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SimplyScripts Screenwriting Discussion Board  /  Movie, Television and DVD Reviews  /  The Predator (2018)
Posted by: Demento, September 18th, 2018, 6:00am
Not good... not good.

Someone needs to tell Shane Black that he cannot write witty dialogue. He's trying too hard.

This felt more like a movie aimed at kids, than a hard R movie.
Posted by: Dreamscale (Guest), September 18th, 2018, 9:30am; Reply: 1
I've read the terrible reviews and am so bummed, as I love this franchise.

Problem is, I HATE Shane Black, so probably won't be seeing this at the theater.

BUMMER!!!
Posted by: HyperMatt, September 18th, 2018, 4:54pm; Reply: 2
I loved the original. I kind of liked the first AVP too even though a lot of folks hate it. Think the problem with that franchise is that they are trying to recreate the same stories the same settings, same characters. They need to do something completely different.
Posted by: Demento, September 18th, 2018, 5:03pm; Reply: 3
I love the original as well. I even liked Predator 2 and Predators. I could somehow live with AVP, but AVP2 was hot garbage.

Maybe they should have gone with one of the previous ideas they had floating around, which was a period movie with Predators.
Posted by: HyperMatt, September 18th, 2018, 5:29pm; Reply: 4
Yes, something different. Still think Predator is one of the great Hollywood monsters. Up there with Frankenstein and Freddy.
Posted by: eldave1, September 18th, 2018, 7:06pm; Reply: 5
The trailer looked dreadful
Posted by: Demento, September 19th, 2018, 7:58am; Reply: 6

Quoted from eldave1
The trailer looked dreadful

When you put a kid as one of the focal points in a hard R movie, it rarely works out.
Posted by: Penoyer79, September 20th, 2018, 12:49am; Reply: 7
The Trailer was enough for me to avoid this one. Yech

The original Predator was awesome.
Posted by: Heretic, September 20th, 2018, 1:32pm; Reply: 8
I thought it was fine. They haven't managed a good or memorable movie since the original, so there's nothing out of order with this just being a fun dumb blockbuster, which I thought it was.

Pretty generic action and not much of an edge, but the cast was good, the plot was entertaining and pleasantly small-scale, some of the performances were genuinely good (Trevante Rhodes, Jacob Tremblay and Sterling K. Brown are all exactly what we should want from blockbuster acting), and the jokes were comfortably bad and occasionally actually funny.

I'll take a mildly original action comedy that tells a complete story over Star Wars 11 any day.
Posted by: James McClung, September 20th, 2018, 2:37pm; Reply: 9
SPOILERS TO MULTIPLE PREDATOR FILMS: Any Predators teaming up with humans in this one to fight a common enemy? Cuz that's a dealbreaker for me. I'd rather have bad dialogue and inane plot.
Posted by: FrankM, September 20th, 2018, 3:01pm; Reply: 10

Quoted from James McClung
SPOILERS TO MULTIPLE PREDATOR FILMS: Any Predators teaming up with humans in this one to fight a common enemy? Cuz that's a dealbreaker for me. I'd rather have bad dialogue and inane plot.


Now I'm glad that Predator 2 put me off from watching any more of the series. Sounds like they made these guys out to be Elmer Fudd with better hunting gear.
Posted by: Heretic, September 20th, 2018, 3:18pm; Reply: 11

Quoted from James McClung
SPOILERS TO MULTIPLE PREDATOR FILMS: Any Predators teaming up with humans in this one to fight a common enemy? Cuz that's a dealbreaker for me. I'd rather have bad dialogue and inane plot.


SPOILERS FOR ONLY THIS PREDATOR FILM: I guess a grey area? There is a Predator character that is, er, sympathetic to the human cause. However, it does not meaningfully "team up" with humans, there are no scenes with humans/predators fighting side by side, there is no bond between a human and Predator character, etc...
Posted by: Dreamscale (Guest), September 20th, 2018, 3:59pm; Reply: 12

Quoted from FrankM
Now I'm glad that Predator 2 put me off from watching any more of the series. Sounds like they made these guys out to be Elmer Fudd with better hunting gear.


Hey now..I actually enjoyed Predator 2, and even saw it at the theater.

