I love the Predator franchise. The 1987 original is an undisputed action/horror/sci-fi classic featuring some of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s best work. Its 1990 sequel is a bit of a mess with a ton of fun moments. The 2010 outing is a solid modern take on the franchise. Prey might be the best legacy sequel ever to drop straight to streaming. I’ll even defend the first Alien vs. Predator as dumb fun. To my mind, the franchise only made one massive misstep, and it was the 2018 disaster currently atop Netflix’s top ten.
The Predator Sneaks Its Way Onto Netflix’s Top Ten
We were all pretty excited when Shane Black signed on to do a Predator movie. He was riding high off the back of Iron Man 3 and his underrated opus, The Nice Guys. As every outlet and their mom reported at the time, Black played Hawkins in the 1987 original. The finished product didn’t work out, but Black is only partially to blame. His script and direction are both compelling at times but lack substance. The film follows a ragtag bunch of soldiers and scientists with names like “Baxley,” “Traeger,” and “Coyle.” The cast, including Boyd Holbrook of Logan, acquits themselves reasonably well. They issue half-hearted quips and shoot guns like the Great Value versions of the 1987 crew. The central Achilles’ heel is probably the editing. This thing is hacked together as if the Predator himself took to it with his wristblades.
Everything about The Predator feels outdated, for better and for worse. Elements of the film are appropriately reminiscent of the era that brought the world the original classic. Unfortunately, it also has a young autistic character whose unique characteristics provide him with borderline superpowers. The world probably should have left this gimmick behind before Abed perfectly dissected it in a 2014 episode of Community, let alone four years later. Not content with playing into lazy stereotypes, a later scene sees a Predator imply that autism is the next stage of human evolution. It would have been concerning if the movie came out in the 90s. That’s all before noting the fact that Black hired his longtime friend and convicted sex offender, Steven Wilder Striegel, for a minor role. These issues would tank a decent film. They make a fairly bad one utterly insufferable.
The Predator is a stain on the legacy of a solid franchise. It would have been a tragedy to allow it to be the last entry in the saga. Thankfully, Dan Trachtenberg directed the stellar 2022 entry, Prey. I can’t recommend Prey enough. It’s not available on Netflix, but it is streaming on Hulu, Disney+, and Star internationally. Use this brief blip of popularity for The Predator as motivation to see literally any of the other entries in the franchise. Some predators never quite catch their prey.
