradicts his characterisation they established earlier on.

 

[AlcoonSlambag]

I still can't believe the Predator's goal in this is to actualize a 4chan meme.

What's next, a Predator arrives on Earth to hunt in Kekistan, only to discover to his dismay that it doesn't exist?

 

[Marvolo]

The kid is easily my least favorite character, and not because of the performance, but conceptually. I thought we as a people had all agreed to stop with the autism-as-super-power trope in the 90's. It's such a tired, played-out, borderline insensitive cliche.

I'm not sure I'd call it insensitive to portray autistic kids as intelligent. And there is evidence from studies by cambridge and other teams that shows autistic traits show up more frequently in fields of science, math, engineering etc. So there may in fact be a link between autism and higher than normal intelligence. Studies have also found likely genetic links between autism and genus levels of intelligence.

 

[Teelie]

Don't get me started on that kid who is also a bloody murderer.

I forgot that part. He's an accidental murderer too.

 

[Ninjablade]

I just didn't find her believable. Maybe it was her acting and delivery. I found a lot of her dialogue really cringe-worthy and obnoxious.

Like that scene in the RV where she's analyzing the sample she found while drinking beer. Like how does she know all these things after just seeing a Predator for the first time like hours ago. How does Mckenna know all these things already? Why is it so casual? The way it's blocked is so cliche, and I don't get how she figured that all out with like a Toys R Us microscope in a ****ing RV.

Wait was the microscope really a toy? I didn't even notice what the hell. That's so stupid.

 

[Iceman]

But it's all bullcrap. Those numbers won't tell you whether you will or not enjoy the film at all!

​

Nothing can tell you whether you will enjoy a film before you see it though. You really have it confused. The reviewers are just a bunch of people who regularly see films before we do, otherwise they wouldn’t matter at all. In addition, unlike the company promoting their own film they don’t always have a 100% bias in trying to make that film look good regardless of whether it is, showing the best bits while hiding anything bad. When a bunch of guys on the Hype see a film before I do their opinions count more than reviewers to me as they are more likely to have similar views to me, but even then it’s just an indication and can turn out to be completely wrong. That said I’d be very surprised if your views (or anyone’s views) didn’t correlate with the Tomatometer more than 50% of the time. My views are very different to it on a number of occasions but that is the nature of any real world correlation which isn’t near perfect correlation.

Your views might be skewed by focusing on high profile controversial outliers which will always exist in any statistical process. The entire body of CBMs for eg is a small sub sector of the population of films and too small to be representative of RT on films in general. Do you disagree with the Tomatometer on the likes of the Nolan trilogy, Logan, Deadpool, Green Lantern or Catwoman?

Nothing can tell you whether you will enjoy a film before you see it though.

That was my point.

If you are agreeing that nothing can tell you whether you will enjoy a film (and by your one liner I'm guessing you might just be confused), then you have no reason to complain about people posting RT scores as your same argument applies to everything else (every bit of news, speculation, every set photo, trailer, magazine article, interview, twitter reaction, even fellow fan reviews) too. Do you protest about those just as vociferously? What exactly are we supposed to post about if nothing can tell us whether we will enjoy a film and we should only post things that tell us whether we will enjoy a film? Is this the end of the Hype? ​

 

[TheVileOne]

Wait was the microscope really a toy? I didn't even notice what the hell. That's so stupid.

I was exaggerating on the microscope. But it's insane to me she could make those conclusions just with what little equipment she had in an RV.

 

[Aximili86]

Watched Predators last night for the first time in a couple of years, as prep before seeing the new one over the weekend.

It honestly left me a little cold somehow. Like, it's a fine movie, it's competently made, the actors are fine, it's a pretty nice movie to look at generally speaking, Debney does fine with the music, just...ehh. It really does just feel obvious in everything it's doing, like "ask a big fan of Predator to do another Predator movie, using every fanboy 'we want to see one fight a Yakuza guy! A badass Israeli chick! An African rebel! A serial killer! A Vietnam vet!' desire imaginable, and don't stray from the formula one iota".

Which makes for a...fine movie, but nothing any more interesting than that.

Brody's Bale-Batman voice is ****ing hilarious, too. Jesus. Kinda hate the look of the new predators too, exact same thing I hate about the "bigger badder meaner" guy in Shane's movie in a conceptual sense. Total dudebro "extreeeme duuuudes, these guys are even more badass!" move. The actual prosthetics on both them and the original guy are kinda blahhh too - better than the AVP flicks, but really not any better than they look in the trailers for this new one.

