Amph In Town With a Few Days to Kill: The Prey-dator Discussion Thread

yah I really dig Predators a lot too. It may be one of those Legacy Sequels/ Borderline Remakes at times but the ensemble is pretty great. Each one is distinct and even their costume designs make them stand out. Good ensemble casting may be this series secret weapon, next to decapitations and ripping out skulls. Also I get the feeling Larry Fishburne's part may have been Dutch in an early draft. And while this one is very deliberately paced, it isn't as irritatingly slow and dull as the non-Predator stuff in the AVP movies. The Predator redesign is cool although I don't quite like the new guys without their mask on, and I always get a tad irked when they have the "new" baddie beat up on the old classic baddie to make the new guy seem more badass. but, overall, this is a pretty solid entry in the series, certainly better than the AvP movies, and not sure why it gets lumped in as a lame sequel. It's very well done with some cool twists. It also builds out the mythology of their being bigger fish Predators who evolve their tactics. Although with both AvP Requiem and Predators, nobody had dropped a "You're one ugly M*****" line in awhile (there's a really weak "get to the chopper" in AvPR that is best left ignored)

Well, gotta go crash out for a few hours and then go see me some The Predator, whoohoo!

 

I started watching Screen Junkies "Cram It" video concerning all the Predator movies and forgot that the trophy they gave Danny Glover was a gun from the 1700s and that was potentially going to a lead to a pirates and predators movie. I wonder if studio executives thought that idea would be too ridiculous lol.

 

I hate to keep harping on the recent AMC series "The Terror," but that show would have been every bit as good if they'd replaced the supernatural polar bear with the Predator.

 

If it could his weight alone, he wouldn't need to be holding on to Harrigan's arm, now would he? He needed both at the start and then let's go of the disc, thus needing Harrigan alone to hold himself.

Nope, he was also experienced much like the one in the first film. So that's not why he goes for the bomb.

 

I just watched The Predator and I completely agree with @The2ndQuest. I was pretty disappointed by this movie. The movie actually started out well, but descended in quality. I cared little for any of the human characters and found myself rooting for the predator.

 

short version: I really dug it quite a lot, actually! It was what I wanted when I heard it, Shane Black quirkiness rapid fire dialogue patter and bloody Predator mayhem. Now I got gripes (gak, kid not needed, that's an 80s throwback that needed to stay in the 80s and the ending is weird sequel bait) but, like Predators, nothing sinks it for me and I was having way too much fun. The one liner about the secret hidden base may be in the running for one of my favourite jokes in a movie in 2018. And I liked this crew a lot, decent fun ensemble. Although the movie does seem to take more than a few plot notes / world building from Predators either intentionally or not. But I did like the look of the bigger badder Predator unmasked than the one in Predators.

My OCD continuity gripe, which may still have an answer, is I'm pretty sure when they show pictures of the first two Predators, one is labeled 1987 and the next one is labeled 1990, when the movie itself mentions the Predator incidents happened in 87 and 97 and were getting more frequent. But that's the only continuity problem I see. If I even read it right.

But, yah, me likey. Still the first is the best easily but this may be a lock at my #2.

"I offer time advantage."

 

Well this was better than it had any right to be. I was actually entertained throughout via the funny banter of "the loonies". I wonder if/when Munn will get a breakout role. I mean really, she delivers well.

Still, anyone calling this bad will not get an argument from me. It's messy, and there is zero suspense. My prediction is right that I would place it as worse than Predator and Predators but better than everything else.

Spoiler

My head canon does not acknowledge the little ball as the stealth blur technology. That is built into what they wear on their bodies.

I dislike the now typical fight where a large or strong being grabs and throws someone to hurt them and present a challenge while just really giving them more time to kill the baddy.

So. The first Predator was a renegade human sympathizer. I like that.

 

Dark Horse did a comic issue about how he got that gun

 

Don't know but don't think so. Don't know, read it in a Dark Horse Presents* TPB.
* or something like that

 

I found the Predator 1718 comic with a quick google search. The site I found has a lot of porn ads so I won't link to it and get banned but it's read comic online dot to if you're looking for it.