Posted by: DustinBowcot (Guest), September 21st, 2018, 2:07am; Reply: 13
I remember the first one with Schwarzenegger. Never seen any of the others. I rarely waste my time with sequels. Like a lot of other things, they should have died in the 80s.
Posted by: James McClung, September 21st, 2018, 12:20pm; Reply: 14
I haven't seen Predator 2 in some time, but it always struck me as the most logical progression from the previous film. They kept the plot simple but not a carbon copy of the original. The biggest change is in the scenery, which seems superficial, but the city setting provides just enough new elements for a fresh dynamic. You don't learn much more about the Predator, but you get to see the spaceship, which is a taste. Isn't the character better off mysterious? A responsible follow-up, I think, albeit not the most memorable.


Quoted from Heretic
SPOILERS FOR ONLY THIS PREDATOR FILM: I guess a grey area? There is a Predator character that is, er, sympathetic to the human cause. However, it does not meaningfully "team up" with humans, there are no scenes with humans/predators fighting side by side, there is no bond between a human and Predator character, etc...


This seems like a fair characterization. Listened to the Half in the Bag review yesterday, which spoiled the film but good. Man oh man, am I glad I didn't hustle to the theater for this one. This particular plot development is exactly the sort of thing I intended to avoid.
Posted by: AnthonyCawood, September 23rd, 2018, 4:38am; Reply: 15
For the Brits... I've just bought Predator 1 & 2 and Predators as a box set on BluRay from Asda £7 - bargain!
Posted by: DustinBowcot (Guest), September 26th, 2018, 2:05am; Reply: 16
People still buy DVDs! I'm glad to have gotten rid of all mine. My kids had hundreds. Upon saying that, I still have a veritable library of books. But I think books are different. I have read books on a screen but it's better on paper. Must be something to do with the contrast.
Posted by: HyperMatt, September 26th, 2018, 1:45pm; Reply: 17
DVDs & Blu-Rays are great.
Posted by: DustinBowcot (Guest), September 26th, 2018, 1:49pm; Reply: 18

Quoted from HyperMatt
DVDs & Blu-Rays are great.


... for taking up space you don't need to.


It's like the 70s and 80s when our parents (I'm guessing yours too) had half the living room decorated with 12" vinyl albums. It's time to let go.
Posted by: FrankM, September 26th, 2018, 2:03pm; Reply: 19

Quoted from DustinBowcot


... for taking up space you don't need to.


It's like the 70s and 80s when our parents (I'm guessing yours too) had half the living room decorated with 12" vinyl albums. It's time to let go.


Not sure how expensive they were, but we didn't have anything to put in that 1/4-inch headphone jack when I was a little kid. My parents got really sick of hearing me play the same two records and same two tapes over and over again.
Posted by: khamanna, September 26th, 2018, 9:14pm; Reply: 20
I had nothing to do, so I decided to watch it in a theater. It had the highest rating out of those which showed that week - 7.8 imdb rating.

I have just one question - why? Why 7.8 I mean. How's that even possible.

It's funny enough - I give it that. But there are so many issues. They place all the value on CGI effects I guess. This was CGI infused much of nothing.
No story, no nothing, just lots of CGI in my opinion.

I don't feel like writers are much needed these days.
Posted by: DustinBowcot (Guest), September 27th, 2018, 2:05am; Reply: 21

Quoted from khamanna
I had nothing to do, so I decided to watch it in a theater. It had the highest rating out of those which showed that week - 7.8 imdb rating.



When a film first comes out, everybody that had anything to do with it vote first. Obviously, all of the cast and crew are going to give it a 10. Wait for a year and the rating will likely go down to around 5 or less.
Posted by: khamanna, September 27th, 2018, 7:14am; Reply: 22

Quoted from DustinBowcot


When a film first comes out, everybody that had anything to do with it vote first. Obviously, all of the cast and crew are going to give it a 10. Wait for a year and the rating will likely go down to around 5 or less.


I might have mixed up something when checked the rating that day. It shows 6.0 actually, couldn't go that low in a matter of days I think.

It was still higher than everything else in that particular movie theater this past Sunday - also new movies and all.
Posted by: Demento, September 27th, 2018, 2:36pm; Reply: 23

Quoted from khamanna


I might have mixed up something when checked the rating that day. It shows 6.0 actually, couldn't go that low in a matter of days I think.

It was still higher than everything else in that particular movie theater this past Sunday - also new movies and all.


The original movie has a 7.8. This one has a much lower grade.

