Can the Predator franchise be saved or should it just be forgotten without another movie released? The franchise has always suffered from a number of mixed reviews by critics over the times; when the first Predator film came out on the 12th June 1987, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger – one of the biggest action movie stars at the time, it quickly became the number 1 film in the Box office, bringing in $12 million, which silenced certain critics according to the Wikipedia article on the movie, who claimed the movie was not really too special, while today Rotten Tomatoes has relegated the film to 80%, which is a respectable score enough.
But today the Predator franchise is in trouble
In recent years, the original Predator movie has become more positive – it isn’t unusual to find the movie on best of lists. Is it so anymore for the rest of the franchise? The problems first arrived when, in 1990, Predator 2 was released. The movie was one of a number of sequels which was considered subpar to the original – it received fairly negative reviews, though Danny Glover, who played Detective Mike Harrigan impressed the audience for his casting. The Washington Post and The New York Time reviewers opinions were divided on the movie – Rita Kempley of The Washington Post was impressed with the movie, comparing it to RoboCop and Blade Runner, and she enjoyed Danny Glover’s portrayal as well. Another employee for the Post called it unoriginal, though that’s the basic problems with sequels, though he too praised Danny Glover.
On the other hand, The New York Times was unimpressed – one critic called the movie “an unbeatable contender while also referring to the first film as a mindless action movie of the holiday season.
While the movie Predators shown in 2010 brought in an impressive Box office amount of money and Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 65% score and some critics enjoyed the action sequences, people were unimpressed with the attempts by the cast to try to recapture the suspense the original movie had brought. The crossover movies Alien Vs. Predator and Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem, released a few years earlier were not well received, though the first movie became number 1 – according to Xenopedia’s article on the first of these two crossover movies, critics were not allowed to view the movie beforehand, but when they did their reviews were generally negative. Not good for a franchise. One critic panned the movie for its cliches that made people wish the cast got killed off quickly.
Fans weren’t impressed with it either, they felt the Predator aliens themselves were made to look weak, unintelligent – this view only came about because two of them were killed by a single alien, and the second predator did not act quickly enough, and took the hunting angle too far and treated it more like a game. What really did not make sense about the movie was the pyramid which had clearly been built in ancient times by a long forgotten and most likely extinct civilization was near the Antarctic. Why? Alright, so the idea may have been to make the place more isolated, playing up to the harsh environment, but the first predator movie was filmed in the jungle. It would make more sense, not to mention add a touch of realism, to have had the movie shown in a jungle setting where explorers could have stumbled across the pyramid in the middle of nowhere instead of miles under tons of ice.
The second Alien Vs. Predator movie, titled Requiem, which was released in 2007, three years after the original movie, also didn’t do very well – not only was it given an 11% score on Rotten Tomatoes, but critics according to the Wikipedia article on the film complained about the low lighting and the increased amounts of gore. According to the Xenopedia article on the movie, the fans of the predator and alien franchise were not impressed by the film. They didn’t like the way the single predator who had come to Earth to stop the infestation of aliens was able to kill so many. There were plans to have a sequel, but due to the negative reviews, it isn’t likely there will be a third AVP movie anytime soon.
But can the franchise be saved?
Just recently in 2018, a new addition to the franchise was released. Titled The Predator, the film shows the predator aliens improving themselves by harvesting human DNA and probably the DNA of other animals on Earth, which is a different spin on the franchise, certainly, and it gained the film a significantly more impressive score of 32% on Rotten Tomatoes, and critics commented on the action and the gore, some were divided about whether a reboot was even necessary in the first place, according to the Wikipedia article on The Predator movie. One reviewer said the film was messy, chaotic and convoluted, and that the cast made inappropriate quips when they were fighting the predator and their monster dogs, while another reviewer didn’t hesitate to point out the film had poor choices for its story.
It doesn’t look good for the franchise. Though the film had a great cast and a good director, according to CBR’s article on the film, the movie was nothing more than a disappointment to both the fans and the critics, citing the movie didn’t feel like a predator movie, and that the one-liners were offensive rather than funny. In the same article, it cites one of the biggest problems was that the different directors tried to spin their own take on the creature’s moral code, only it didn’t work.
While the article claims that the only way the franchise can be saved is if the next real reboot simply goes back to basics where the Predator is a horrifying enemy without needing to humanize the creature. The article puts it down bluntly by stating the creature is an extraterrestrial hunter who is hunting for the thrill of hunting, and that we don’t need to make it human, so if a new reboot comes out at some point in the future it will need to show a predator who is a cold-hearted hunter who stalks and kills its victims without mercy or warning.
While it is possible a new Predator movie might be made, some people think it has had its time. According to this Reddit page, the franchise has been overused and overdone, but there are some who believe it is possible to reboot the franchise and give it a new direction, with a lead role suited for the job while using traditional effects and not rely on CGI as the 2018 movie did. Yes, it is possible for the Predator franchise to be saved. It just needs a back to basics approach, with perhaps the alien hunter evolving its behavior so then it can be a more deadly opponent – this was explored in Predators 2010 by a second-hand account by one of the characters, but in a real film it could become a real thing. Maybe with so many poor receptions to the movies released in recent years, they might just pull the plug entirely. Only time will tell. RoboCop