 

Porn ads are only generated based on your url history.

 

much longer take (check out every Thursday at www.viewmag.com Plug!)

Spoiler

Writer and director Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, Iron Man Three, The Nice Guys) always has a way of combining big action '80s style throwbacks with rapid fire dialogue patter and extremely quirky characters. Now he sets his particular flashy style on the long running sci-fi horror franchise with The Predator. Black actually was in the original Predator film as the victim Hawkins so it's kind of neat after 30 years to see him circle back to the creature but instead of being on screen, he's orchestrating the carnage. The result is a lot of fun and very bloody, a middle ground between extreme Shane Black oddball misfits and extreme Predator mayhem. There are a few things that are a bit lame, this seriously did not need yet another precocious kid in peril, but overall the movie is a blast as lazers, bullets and body parts are flying.
American sniper Quinn (Boyd Holbrook) is doing a black ops assassination mission when a space ship crashes and out pops a killer hunter space alien. A government black ops team led by the ruthless Traeger (Sterling K. Brown) calls it The Predator and brings in scientist Casey (Olivia Munn) to inspect the creature. Meanwhile, Quinn has stolen some Predator technology and has sent it back to his ex-wife (Yvonne Strahovski) and his son, Rory (Jacob Tremblay) for safe keeping which causes all kinds of trouble. Quinn is loaded up onto a military prison truck with other criminal misfits like Nebraska (Trevante Rhodes), Coyle (Keegan-Michael Key), Baxley (Thomas Jane) and others but things get crazier when a bigger and nastier Predator arrives. It not only wants take out the first one but all of the humans that get in its way and the little human that stole its technology.
The secret weapon in the long running Predator series is, aside from all the spines being ripped out by murderous space aliens, is the good movies hold together based upon the strength of the ensemble of characters that go up against the space alien hunter. The cavalcade of crazies who make up Quinn’s crew to take on the Predator are all really great and each gets in hilarious moments, especially Key who is constantly throwing out jokes and crazy lines. There is an exceptional amount of quipping in the film which may be a signal of what happens to many horror franchises as it inevitably slides into self-parody, especially a sci-fi horror franchise like Predator which is about an edge away from camp anyway. But the quipping and jokiness is really just a part of Shane Black’s style in all his movies. Like there is a secret underground lab here, which makes sense for this type of movie, but he has the attendant make a quip which is so tired and lame it’s actually gold.
Holdbrook is a decent lead but the best in the crew is the back and forth between Key and Jane as the two old war buddies who constantly snip at each other. Munn has some decent reactions to the Predator as she is fascinated by it from a scientist perspective to the detriment of her own health. Brown as the government spook who cleans up after the Predators has some really funny one liners as a guy who does bad things yet loves his job as he’s willing to off innocent people to get Predator technology. Strahovski is basically just a random mom character but she’s charming which is nice since she plays a stone cold psychopath on Handmaid’s Tale. These are not deep characters nor do they really go through anything approaching an arc or growth but they are much more interesting than the usual blank horror movie fodder.
Tremblay is playing yet another child with health problems which is quite the roster of messed up characters he’s acquiring off of Room, Wonder and Book of Henry. And this is a pretty funny movie but he is a kid who is suffering from Asperger’s and yet he is intuitive enough to be able to use advanced Predator technology which drags his scenes down. Although he does get in a pretty wild bit where he goes out Trick or Treating with a Predator mask on and mayhem ensues. The dad and kid stumbling onto advanced alien technology is a bit of an old sci-fi cliché but Black puts in enough unique spin on moments to make it worthwhile.
The last franchise instalment, 2010's Robert Rodriquez produced Predators, was a solid if somewhat uninspired entry in the series that was a decades later legacy sequel / borderline remake of the 1st film. This version of The Predator really doesn't take the sort of remake path that the last two sequels did as this one has a pretty original concept with nifty Predator universe building ideas. However, oddly, some of the biggest new ideas in The Predator are actually things that popped up in the 2010 film. There's a Predator dog in this movie that terrorize the humans which basically also happened in Predators with Predator boars. Although in this movie, there is a lot more character to the Predator dog and one of them is even sort of tamed as a companion. Which is a strange, old school somewhat quaint blockbuster notion of “hey, the monster is now our pet!” but it fits in with the vibe of Shane Black's movies. Also in the 2010 and 2018 films, there are larger, more evolved and nastier Predators that beat up on the classic Predator to show how badass they were. It's always kind of weak in a monster movie where the new monster beats up the monster from the last movie to show how awesome it is and that has happened in the last three Predator movies with this one, Predators and 2007's Aliens Versus Predator: Requiem with the Predator/Alien.
The bigger Predators in the 2010 film looked cool with the mask on but when the mask came off they had a weirdly not terrifying face. The bigger Predator in the 2018 film dispenses with the mask entirely and has a nasty, bulky design but it is a entirely CGI FX creature which sometimes looks a little fakey, simply due to the size and how it moves compared to the man in suit look of the original. But the larger Predator in this movie has a really nasty vibe and even gets in a moment where it translates to the humans before hunting them saying, “I offer you time advantage” which is such a weirdly, creepy line to say.
There is a kind of tonally jarring sequel bait franchise potential extending ending here, which implies more of a direct sequel. That would be different for the Predator franchise and not as much fun because the cool thing about it is that the Predator goes up against something and someone new each time. Also the kills get progressively more messier throughout the film. One of the earliest, more shocking images in the film is when the Predator is revealed by from cloaking device by being covered in blood. The Predator fight against the bigger more aggressive Predator is a shocking bit of curb stomping. The finale involves a full on Predator hunt in the forest at night which has some great moments of the Predator jumping down from the trees and taking out its prey. Also there is a darkly hilarious moment where a random solider tries to use a Predator spinning star that swings back on him and it completely messes the guy up.
The Predator is a crazy sequel to an already crazy franchise. It stumbles a bit by prioritizing some of the least interesting characters and the film is sort of tonally all over the palce but that is part of its madcap, insane bloody charm. There’s rapid fire jokes, crazy people babbling, and space aliens on missions of murder. It’s a lot. But it’s never boring!

