Shane Black Directing Predator Sequel! - Part 2

[cyclone]

So early reviews look GREAT. The film is pony.... shocker.....

 

[ImSGirl95]

So, does Arnie has a cameo in the movie?

 

[harlequinade]

So early reviews look GREAT. The film is pony.... shocker.....

Huh? Lukewarm at best

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Some reviews:

Games Radar - 3/5

Digital Spy - 3/5

IGN - 6.5/10

Seems to be the general consensus I expected to find on RT site.

 

[Hunter Rider]

The whole situation smacks of Black being behind the times, not realizing the whole old boys network of the poweful and rich covering for their buddies is over.

 

[Zarex]

I wouldn't say the old boys network is over, though it has certainly taken some hits as of late. I think Black was very surprised that Ms. Nunn had the nads to go over his head to the studio about his sex offender chum rather than keeping quiet and playing nice. Hopefully future directors will get the message not to put their casts at risk in order to do their skeazy buddies a solid.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

I can't say the middling reviews are surprising considering how lackluster the trailers have been for this. I'm a big Predator fan, but I am not hyped for this film at all which is a shame because I want to be.

 

[Kane52630]

 

[Deck Rickard]

Sounds like it's just kinda average. Which is what I'm getting from the trailers.

Honestly though, I wonder if the Predator is just kinda played out. I mean, what more can you really do with it at this point? The concept is really simplistic. I feel like they had a chance to reinvigorate the franchise with Predators back in 2010 because at least there, you had a band of killers on an alien game preserve. That at least felt fresh and new. Unfortunately, they bungled it by going cheap (there were too few predators and hounds to really make it feel all that dangerous) and including stupid plot twists you could see coming a mile away (Topher).

 

[KaijuDude1992]

Sounds like it's just kinda average. Which is what I'm getting from the trailers.

Honestly though, I wonder if the Predator is just kinda played out. I mean, what more can you really do with it at this point? The concept is really simplistic. I feel like they had a chance to reinvigorate the franchise with Predators back in 2010 because at least there, you had a band of killers on an alien game preserve. That at least felt fresh and new. Unfortunately, they bungled it by going cheap (there were too few predators and hounds to really make it feel all that dangerous) and including stupid plot twists you could see coming a mile away (Topher).

I actually liked Predators, but I can agree that it didn't quite live up to it's potential. I honestly don't know what else they could possibly do with this franchise to make it interesting again besides maybe bringing back Arnold. Hell I would love to see Glover back as well considering how much of a fan I am of Predator 2, but that's probably even less likely than Arnold. Can we just get a proper reboot of Alien Vs. Predator that's closer to the games or the comics, because I still believe there is some major potential with that franchise.

 

[elgaz]

Sounds like it's just kinda average. Which is what I'm getting from the trailers.

Honestly though, I wonder if the Predator is just kinda played out. I mean, what more can you really do with it at this point? The concept is really simplistic. I feel like they had a chance to reinvigorate the franchise with Predators back in 2010 because at least there, you had a band of killers on an alien game preserve. That at least felt fresh and new. Unfortunately, they bungled it by going cheap (there were too few predators and hounds to really make it feel all that dangerous) and including stupid plot twists you could see coming a mile away (Topher).

Any element of mystery/suspense which made the original 1987 Predator film so enticing is long gone. We are all overly familiar with the Predator now thanks to the succession of lacklustre movies which the creature has been subjected to. There's only so many ways they can do the 'team of trained killers vs Predators', and I think they've maxed that out now, even with new tech and the addition of slight genetic changes to the Predators. It's still 99% a rehash of what we've seen before.

Even a complete reboot of the entire franchise wouldn't resolve that.

What they need now is a new antagonist, something which re-introduces that element of mystery. Something we don't know, and which lurks in the shadows, and which adds genuine fear to a property like this. Not like in AvP, where they were somewhat evenly matched - something much more deadly than Predators, and which terrifies them. What if it was all flipped and that something was hunting the Predators? What if the Predators' repeated 'hunts' on various planets weren't just for sport, but were considered a critical part of their training for an enemy they know is coming to hunt them, perhaps something which returns every few thousand years - just as the Predators have been coming to Earth for hundreds of years?

