Comments on: FRANCHISE ME: Predators

By: RCA

RCA — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 21:12:24 +0000

Predanoir?

Why hasn’t someone done a Chris Hansen parody where he “catches a Predator”? “Could you come out of that tree, and have a seat over here?” C’mon internet, get on that.

By: dac1138

dac1138 — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 20:59:47 +0000

What I hate about the serial killer character is that while I’m willing to accept the idea that the Predators circle the earth and pluck warriors (or insert one of their own) from obvious conflict zones. Edwin isn’t a convicted serial killer, he isn’t a serial killer who is on trial. He’s a serial killer that no human on earth suspects. So this race that has to learn English every time it lands and figure out the difference between a child’s gun and a real one, can somehow observe individual humans in their daily lives and catch on to a serial killer that the police are not even after?

By: QuintProQuo

QuintProQuo — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 20:59:05 +0000

The guy whose chute didn’t deploy can’t be attributed to the Predators if he signed a waiver. I’m sure they made him sign a waiver.

By: Shawn C. Baker

Shawn C. Baker — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 19:22:41 +0000

Why no one draws from the AMAZING sequel Dark Horse comics did in the late 80′s or early 90′s – I believe it’s called Concrete Jungle and follows Dutch’s brother, a tough-ass cop in NY during a Heatwave - I just cannot understand. It is fantastic and would be great as a flix.

Great article

By: iankusc

iankusc — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 18:58:47 +0000

Predator Cubed: Dutch builds a new team, has to take out some Afghanis or something, and just then a bunch of Predators come down looking to bag that Dutch guy who nailed their bro. Schwarzenegger has to fight Jihadis AND Predators (who are fighting each other for the kill), and Carl “Action Jackson” Weathers shows up with a robot arm to save the day.
Doesn’t Schwarzenegger need the work now that he’s got alimony?

By: iankusc

iankusc — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 18:49:49 +0000

Yeah, it doesn’t bother me either. All good, fair points about the film, but I’d still pay to see “Predator cubed”.

By: Nardo

Nardo — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 12:23:20 +0000

Budget wise they had to match/beat the shitty AvP movies. Nobody’s going to Praetoria (or whatever it’s called) on tree fiddy.
This works as a palette cleanser after the AvP movies and it works as a follow on to P2 at least.
My theory on the two “races” was that the bigger, nastier ones were the chicks. Particularly as they had a sort of spidery look to them. The weaker males’ only outlook in life is to successfully breed before having their heads eaten.
” Edwin was able to identify a poisonous plant on the alien planet by its similarities to an Earth plant (even though this was never expressed in the film), how the hell was he able to accurately deduce the exact effects it would have on the human body?”
Saw it again on TV recently and I paid attention to that moment as I had the same question – I think it’s meant to suggest that the game reserve is seeded with Earth plants to some extent to allow the prey to make use of familiar materials to make weapons etc. If they grabbed some badass South American Indian dude you’d imagine he’d be pretty useless for hunting if he didn’t recognise familiar tress etc he could make his tools from.

By: McGreedy Rises

McGreedy Rises — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 10:28:10 +0000

The “game reserve” concept was cheapo and hacky. We’re back in the jungle. To quote Bill Paxton from Aliens “Whoopi fuckin do!” They shoulda gone balls out and taken us to Predator Prime. In a gladiatorial setting, have the humans battle it out with other captured alien beasts. Then the surviving humans – the toughest of the bunch – will fight to the death with the Predator gladiators. This shit writes itself!

By: darkraven28

darkraven28 — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 08:23:51 +0000

“He’s trapped on a fucking alien planet being fucking hunted by fucking aliens.”

When I here this one, I hear it being said using Brad Pitt’s Pikey/One Punch Mickey voice from “Snatch”. And I wish that quote was on the front of a dvd/blu ray cover. I’d buy it.

But I do agree with a lot of what was said in this article. This movie tries to have it both ways and just ends up fine. It’s fun to watch, and I like it better than the AVP movies, but there is truly so much unexplored potential with the Predator concept that it’s not even funny. They could do anything in any setting, any planet, any time period. They could do whatever they want with the concept. They don’t have to go back to the jungle. If they ever make another Predator movie, they need to take more risks.

By: BermudaMan

BermudaMan — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 04:05:50 +0000

This is what happens when a fanboy’s enthusiasm for previous movies in a franchise overrides his common sense. There are just too many attempted “triggers” in this film that desperately try to remind the viewer of the first PREDATOR, right down to Alan Silvestri’s musical cues. But instead, they only succeed at making us miss Dutch and his team of brawny brutes all the more.

In its own way, PREDATORS is something of a distant cousin to PROMETHEUS, in that they’re both movies straining to be too many things in order to satisfy too many people.

By: Ortizi

Ortizi — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 01:02:05 +0000

About the movie at hand, I could have used more Fishburne :\

By: Ortizi

Ortizi — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 00:42:27 +0000

Awesome retrospective; I love how Franchise Me makes me want to rewatch my favorites and their spawn after every article!

With that out of the way; this must be one of few franchises that I pretty much ignore every sequel (without malice or hard-feelings) because c’mon, original-flavor Predator is a singularity of ’80 cinema! Without getting back into the whole “testosterone-fueled, ’80s action mixed with thriller/horror” rundown of what made it awesome, it’s obvious how hard it would be to follow up Predator without losing something that made it so special to begin with.

By: Sebastian OB

Sebastian OB — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 21:46:12 +0000

I actually enjoy this movie well enough but Josh is 100% right on every point.

By: Drew Dietsch

Drew Dietsch — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 21:24:51 +0000

You pretty much hit the nail on the head with this one, Josh. While it's a decent enough movie on its own, it's a weak addition as a Predator movie. The ideas for a Predator sequel that have always interested me are along the same train of thought that led to Predator 2: a different battleground. We've seen jungle warfare and urban warfare, now how about desert Predator? Even more crazy, I'd love to see that Predators have been coming to Earth for years. Maybe show clips of Predators during medieval times or the Civil War. But the best sequel I think would be setting the movie in a future where Earthlings have acknowledged the existence of Predators and are actively suiting up to go attack them, like Cameron did with Aliens. Having a fleet of humans invade the Predator homeplanet a la Starship Troopers and having an all-out war would be a good time at the movies for me.

By: RelaxingDragon

RelaxingDragon — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 20:54:43 +0000

I rather like this entry, pretty much in spite of itself. I agree with pretty much everything you said, and can certainly see the flaws (especially in the two species thing, which seems to be there for the sake of being there). But somehow I still enjoy it, fluff-piece that it is. Brody does a solid lead role, the action is captured pretty nice, and I even dug the ending fight (hiding in fire was a nice touch, compared to the hiding in cold/blocking in mud thing from others).

Also, I will say that the whole “the audience already knows and has to wait for the characters to catch up to the premise thing” is weirdly something that just doesn’t bother me. It’s something that pretty much every slasher sequel puts up with, so maybe I’ve just become numb to the notion by now.