Still, the movie's fine.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

I just watched AvP for the first time in full. I had seen AvP 2, but never the first one. Just a few scenes. Someone in here said The Predator was a worse movie then AvP.

 

[Aximili86]

The first one's sort of a guilty pleasure for me, admittedly have only seen it like twice though.

It's...A usual blahhh gutless W.S. Anderson flick, basically. Cruddy, but innoffensive, kinda just there. A couple of nice ideas in the script (actually enjoy the Antarctic pyramid concept, and cool seeing Lance in an Alien flick again), but no directorial torque behind them to actually get things going.

Still probably his best flick other than Mortal Kombat & Event Horizon I guess, there's some minor fun to be had. Which doesn't say a huge deal, but ehh.

 

[Marvolo]

I enjoy the first AvP. I enjoy the second one somewhat too but its cinematography is so fugly.

 

[Aximili86]

Everything about AVPR's fugly, visual and otherwise.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

I enjoy the first AvP. I enjoy the second one somewhat too but its cinematography is so fugly.

Oh, I don't think I have hated many movies more then AvP. That was a disaster. AvP 2 is somehow a worse movie, but also bizarre to the point that I enjoyed bits of it.

 

[Aximili86]

I guess at least AVP1's kinda high-concept, they tried.

It's all crap, and very very PG-13, but I dunno. It felt like giving it a shot to more of an extent than "let's do an infested-predator alien! We'll set it in Colorado and do it on a shoestring budget since we have our own effects company and can save the studio some cash. Don't forget the chick in the bikini!".

The gigantic bigger beefy football-player/wrestler predators in Anderson's film are friggin' hilarious though. Especially since they're supposed to be juvenile young'uns from memory. Lame.

 

[Loki882]

AVP was at least kind of fun in a "dumb B-movie with a bigger budget" kind of way. Also the main character was decent (and I like that her being a "strong black badass" wasn't really a big thing in the movie, it was just there) and it at least felt like it tried. Was it "good," probably not. But can I see why some people like it, absolutely. Now AVP: Requiem, that was hot garbage.

Also having recently rewatched the entire standalone Predator series in preparation for this movie, I find that I like all three of the previous movies. Now the original is by far the best imo. But Predator 2 and Predators (BTW that's the first Predator film that I actually got to see in theatres) are both solid films imo. This film, is the first Predator movie that I felt was actually BAD.

 

[elgaz]

It's another reason why it's one of my favorites. IMHO the direction in the movie is perfect. McTiernan definitely had the eye of the tiger back in those days. Not sure what happened. Even Schwarzenegger's performance in the film impresses me because he looks genuinely terrified of this creature.

And you know just enough about this creature rather than get a whole backstory. The creature is a hunter that wants dangerous game. By the end it saw Dutch as a worthy opponent to face unarmed hand-to-hand, so it unmasked itself.

Therein lies the problem. The first film was a totally unknown quantity, so had that air of mystery. Even by the time Predator 2 came out, the mystery element was almost gone - never mind now, after various weak sequels and semi-sequels. The general audience knows now what the Predator is, what it looks like, and what it does. Even if they rebooted the entire property from scratch and made some changes to the Predator aesthetics and their mannerisms, they wouldn't recapture what the first film had because there would still be the expectation that the Predator - fundamentally - is a hunter with certain physical properties.

I remember watching the first film many, many years ago and having so much curiosity about the Predator. Where did it come from? What did it want? Was it the first one ever to set foot on Earth? There really hadn't been anything like it in film before, particularly on a cosmetic level as a humanoid with mandibles (they have James Cameron to thank for that).

So the question is, do you move ahead with this ongoing repetitive pattern of "team of mercenaries vs the Predator" ....... or do you change it up a bit.

 

[Spider-Fan]

I just watched AvP for the first time in full. I had seen AvP 2, but never the first one. Just a few scenes. Someone in here said The Predator was a worse movie then AvP.

I liked the first AvP more than The Predator. AvP sort of reminds me of the 90s MK films (which was made also by Paul WS Anderson). It's a fun movie, but it is 100% stupid. But I was more entertained.