 

[Deck Rickard]

Something like that could work, possibly. Or maybe we could learn that the reason they always prey on substantially weaker opponents like humans (albeit formidable ones) is because the next step in the process is conquering a planet of monsters that are far more deadly than they are. Maybe they could capture a bunch of humans (who would be the main characters in the film) and use them as bait as they attempt to conquer this new species.

I don't know. Just something different than "a group of loudmouth guys in the woods or a jungle get hunted down one-by-one by monster that isn't scary anymore."

 

[Aximili86]

Keep in mind guys, Predator 2's an average of 28% on RT. I'd say most of us probably substantially dig 2, despite being far inferior to the original.

Predators got an identical average RT score (65%) to that middling IGN review of 6.5 for this, too. Seems fan consensus on Predators was solid, while not anything seriously impressive.

*Shrug* Point being, the series was never some critical darling. The original's up-and-above the others with 80% average, but by modern standards none of us would consider 80 all that grand with an MCU movie or the latest Nolan film or whatever. It's sort of kitschy sci-fi slasher fare by design, not sure I'd write it off going by a 6.5-or-equivalent approximation so far.

As for the "something different" request regarding the series, it's a solid point, but I've never been entirely sold on the "do one in feudal Japan, do one in the pirate-infested Carribean, do one in Viking-era Norway" approach. It's cool conceptually, but sort of limited in a way too. Like we can already sort of extrapolate the broad-strokes historical reaction to Predators from Anna in the original, it's just going to be some cultural-specific equivalent of some mythological demon hunting that society's warrior caste or whatever. Not entirely sold on Shane's approach here, but at least it seems sort of...I don't know, expanding things out a bit somehow, whatever the new twists/motivations may be. We're getting more insight into the government stuff, we're getting the actual aftermath of a guy who's already survived a Predator encounter (any way you slice it, that's new), whatever the hell the dynamic is with this autistic kid thing. I dunno, it might not entirely work, but it does at least seem trying a little harder than "instead of Vietnam vets in Central America in 1986, let's do Bushido dudes in Kyoto getting picked off one-by-one in 1750".

Honestly, none of those reviews seem any more down on what's been done here than with Predators a couple years back. Which doesn't give the impression of setting the world on fire with excitement by any means, but sounds like it's at least pretty decent in the way that was.

 

[Enriquespy]

I dunno, I've also thought of the idea of having anthology one on one predator v/s human hunts trough time.

 

[Enriquespy]

"instead of Vietnam vets in Central America in 1986, let's do Bushido dudes in Kyoto getting picked off one-by-one in 1750".

That actually sounds awesome.

 

[Aximili86]

On paper, sure. I don't know there's much there though, it'd be just as thin as the original movie. Which was fine for a first entry, but you sort of want to get a little more into the weeds with sequels I think. 2's pretty good in that sense, in a really broad way it's the same type of thing, only it's not "half a dozen of the most badass of the badass, just in a different period/locale". It's a different locale, yeah, but the supporting characters aren't quite as prominent and the whole thing seems more intended to broaden all the conceptual stuff with the Predator. It's not as good a movie, but it's not just "what's an equivalent of ex-Vietnam mercenaries guys in _____ setting/year?".

 

[OutOfBoose]

Predator was a singular idea and I'm not surprised we've got another schlock film in the franchise.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Honestly from the start I think a sequel to Predators would have been a better approach. I have never thought Shane Black was as good a director as many make out also.

 

[Da-Scribe]

Yeah agreed on the Predators thing. That set up a pretty golden opportunity to explore more of the Predator homeworld and I was really pumped to see all that fleshed out.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

Any element of mystery/suspense which made the original 1987 Predator film so enticing is long gone. We are all overly familiar with the Predator now thanks to the succession of lacklustre movies which the creature has been subjected to. There's only so many ways they can do the 'team of trained killers vs Predators', and I think they've maxed that out now, even with new tech and the addition of slight genetic changes to the Predators. It's still 99% a rehash of what we've seen before.

