The Predator franchise is just frustrating much like the Alien one, Terminator died after Judgment Day for me. They started off really well, had a pretty good sequel and then have been really uneven ever since. For Alien, the biggest gripe I have is continuity along with how stupid people have to be in order for the Xenomorphs to do their thing. I guess the writers and Ridley Scott got a note from Murdoch and the Disney Stazi to stop using the more realistic plots; corporations and governments intentionally infecting people to make a profit. Now with Predator, it has gone better after Predator II. Yes, the AVPs sucked but Predators rocked in how we discovered, the aliens have a hunting planet to practice on. Then The Predator was a waste of time. Thankfully Prey rocked and its a shame only Hulu distributed it. I bet during the pre-COVID days it would’ve been a hit.
This outing recycles the old premise; people carrying out their line of work and the alien disrupts things. What makes Prey great is the execution; it’s set in the early 18th Century when the Comanche Nation was relatively unmolested by Europeans. If Ah-nold and his experienced, well-armed mercenaries got mowed down one by one in 1987, what chances do Naru and her fellow hunters have with bows and arrows circa 1715? The Comanches do have the advantage of knowing the terrain and unlike the French trappers who would’ve been poking around to the north, they’re more alert to their surroundings. Naru doesn’t necessarily need night-vision goggles or GPS, she has the skills commonly found in people who live the hunter-gatherer lifestyle. If the Comanches didn’t, they would’ve starved to death centuries ago.
Prey has great action sequences and gives more insight on the aliens’ strengths and weaknesses. Being on Hulu, it’s technically unrated so there are a few pretty gruesome scenes of people getting felled by the alien’s weapons. What I loved most was the attention to accuracy. The producers casted primarily people with First Nation heritage, not Chris Pratt covered in makeup and coached to have an accent; aka the insulting choice to cast him as Mario when there are plenty of better people of Italian descent. You can also watch it dubbed in the Comanche language with English subtitles. So in conclusion, I’ll close with the score on the three kick-ass Action/Sci-Fi franchises of the Eighties, AVP doesn’t count.
- Terminator: 1-5
- Alien: 4-2
- Predator: 4-1