The Predator Franchise: Rewatching the Hits and Misses

There’s a lot of fun to be had rewatching the Predator franchise. The series has been wildly hit-and-miss, but all seven of these movies have their fair share of fun moments involving the titular alien hunters and their unsuspecting prey. The original Predator movie is one of the defining films of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career, and of ‘80s action cinema in general. That was followed by Predator 2, an L.A. noir with an alien on the loose; Predators, an all-action thrill-ride set on a Predator-infested prison planet; and The Predator, a movie where the Predator mistakes autism for the next stage of human evolution.

From its fifth movie onwards, the Predator franchise finally got a lot more consistent. A filmmaker named Dan Trachtenberg came along and made it his personal mission to turn Predator into a viable cinematic universe in the modern moviegoing landscape. And so far, with Prey, Predator: Killer of Killers, and Predator: Badlands, he’s done a great job as the Kevin Feige-esque architect of the Predator franchise. Now, the future of Predator is more exciting than it’s ever been. But when you go back and rewatch these movies now, there are some glaring flaws that stand out (even in the good ones).

The First Predator Movie Set A High Benchmark That Most Of The Sequels Have Missed

The first Predator movie is a landmark in action cinema. It was the epitome of ‘80s action movies: a big, crazy, explosive, high-octane jungle adventure, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as a musclebound superman singlehandedly protecting Earth from an alien threat. It’s the ultimate man-versus-beast story, following one brave human being as he descends into savagery to take on a ruthless alien hunter in hand-to-hand combat.

Predator still holds up today — it’s one of the greatest action movies ever made — but it set an extremely high bar that the franchise has struggled to live up to. Almost all the sequels have missed the mark, with a rare few (Prey and Killer and Killers among them) that have matched the simplistic greatness of the 1987 original.

Predator 2 Is A So-Bad-It's-Good Guilty Pleasure

While it’s nowhere near as great as the first movie, Predator 2 is kind of a guilty pleasure. It doesn’t work as a movie, but there is a so-bad-it’s-good quality to the first Predator sequel. Where the first movie had planted an alien in the middle of a Rambo-style military action thriller, Predator 2 plants an alien in the middle of an L.A. police procedural.

Danny Glover is fully committed in the lead role, just as Schwarzenegger was in the first movie, which carries the film through thick and thin. There’s a fun novelty in seeing the Predator in an urban environment.

Predators Is Imperfect But Massively Underrated

The third film, Predators, is far from perfect. It has some pacing issues, it underutilizes a lot of great supporting actors, and it doesn’t go quite as far as you want it to. But it’s still massively underrated, because there is a lot to love here. It has a stacked cast including Walton Goggins, Mahershala Ali, Laurence Fishburne, and Danny Trejo, and, more importantly, it has the perfect Predator sequel premise.

Much like James Cameron’s Aliens, it pluralizes the title and the threat of the monster. Predators takes place on a planet full of Predators, where future convicts are sent to fight for their lives. That hook alone makes this one of the best Predator movies.

The Predator Is The Low Point Of The Franchise

There wasn’t a truly bad Predator film until 2018’s The Predator. Shane Black can usually be relied on for crackling dialogue and tight, action-driven storytelling, but The Predator is an overplotted mess with way too much going on.

The characters are one-dimensional, the direction is sloppy, and the script’s attempt to link the Predator to autism is just absurd. This is the Predator with the fewest redeeming qualities.

It's A Shame Arnold Schwarzenegger Never Came Back

When you go back and rewatch the Predator movies now, you’re thrilled by Schwarzenegger’s performance in the first film, then miss him more and more as each movie passes. Schwarzenegger was the main draw of the first movie; it was conceived as a star vehicle.

The subsequent movies have hinted at Dutch’s return, but Schwarzenegger still hasn’t made his long-awaited comeback in the Predator franchise. We saw Harrison Ford in a new Blade Runner movie before we saw Schwarzenegger in a new Predator movie.

The Predators Aren't Actually That Powerful

The central conceit of the Predator franchise is that the titular aliens are unstoppable killing machines with high-tech gadgets and weapons. Once the Predator locks its triangular laser sight on you, you’re done for. But the fundamentals of storytelling dictate that the hero has to defeat the Predator in time for the end credits.

So, when you watch all these movies back-to-back, it’s hard to shake the feeling that maybe the Predators aren’t so powerful after all. Every regular human they come after manages to defeat them. The only Predator movie where the Predator wins is the one where the Predator is the hero.

The Alien Vs. Predator Movies Bungled A Great Premise

Whether or not the Alien vs. Predator movies are canonical is a dicey issue. Some people contend that they’re canon to Predator, but not to Alien; others would argue that they’re Elseworlds-type stories that don’t pertain to either canon. So, you might not even include them in a franchise rewatch.

But if you do, you’ll be reminded of what a let-down these crossover films were. Alien vs. Predator is such a simple, easy premise, and yet they bungled it twice. The first one is a mediocre monster movie — not bad, but not great — that just happens to include these familiar monsters, and the second one is truly dire.

Predators Throughout History Is What They Should've Been Doing All Along

It wasn’t until the fifth attempt at a Predator sequel that someone finally hit on what they should’ve been doing all along. With his acclaimed reboot Prey, Dan Trachtenberg figured out the perfect formula for the franchise’s longevity: Predators throughout history; seeing how different cultures throughout history, with different weapons and different levels of technological advancement, deal with the threat of a Predator.

Prey followed a Comanche warrior in 1719, and Killer of Killers took the concept even further with a three-part anthology. This animated gem had Predators fighting Vikings, samurai, and World War II fighter pilots.

Predator: Badlands Was More Fun In A Theater Than At Home

The most recent Predator movie, Predator: Badlands, just came to Disney+, so I rewatched it for the first time since it was in theaters. I watched this movie twice in theaters, because it was a glorious big-screen experience. It’s a pure, pulpy space opera; a fun B-movie to escape into for a couple of hours.

But when I rewatched it on Disney+, I found that it wasn’t anywhere near as much fun on the small screen as it was on the big screen. It’s a shame that Badlands underperformed at the box office, because it means the next Predator movie will probably skip theaters altogether.

Predator Didn't Find Its Feet As A Franchise For 35 Years

The biggest problem with the Predator franchise as a whole is that it didn’t find its feet as a franchise for 35 years. The first movie was a standalone action movie masterpiece, but three-and-a-half decades’ worth of Fox executives couldn’t figure out how to stretch it into a viable franchise. Should it be a direct continuation? Should it have more of an anthology-style format? Should it expand the mythology or keep it simple?

It wasn’t until Disney acquired Fox that Predator finally became an exciting, viable franchise. When you binge-watch the whole series, you have to get through 35 years’ worth of Predator sequels to get to anything good.