 

[jmc]

Therein lies the problem. The first film was a totally unknown quantity, so had that air of mystery. Even by the time Predator 2 came out, the mystery element was almost gone - never mind now, after various weak sequels and semi-sequels. The general audience knows now what the Predator is, what it looks like, and what it does. Even if they rebooted the entire property from scratch and made some changes to the Predator aesthetics and their mannerisms, they wouldn't recapture what the first film had because there would still be the expectation that the Predator - fundamentally - is a hunter with certain physical properties.

I remember watching the first film many, many years ago and having so much curiosity about the Predator. Where did it come from? What did it want? Was it the first one ever to set foot on Earth? There really hadn't been anything like it in film before, particularly on a cosmetic level as a humanoid with mandibles (they have James Cameron to thank for that).

So the question is, do you move ahead with this ongoing repetitive pattern of "team of mercenaries vs the Predator" ....... or do you change it up a bit.

Predator falls along side Jurassic Park as the type of franchise that really doesn't leave much to expand on after the first movie, because all suspense and mystery is gone after that.

 

[P Supreme]

So took Monday off to go see this and what a waste of 2hrs I could have used to sleep I mean WTF
so Munn's character all of a sudden has the agility and layout of that facility to chase down a predator and keep pace with it???? LOLOLOL right there is when I realized I'm in for crap show the rest of the way
Why did the rogue predator want to help humanity? did I miss a scene cause I don't remember and now they can make a predator suit out of thin air that ending was terrible

I liked the opening and the chemistry of the crazies on the bus but everything else WOW
call me a grumpy old man but i'm tired of seeing kids in these type movies I just am Predator 1 and 2 are still the standard

went home and rewatched predators and that's godfather 2 compared to this

can someone explain to me how to put spoiler tags since the update I've not been able to I want to discuss certain things but don't want to ruin it for those who still need to see it

 

[Nathan]

I guess at least AVP1's kinda high-concept, they tried.

It's all crap, and very very PG-13, but I dunno. It felt like giving it a shot to more of an extent than "let's do an infested-predator alien! We'll set it in Colorado and do it on a shoestring budget since we have our own effects company and can save the studio some cash. Don't forget the chick in the bikini!".

The gigantic bigger beefy football-player/wrestler predators in Anderson's film are friggin' hilarious though. Especially since they're supposed to be juvenile young'uns from memory. Lame.

AVP was at least kind of fun in a "dumb B-movie with a bigger budget" kind of way. Also the main character was decent (and I like that her being a "strong black badass" wasn't really a big thing in the movie, it was just there) and it at least felt like it tried. Was it "good," probably not. But can I see why some people like it, absolutely. Now AVP: Requiem, that was hot garbage.

I'll take AvP:R over AvP any day of the week. For me, AvP's cardinal sin is that it's just so unbelievably bland. There are no characters that stand out. Not even in a "god, he's so cringy" way. And everything feels just so sterile. It's just too clean and polished. Whether it's the color palette, the Predator vision or their gear. With roided out Predators, that don't possess any grace whatsoever and just stomp through the Pyramids. You really knew you were just watching guys in suits. And any action the Movie had, looked so fake, except for a handful of money shots of Scar slicing the Facehugger and Alien in half, and impaling the Queen's head with a spear. The rest of it looked like Power Rangers action.

Now AvP:R might have had a terrible plot and was made on a shoestring budget, but they actually delivered a Predator that looked and acted more convincing than any of the Predators in AvP and Predators. Basically every scene of Wolf was a money shot, so you never had a scene that stooped down to the level of the break dancing Alien in AvP or obvious wire work because the actor could barely move in the suit. And it was a lot more fun to watch civilians banding together to get out of the city and soldiers getting picked off one by one, by sneaky Aliens, than watch Scar get buddy, buddy with Alexa, because she managed to accidentally kill an Alien, and the rest of the cast is gone because they've been killed in what felt like 5 minutes.

AvP:R is a terrible, cheesy Movie. AvP is just bland. And I'll take cheesy over bland. So I'd probably put The Predator over AvP as well, when I ever get around to watch it.

 

[Broseph44]

I enjoy AvP a ton. It’s just what it’s supposed to be, a lot of fun. Can always throw that on and enjoy.

AvP:R is god awful though, can’t really go back and watch that.

 

[Schlosser85]

Requiem is repulsive. The stuff with the pregnant women is just offputting shock gore.

 

[moviedoors]

Requiem is repulsive. The stuff with the pregnant women is just offputting shock gore.

I remember that being pretty tasteless back when it came out. I wonder how it plays now. Am I even gonna be able to sit thru it I wonder