One of the worst rated Predator sequels is enjoying a resurgence thanks to its appearance on Netflix this month, and has almost topped the Global movie chart. Despite not being released in the U.S. (where it can be found on Hulu thanks to the franchise now being part of the Disney family) The Predator has found a new audience on the platform around the world…although it has continued to find little love on the review front.
The Predator attempted to revive the franchise eight years after the mostly successful 2010 movie, Predators. Setting its story between the events of 1990s Predator 2 and that movie, it follows a group of soldiers and a scientist attempting to discover what plans the alien race has for the future of the Earth and its inhabitants. It is discovered that the Predators that have crashed their ship on Earth have strains of human DNA within their own genetic make-up, and that they are seemingly intent on attempting to evolve themselves by creating a hybrid species with the use of genetic engineering.
The movie suffered from a number of production setbacks, some controversial issues with its story and casting, and generally did not land with audiences as a result. Currently, The Predator has a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score of 34%, and Popcornmeter score of 32% - making it the second worst rated of the franchise when it comes to audience reactions.
The movie was originally announced in 2014, and the first production tease followed two years later. Although there had been talk of Arnold Schwarzenegger returning for a cameo as Dutch Schaefer, the actor reportedly turned down the offer due to the role being too small. However, that was not the biggest issues that faced the movie’s development.
The Troubled Production of The Predator
Very few movies have a completely smooth production, and The Predator certainly had its problems. The casting of Steve Wilder, a friend of director Shane Black, in a minor role created a wave of outrage, due to Wilder being on a sex offender’s register since 2010 for grooming a 14-year-old girl. His scene in the movie involved him flirting with Olivia Munn’s character, and once the actress discovered his history, she demanded that the scene be cut. Black initially stood by his decision but later issued an apology in the face of the backlash. The scene was indeed cut as a result.
The film also came under first for its depictions of autism. The Predators’ quest for higher human beings leads to the movie interpreting that people with autism are representative of an advancement in the evolution of humans. Many reviews of the movie slammed the film for the way it handles the subject of autism, including the New York Post, who called its treatment of autism “a dubious scientific theory that will leave parents fuming.”
Even pushing those controversies aside, The Predator feels like a movie that was doomed to fail. Test screenings were reportedly so bad that the ending was re-written and re-shot in July 2018 – just two months before the film debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in September of that year. For the most part, they could have saved a little bit of budget, as the climax of the movie proved to be only a small part of the problem in the mostly disappointing entry in the franchise.
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At the time of The Predator’s release, it was suggested that Fox wanted to see Black return to direct at least one sequel, but the underwhelming box office, terrible reviews, and the merger of Fox and Disney saw those plans dropped. Instead, in 2022, Dan Trachtenberg released an unexpected prequel movie in the form of Disney+ exclusive Prey. The film received the best reviews of the entire franchise, even surpassing the 1987 original, leading to Trachtenberg setting to work on delivering another new installment which is now in development.
The Predator
R
Sci-Fi
Action
Adventure
Horror
Thriller
Where to Watch
- stream
- rent
- buy
*Availability in US
- Release Date
- September 5, 2018
- Director
- Shane Black
- Cast
- Boyd Holbrook , Olivia Munn , Trevante Rhodes , Keegan Michael Key , Thomas Jane , Sterling K. Brown
- Runtime
- 101
- Main Genre
- Sci-Fi
- Writers
- Fred Dekker , Shane Black
- Studio
- 20th Century Fox
- Tagline
- You'll Never See Him Coming
- Franchise
- Predator