 

I was thinking about that line -- "Only in the hottest years, this happens. And this year, it grows hot."

This doesn't really make sense for a hunter that uses infra-red. The external body temperature of a human is 93 degrees, maybe hotter if the temperature is very hot. This would make a human body indistinguishable from his hot jungle surroundings. And if they mean hotter than 100 degrees, then human would appear blue (cooler) and his surroundings would be red in the Predator's vision, but that's not how it is in Predator. (Also, I don't think it ever gets over 100 degrees under a shaded jungle canopy.)

Really, the Predator would want to hunt in some place like Alaska. His infra-red vision would be very effective there.

 

Not quite. See, when the Predator's helmet is on as shown here...



A lot of the external heat is filtered so that the humans and animal life stand out. This makes it ideal to see them even when trying to conceal themselves in the jungle, which is why it could see Dillon and Mac when they conspired to kill him, could see all the tripwires, could see in the dark, etc.



Removal of the helmet fits in with what you're positing. But this was abandoned in the sequels, in favor of having the vision being the same regardless of the helmet. In "Batman Vs Predator III: Blood Ties", the Predators couldn't see Mr. Freeze when he was not wearing his suit, in his headquarters.



In absence of body heat, they're blind to their target so long it doesn't move. As the first AVP film showed, yes, humans would stand out in the cold. The other reason for the heat reference, though, is that heat brings conflict. In the first film, there's a military rescue operation that brings a lot of conflict and that catches the Predator's attention. In the second film, it was the drug war in Los Angeles. Thus the hunt takes place in areas of conflict and often with heat, which aggravates the conflict.