The original is great and is called PREDATOR. This one sucks and is called THE Predator.
Posted by: Dreamscale (Guest), September 27th, 2018, 5:16pm; Reply: 24

Quoted from khamanna


I might have mixed up something when checked the rating that day. It shows 6.0 actually, couldn't go that low in a matter of days I think.

It was still higher than everything else in that particular movie theater this past Sunday - also new movies and all.


You can't trust IMDB on movies playing at the box office, as Dustin said.

Check out Rotten Tomatoes for new movies.  You'll get a pretty good idea of whether the movie is good, decent, or terrible.

Posted by: khamanna, September 27th, 2018, 6:17pm; Reply: 25

Quoted from Demento


The original movie has a 7.8. This one has a much lower grade.

The original is great and is called PREDATOR. This one sucks and is called THE Predator.


Aaa, now I get it! Yeah, sucks is the word.
Posted by: khamanna, September 27th, 2018, 6:17pm; Reply: 26

Quoted from Dreamscale


You can't trust IMDB on movies playing at the box office, as Dustin said.

Check out Rotten Tomatoes for new movies.  You'll get a pretty good idea of whether the movie is good, decent, or terrible.



Rotten Tomatoes should be more honest, right.
Posted by: Dreamscale (Guest), August 20th, 2019, 1:52pm; Reply: 27
Finally got around to seeing this and boy oh boy am I ever glad I didn't spend a dime on it.

IMO, this is absolutely terrible film making in basically every single way imaginable.  I always say that many times, I can tell in the first minute or so of the film whether it will be good or bad.  I cringed within the first few here and said out loud to myself, "This is going to be really bad."

I don't know if much more even needs to be said, but there are a few things I need to throw out.

Shane Black is a complete hack.  Yeah, he's responsible for the Lethal Weapon movies, but just look at his IMDB writing credits and look at the dreck he's unleashed on the big screen.  Just terrible.

It's interesting to note that this had a budget around $88 Million, but I'm to call Bullshit on this, because the entire 3rd act was rewritten and reshot, and based on what I've read, both 3rd acts were expensive to shoot and put together.  Basically, either the original budget was much lower, or the actual final budget was much higher.

Because of the complete overhaul of the 3rd act, there are glaring omissions, oversights, continuity issues, and things that just don't make any sense.  In fact, many characters/actors were completely cutout of the final cut, including Edward James Olmos.  Just think of the wasted money here.  Sad...very sad.

Sadly, the whole movie was garbage and who it was aimed at is a complete mystery, because it sure as shit wasn't the fans of the 1987 original, or even the sequels that have followed.  The tone here is completely fucked up and comes off a comedy or parody, which has no place in a Predator movie or AVP movie.

This is God awful, peeps.  I see no redeeming qualities or reason for a repeat viewing - ever!

Grade - F (as in FUCK YOU, Shane Black!)
Posted by: Zack, August 20th, 2019, 2:35pm; Reply: 28
This is not a completed film. The editing is so fuckin' choppy, the story so nonsensical, really made it a chore to get through. Shame, too. Cuz I love this franchise and I was sure Shane Black would knock it out of the park. Oh boy, was I wrong. :(
Posted by: Dreamscale (Guest), August 20th, 2019, 4:37pm; Reply: 29

Quoted from Zack
This is not a completed film. The editing is so fuckin' choppy, the story so nonsensical, really made it a chore to get through.


Yep.  Go on IMDB and just read trivia section.  Same with Wiki.  Sad story on how bad everyone involved fucked this up so badly.  Even the FX were weak, IMO.  Just such a complete waste of so much time, talent, and money.

Posted by: Zack, August 20th, 2019, 5:23pm; Reply: 30

Quoted from Dreamscale


Yep.  Go on IMDB and just read trivia section.  Same with Wiki.  Sad story on how bad everyone involved fucked this up so badly.  Even the FX were weak, IMO.  Just such a complete waste of so much time, talent, and money.



I've got the script with the original third act, if you're interested in it.
Posted by: Dreamscale (Guest), August 20th, 2019, 8:23pm; Reply: 31
I am!  I definitely am.  E-mail her to me!

Is it the entire original shooting script?

Nice, Zack.  Thanks, Bro!
Posted by: Zack, August 20th, 2019, 8:53pm; Reply: 32
Looks like an early draft to me. Sent it your way, Dude. Enjoy. ;D
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