{"id":399710,"date":"2026-04-19T05:05:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T05:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/399710\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T05:05:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T05:05:23","slug":"rewatching-the-hits-and-misses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/399710\/","title":{"rendered":"Rewatching the Hits and Misses"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a lot of fun to be had rewatching the Predator<\/a> 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\u2019s career, and of \u201880s 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<\/a> set on a Predator-infested prison planet; and The Predator, a movie where the Predator mistakes autism for the next stage of human evolution.<\/p>\n

From its fifth movie onwards, the Predator franchise finally got a lot more consistent. A filmmaker named Dan Trachtenberg came along<\/a> 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\u2019s done a great job as the Kevin Feige-esque architect of the Predator franchise. Now, the future of Predator is more exciting than it\u2019s 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).<\/p>\n

The First Predator Movie Set A High Benchmark That Most Of The Sequels Have Missed<\/p>\n

\"Arnold
\n Arnold Schwarzenegger with a big gun in the jungle in Predator<\/p>\n

The first Predator movie is a landmark in action cinema. It was the epitome of \u201880s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Predator still holds up today<\/a> \u2014 it\u2019s one of the greatest action movies ever made \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

Predator 2 Is A So-Bad-It’s-Good Guilty Pleasure<\/p>\n

\"A
\n A Predator in Predator 2 offers the flintlock gun<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s nowhere near as great as the first movie, Predator 2 is kind of a guilty pleasure<\/a>. It doesn\u2019t work as a movie, but there is a so-bad-it\u2019s-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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s a fun novelty in seeing the Predator in an urban environment.<\/p>\n

Predators Is Imperfect But Massively Underrated<\/p>\n

\"Oleg
\n Oleg Taktarov\u00a0as Nikolai and a Predator come face-to-face in Predators 2010<\/p>\n

The third film, Predators, is far from perfect. It has some pacing issues, it underutilizes a lot of great supporting actors, and it doesn\u2019t go quite as far as you want it to. But it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Much like James Cameron\u2019s 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Predator Is The Low Point Of The Franchise<\/p>\n

\"The
\n The Upgraded Predator from The Predator<\/p>\n

There wasn\u2019t a truly bad Predator film until 2018\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The characters are one-dimensional, the direction is sloppy, and the script\u2019s attempt to link the Predator to autism is just absurd. This is the Predator with the fewest redeeming qualities.<\/p>\n

It’s A Shame Arnold Schwarzenegger Never Came Back<\/p>\n

\"Arnold
\n Arnold Schwarzenegger shoots a gun in Predator 1987<\/p>\n

When you go back and rewatch the Predator movies now, you\u2019re thrilled by Schwarzenegger\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The subsequent movies have hinted at Dutch\u2019s return, but Schwarzenegger still hasn\u2019t 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Predators Aren’t Actually That Powerful<\/p>\n

\"The
\n The Predator emerges from the water in Predator (1987)<\/p>\n

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\u2019re done for. But the fundamentals of storytelling dictate that the hero has to defeat the Predator in time for the end credits.<\/p>\n

So, when you watch all these movies back-to-back, it\u2019s hard to shake the feeling that maybe the Predators aren\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

The Alien Vs. Predator Movies Bungled A Great Premise<\/p>\n

\"A
\n A Xenomorph and a Predator square off in AvP Alien vs Predator<\/p>\n

Whether or not the Alien vs. Predator movies<\/a> are canonical is a dicey issue. Some people contend that they\u2019re canon to Predator, but not to Alien; others would argue that they\u2019re Elseworlds-type stories that don\u2019t pertain to either canon. So, you might not even include them in a franchise rewatch.<\/p>\n

But if you do, you\u2019ll 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 \u2014 not bad, but not great \u2014 that just happens to include these familiar monsters, and the second one is truly dire.<\/p>\n

Predators Throughout History Is What They Should’ve Been Doing All Along<\/p>\n

\"Naru
\n Naru hiding from The Predator in Prey<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until the fifth attempt at a Predator sequel that someone finally hit on what they should\u2019ve been doing all along. With his acclaimed reboot Prey, Dan Trachtenberg figured out the perfect formula for the franchise\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Predator: Badlands Was More Fun In A Theater Than At Home<\/p>\n

\"Dek
\n Dek wields a weapon in Predator: Badlands.\u00a9 Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures \/ Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

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\u2019s a pure, pulpy space opera; a fun B-movie to escape into for a couple of hours.<\/p>\n

But when I rewatched it on Disney+, I found that it wasn\u2019t anywhere near as much fun on the small screen as it was on the big screen. It\u2019s a shame that Badlands underperformed at the box office, because it means the next Predator movie<\/a> will probably skip theaters altogether.<\/p>\n

Predator Didn’t Find Its Feet As A Franchise For 35 Years<\/p>\n

\"an
\n an animated predator roaring up toward the camera in Predator: Killer of Killers<\/p>\n

The biggest problem with the Predator franchise as a whole is that it didn\u2019t find its feet as a franchise for 35 years. The first movie was a standalone action movie masterpiece, but three-and-a-half decades\u2019 worth of Fox executives couldn\u2019t 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?<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t 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\u2019 worth of Predator sequels to get to anything good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a lot of fun to be had rewatching the Predator franchise. The series has been wildly hit-and-miss,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[146,85,46,397],"class_list":{"0":"post-399710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}