Prey, the latest entry in the Predator franchise is almost here. In a bold move, the new film will be jumping backwards in time, to tell a story about one of the alien hunters in a historical setting. But before we embark upon this new journey, it seems like a good time to take a look back at the films that came before.
6. The Predator
The latest entry in the series, The Predator is easily the worst that the franchise has to offer. The plot sees a former marine coming up against two rival factions of the Yautja creatures The first, the most similar to what we've seen before, is revealed to have human DNA, and we learn that the aliens are hybridising themselves using other species genetics. This hunter, however, is killed by a larger Yautja who has adapted himself using other alien DNA to become a huge, nigh unstoppable killer.
This new predator sets out to retrieve it's missing tech, which has fallen into the hands of an autistic child. The boys father and a team of soldiers and mercenaries with mental health issues make it their mission to stop the creature.
The story for The Predator is pretty awful. Part of this is down to the fact that the film went through an extensive rewrite close to release, with the entire last act of the film being changed. There is still some evidence of this original ending online, with small clips and images available that show the human team working with a pair of Yautja in human combat gear. There are also alternate versions of the final scene, in which the humans receive a ridiculous Iron-Man Predator killer suit from the Yautja, where the film seemed to try other weird set-ups for possible sequel films, including having Ripley and Newt from the Alien franchise appear.
The behind the scenes of the film seem to, frankly, be a bit of a cluster-fuck, and it's no surprise that the film we ended up with felt all over the place, without real purpose, and with a weak script. The story makes little sense, and even having seen it a few times now I'm left wondering why what happens happens most of the time. The film also has what a lot of viewers feel to be an offensive depiction of autism in the movie. There was also major controversy before release when it was revealed that writer/director Shane Black put his friend in the movie in a role where he harassed the lead female actor. It came to light that the man was in fact a sexual predator, and the stars and public demanded his scenes be cut from the movie.
I know everyone's tastes vary, and that I'm sure there are some people out there who can overlook the massive flaws in this film and may even enjoy it; but I doubt that there will be anyone who would name The Predator as their favourite entry in the franchise.
5. AVP: Requiem
I have a lot of mixed feelings about AVP: Requiem It's not a good film by any means, and it's executed pretty poorly, but there are some cool things in here too.
The film picks up where the previous Alien vs. Predator film left off, with the fallen Yautja Scar giving birth to a Xenomorph hybrid. Loose on the Yautja ship, the Predalien causes it to come crashing back down to Earth, where it crashes in the US, just outside a small town. The creature, which we learn is also a queen, begins to build its hive and spread Xenomorphs throughout the town.
Back on the Yautja home world, an expert Xeno-killer is dispatched to destroy all traces of the Xenos and Yautja on Earth. With vicious alien creatures killing or infecting all in their path, and an Yautja who will kill anyone who gets in his way without hesitation, a small group of survivors will try desperately to find a way out of the town alive.
The plot for the film isn't too bad, and it's a jarring thing to see the Xenomorphs in suburban settings. It's like a creature out of your nightmares coming into your real life, and there are times where it feels truly terrifying seeing how quick and easy it would be for the creatures to destroy life on modern day Earth. I also liked The Wolf, the Yautja sent to clean things up. He's an old, grizzled hunter, who's less about the honour of the hunt and killing for sport and is more there as an exterminator. Because of this he's less inclined to follow the 'rules', and will just kill anyone who gets in his way, making him one of the more deadly Yautja we've seen; and he sometimes feels close to what the Bad Bloods in the comics felt like. The Predalien also looks pretty good, and the scenes where it's impregnating pregnant women with dozens of 'belly burtsters' is one of the more horrific things the series has ever done.
But, all that being said, the film isn't good. The quality of the writing is pretty poor, and a lot of time is given over to the lives of the people of the small town, yet none of them ever feel like people that we should care about. The pacing and the big set pieces also fall kind of flat, and there's never really any moments of excitement. The humans never feel like anything but passengers, just along for the ride, rather than payers in the story. They don't pose a threat to either side, and are just barely surviving. There's little here to get excited by or attached to, and the end result is a film that's pretty flat and uninspired.
4. Alien vs. Predator
Having faced each other in games and comics many times before their big screen outing, there was a lot of excitement for 2004's Alien vs. Predator. I was one of these excited parties. Seeing these iconic monsters sharing the screen together was an event, and whilst the film itself wasn't terrible, there were issues to be had.
The plot sees a group of scientists and explorers being brought together by the rich businessman Charles Wayland, who has recently discovered a huge pyramid-like structure buried deep beneath the ice of Antarctica. With the promise of one of the biggest scientific discoveries ever, the team set out to explore. However, what they don't know is that the temple was created to act as a hunting ground for the Yautja, who would use it as a right of passage for their young hunters who would take on some of the deadliest prey imaginable, the Xenomorph.
Trapped beneath the surface, in a twisting maze of moving tunnels and chambers, the small group of humans find themselves stuck between the two alien factions. In order to survive, the lone survivor will have to try and make a deal with one of the alien hunters.
Whilst there's nothing hugely wrong with the story of AvP, I found that the execution is what really lets the movie down. At just over an hour and a half long, it's a pretty short movie, and it really does feel like it at times. Whilst some time is given over at the start of the movie to the set up, watching the team coming together and making their way towards their destination, once the characters reach the temple the film moves at a pretty fast pace, and the result is that the story feels rushed. This is a film that could have benefited from having an extra half hour of more added to it, so that we could get some more scenes with the characters, so that the tension could be kept up once the alien monsters arrived, and so that the film doesn't end quite so abruptly as is does.
That all being said, the film isn't bad, and there are some great moments to be found here. We get to see multiple Predators on the same hunt for the first time, and of course, seeing them going up against their big rival is always a treat. Personally, I also loved seeing how the Yautja interacted with ancient cultures and came to Earth in the past, and hopefully we might get more of these kinds of stories if Prey does well.