Even a complete reboot of the entire franchise wouldn't resolve that.

What they need now is a new antagonist, something which re-introduces that element of mystery. Something we don't know, and which lurks in the shadows, and which adds genuine fear to a property like this. Not like in AvP, where they were somewhat evenly matched - something much more deadly than Predators, and which terrifies them. What if it was all flipped and that something was hunting the Predators? What if the Predators' repeated 'hunts' on various planets weren't just for sport, but were considered a critical part of their training for an enemy they know is coming to hunt them, perhaps something which returns every few thousand years - just as the Predators have been coming to Earth for hundreds of years?

Yeah I can definitely get behind something like this. At least it would be a lot different compared to the stuff we've gotten before. I even like the idea of a sequel to Predators where they focus more on their home planet and those hunts which we didn't get nearly enough of in Predators.

 

[Asr]

I honestly don't know what else they could possibly do with this franchise to make it interesting again besides maybe bringing back Arnold. Hell I would love to see Glover back as well considering how much of a fan I am of Predator 2, but that's probably even less likely than Arnold. Can we just get a proper reboot of Alien Vs. Predator that's closer to the games or the comics, because I still believe there is some major potential with that franchise.

Well we still haven't had a Space Marines vs Predator movie set in the Alien timeline (that wouldn't necessarily have to feature the Xenomorphs, but it'd be a cool nod to that franchise as well). Both of the AvP movies that came out were set in the "present day" for some unfathomable reason. A real AvP movie should be set in the Alien timeline's distant future—before Alien's 2122 or after Aliens' 2179 would probably make the most sense. A movie set in this timeline/universe could definitely throw in Weyland-Yutani too and explore what the company knows about the Preds.

The people making these movies need a serious kick in their creative nuts, when the people who've made the comics and video games have had way more interesting ideas. Preds vs Space Marines, with or without Aliens (Xenomorphs) should write itself based on what the comics and video games have done.

 

[Enriquespy]

Besides the first two, Predator is at it's best when hunting in other franchises and other media. When he is in comic form alongside/ vs batman or terminator an the like it's quite fun.

I also really liked the "Batman Dead End" fan short film.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

Well we still haven't had a Space Marines vs Predator movie set in the Alien timeline (that wouldn't necessarily have to feature the Xenomorphs, but it'd be a cool nod to that franchise as well). Both of the AvP movies that came out were set in the "present day" for some unfathomable reason. A real AvP movie should be set in the Alien timeline's distant future—before Alien's 2122 or after Aliens' 2179 would probably make the most sense. A movie set in this timeline/universe could definitely throw in Weyland-Yutani too and explore what the company knows about the Preds.

The people making these movies need a serious kick in their creative nuts, when the people who've made the comics and video games have had way more interesting ideas. Preds vs Space Marines, with or without Aliens (Xenomorphs) should write itself based on what the comics and video games have done.

Yes exactly. I mean who wouldn't want to see fricking Space Marines go up against Predators and Xenomorphs? It pretty much sells itself and your basically combining some of the best elements from both franchises. Yet for some reason no one in Hollywood has thought about this which is why we have gotten two AVP movies that have completely wasted this potential and the weird experimental **** Ridley has been doing with the Alien franchise with crap like Alien: Covenant.

 

[Da-Scribe]

How about we flip it? Set it in a future timeline where the Predators have found themselves being bred for hunting on earth or humans coming to their homeworld to hunt them. Give us a Predator protagonist with like a human translator sidekick or something if you need a person there. Slick genre flick with a "humans trying to conquer nature" commentary.

If I were Fox I'd have said to hell with it and done an X-Men crossover before the Disney acquisition was finalized. Low budget, R-rated flick with Predators hunting mutants. Hot damn.

 

[Black Narcissus]

So, does Arnie has a cameo in the movie?

Spoiler

He does in the script, but only at the end.