Predator 2 vs the Predator (2018)

Predator 2 has a lot of fans, so not gonna be much of a debate. I hate that movie, and I'd still take it over The Predator.

Predator 2 was saved by the alien xenomorph skull in the climax but other than that I'd say it's the worst out of all the Predator movies. Danny Glover is okay in very small microscopic doses when Mel Gibson is there to lessen his awkwardness onscreen. I wouldn't purposefully watch a movie where Danny is the lead. Predator 1,3 and 4 are better.

I’ve always thought predator 2 was pretty well received, I like it almost as much as the original. The Predator however is a colossal misfire and was my bottom film of its year

Why do hate P2, out of curiosity?

Predator 2. The only thing I didn’t like was it felt like a Lethal Weapon movie featuring the Predator. Heck I wouldn’t be surprised if it started out as a Lethal Weapon movie cause it feels like a Glover is playing Murtaugh.

Predator 2 is a rock solid high energy action film - the relocating to an urban city a nice move. Thought that Glover was great actually, really cool.


The Predator (2018)

A Crushing Disappointment.

The hopes were high for this latest Predator rebirth, not because Shane Black starred in the great first Predator film, so therefore he surely must care about the project? But because he's an excellent writer and director. Shane Black can count Lethal Weapon(S), The Last Boy Scout and The Long Kiss Goodnight on his CV, he was the man who put Iron Man back on track after the sag of part 2. Plus he is the creator of two of the best buddy buddy neo-noirs this millennium (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang/The Nice Guys), So how come The Predator stinks of lazy cash cow manure?

Plot in a nutshell sees the universe's most lethal hunters unleashed on Earth due to the meddling of a soldiers kid and some nosey scientist types. The fate of mankind rests with a group of damaged ex-soldiers and a rather cheesed off female scientist.

We have a rehash mishmash of what we have seen before in Predator 87 and Predators 2010. A group dynamic fighting a seemingly invincible foe. The subsequent science aspects such as human DNA inference/reasoning etc never really add up to much, serving only for a bunch of standard actors shouting, swearing and spouting hopelessly weak jokes and series re-treads. When you think the pic is about to up a gear, get rivetingly dramatic, a poor slice of humour comes our way either by vocal spillage or visual drivel (puppy pet Predator dog, really?). There's a bunch of plot threads that just dangle never to be pulled (PTSD/our hero's family strife et al), and the Predators loose on Earth - with different agendas - are confusingly shifted about by a screenplay not sure where it wants to land.

Plus points? Well the cinematography is superb (Larry Fong), and you can't fault this for action quotas, there's plenty of it and it's bloody (both red and green type). The score is the traditional one we had from Alan Silvestri back in the 87 film, in fact it hardly deviates from it and yet Henry Jackman gets the credit. Of course some of the jokes will work for some folk (I would be lying if I said a Whoopi Goldberg gag didn't make me laugh), but the terror has gone, these Predators are no longer scary creatures. This reeks of a troubled production going hand in hand with a cash cow that not only narratively adds up to nothing really, but of a franchise death knell. Shame. 3.5/10

Even though I’m lukewarm towards it; Predator 2. By far. The latest sequel had me cringing.

Predator 2 - 6/10

This is a brilliant scene and is as good as any scene in Predator (1987) imo. Kevin Peter Hall was great at showing personality through body movement. He is excellent in Harry and the Hendersons as well and also plays the alien in Without Warning (1980), a movie that Predator took inspiration from. 



I feel the need to defend The Predator though. It is a sometimes interesting and entertaining, but overall lazy and ridiculous mess. I like this movie slightly better than Predators for the simple fact that it has personality. Predators has a better story, but the movie has no personality.

The Predator - 5/10
Predators - 4.5/10

Predator (1987) is one of those cases of a good movie that nobody can seem to think up a good story for a sequel. Another reason all the sequels after Predator 2 are worse is because the predator is an actual character with a personality in the first 2 movies. In all the other Predator movies, the predator characters are generic. The Predators aren't scary in any of the movies after Predator 2. The strength of the first movie is that it is very simplistic and that is why it is so effective. It really all comes down to the casting of Arnold Schwarzenegger, the design of the predator and the performance from Kevin Peter Hall, the score, the interaction between characters and the skill of the director. The reason most sequels work is because they follow the same characters over the course of the franchise. The Predator franchise is one of the few franchises that doesn't do that.