3. Predators
The third and second place entries in this list were easily the hardest to decide, and it's very close between the two films. That being said, I think that 201's Predators falls just behind for a few reasons.
Possibly the boldest of the stories in the Predator franchise, the film takes a big risk by moving the action away from Earth for the first time. We begin by meeting a motley band of soldiers and killers that have been airdropped into a strange jungle. With no memory of how they ended up there, the group, which comprises of mercenaries, soldiers, gangsters, a death row inmate, and a doctor, learn that they're not on Earth anymore, and have instead been dumped on an alien planet.
A trio of larger, more aggressive Yautja begin hunting them through the jungle, using traps and other alien creatures to try out different tactics and scenarios against their displaced prey. Realising that they have little hope of making it back to Earth unless they can kill the deadly aliens, the group sets out to turn the tables on their captors.
In some ways it feels like Predators takes some of the best bits of the first two movies and tries to mash them together with some new ideas. We go back to a jungle setting, albeit an alien one, with a group of people that are competent fighters, and we learn some shocking new things about the Yautja in the process. The biggest change to the formula is that there is more than one hunter, with three of the new aliens pursuing the protagonists at the same time. Each of these super predators brings something different to the table, and have their own unique designs and combat styles.
The reveal that there are different factions within the Yautja, different subspecies who don't always get along and have different morals and rules around hunting is a fun reveal, and one that adds a little flavour to the species without being too big a change. The cast of characters and actors are also really good, and we've got a few cult favourites like Danny Trejo in the mix alongside legit Oscar winning actors such as Adrian Brody and Mahershala Ali. Perhaps the only real missteps in the film as the inclusion of Lawrence Fishbourne, who whilst a great actor doesn't really fit the part he was paying, and Topher Grace, who's turn into 'I'm a killer' was painfully bad.
2. Predator 2
Predator 2 is (so far) easily the best of the sequels to the original. Taking the action away from the literal jungle to the figurative urban jungle, the movie takes the titular creature and places it in a Los Angeles during a heat wave.
The film follows police lieutenant Michael Harrigan who's a bit of a rogue element, but always manages to stop the bad guys. When a violent shootout with police and two rival drug cartels is ended when a mysterious assailant enters the building and kills all of the gang members, the police think that a new player might be in town. Though when members of both gangs are targeted it becomes unclear who they might be working for.
But when a special government unit expresses interest in the case it becomes clear that there's something more going on. And when those around Harrigan start being targeted he becomes determined to stop whoever, or whatever, is behind it.
Whilst Predator 2 didn't receive many positive reviews upon its initial release, the film did soon develop a cult following, and fans began to flock round it. Some people may have been upset that the film differed greatly from the first film, but the new movie offered a lot of new and interesting developments to the franchise, and further fleshed out the Yautja. One of the biggest things the film did was to show that the alien hunters had codes and ethics. This was hinted at in the first film, when it became clear it was only hunting armed prey, but in this film this was expanded upon by showing the Yautja refusing to harm pregnant prey, even if they were armed and a threat.
The Yautja in this film was also given a lot of personality, and rather than simply hunting people it seemed to take a personal interest in Harrigan, following him, leaving him messages, and targeting those close to him. This was the first time that the Yautja were given any kind of motivation outside of simply hunting, and is still one of the most interesting interpretations of the creature. Personally, I found this obsession it had with Harrigan to be more frightening, and made for a scarier adversary.
1. Predator
The original is still the best. Whilst there are some great entries in the series, the first film is still an unbeatable action romp filled with great set pieces, some cheesy one-liners, and some tense moments.
Following a group of special forces soldiers, Predator takes the audience deep into the South American jungle as a rescue team sets out to save a diplomatic team who've become captured by guerrilla fighters. Along with their CIA handler, the team manage to find the hostages, but fail to save them as the guerrillas have executed them all. Discovering that the entire mission was a set-up to eliminate the fighter before they can launch an attack, the team sets out to reach their rendezvous point for extraction. However, they soon discover that there's something hiding in the jungle, stalking them, and it begins to pick them off one by one.
One of the reasons why Predator works so well is that it's a complete subversion of the expected action movie tropes. We have a group of muscly men with guns who walk into the jungle, take on an armed compound, and kill everyone inside without losing any of their men. They're the action heroes. They're the good guys. So when it turns out that there's something bigger, badder, and more frightening than them in the jungle, and that nothing they can do can stop it, it flips the formula on its head. It suddenly doesn't matter how strong you are, how good your weapons are.
And this is part of why the film is very scary too. There are parts of the movie where the soldiers know that something's hunting them and they're forced to simply wait, unable to track it or find it. The tension builds as they wait for the creature to show itself once again, hoping that they'll have a chance at striking back against it. And the film knows that it's scary, and holds back on revealing too much about what's in the jungle hunting them to further keep that tension there. We simply see things through the predators eyes, or catch glimpses of its camouflaged form as it moves through the trees.
Predator takes many of the tropes and cliches of the 80's action movie genre and takes it in a new direction by adding horror into the mix. It's one of the few movies where you're not sure if the hero is going to be able to make it out alive. The final act, where Arnie is left alone to try and fight the creature is one of the best parts of the film. It's quiet and tense, and he doesn't speak through most of it, but it's up there as some of the best stuff the actor has ever done because you're so sucked in and so invested that you're on the edge of your seat.
From what I've heard from people who've been lucky enough to see Prey already it's a great movie, but it may still struggle to top the original film for the sheer creativity of it, and for being a bold, and daring film that's incredibly well made.
Support Amy on Patreon
Buy Amy A Coffee
Go to Amy's Blog
