I remember when I watch the first Predator movie for the first time and being scared out of my mind. There was something that can actually make macho man Arnold Schwarzenegger look weak? I never thought that would be possible. Call it a science-fiction movie, but to me, it’s my go-to horror movie that will forever frighten me. Unfortunately, all of the sequels that came after it were not so great. The second one was enjoyable, but ultimately forgettable. The Alien vs. Predator movies were follow-ups, but never considered official sequels, which is good, because they were bad. Then the 2010 Predators movie came, and I actually enjoyed that one. It referenced the first movie a lot and showed us how the Predator race operates as a team. That was an interesting direction for the franchise, and I was hoping they would expand on that.
Yeah, they didn’t, and we instead got that 2018 movie, The Predator. I remember being super excited for that movie. The trailers were good, the cast was good, and the movie itself was awful. Bad dialogue, forgettable action, and terrible CGI gave us a movie that tarnished the franchise. After that, I didn’t expect another Predator movie to come anytime soon. Well, I guess I spoke too soon, because now another Predator film is indeed on its way. The man helming the project is Dan Trachtenberg, the director of 10 Cloverfield Lane and the pilot of The Boys.
Does this news get me excited? As much as I love the Predator, I feel like this is one of those franchises that shouldn’t continue. I want to be excited for another movie, but after The Predator, my enthusiasm is low. So far, Dan Trachtenberg has had a good track record. 10 Cloverfield Lane was surprisingly good and he did a fantastic job with the first episode of The Boys. Now if this upcoming Predator film is low-budget, then I’ll be more for it. I put my faith in Shane Black because I respected his track record and that backfired on me. I loved Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, I loved The Nice Guys, and I loved how he wrote Lethal Weapon, but what he did The Predator was a travesty by his standards.
When I watched The Predator, I felt like a first-time director made it. If that was the case, then that would at least be forgivable. However, Shane Black is no first-timer and he has experience directing big summer blockbusters. Marvel fans, remember Iron Man 3? I’ll be honest, I was pretty disappointed by that movie too. I’m the biggest Iron Man fan I know and I just couldn’t love that movie as much as I wanted to. Such a shame, because I loved the director and I loved the character, so I figured he’d earn back some credibility with The Predator. I was very, very wrong.
I don’t know what happened. Maybe he wasn’t too crazy about the project, which would be odd, considering he had a role in the first one. The controversy with Olivia Munn didn’t help the movie either, but even if you put that drama aside, the majority of fans just didn’t dig it. If the bad ratings don’t show it, The Predator also failed miserably at the box office. So if you’re one of the very few people who wanted to see that cyborg war suit in action, you’re probably out of luck.
I bring all of this up because frankly, I’m confused. With a film that got that many bad reviews and failed so terribly at the box office, why would any studio want to commit to another Predator movie? If they were, I never would have suspected another one to be coming so soon. They can’t count on the Predator name to sell tickets, because that clearly didn’t work last time.
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