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I'll be a little bit of a defender here. Winstons design wouldnt work for the story they want to tell. The Predator is the protagonist, and as iconic as Winstons design is, that design cant emote or carry a movie. Im pretty sure Winston himself would agree with this. It can look bad ass and intimidating, and not much else. When it's the antagonist wearing a mask for most of the movie, thats perfect. Whether or not they succeed with the story they want to tell is a whole different argument, but they need to do more Gollum in LOTR than Predator in 1987 for this movie to work. Will it work? I dunno. Hope so. But only time is gonna tell.
But instead of bemoaning that its CGI, at least its trying to do something the original couldnt. Its only a few seconds of footage, but theres more emotion ATTEMPTING to be conveyed than other Predator movies. I say attempted because I dont know if it will pull off what its trying to do. But the way its eyes move and the brown furrow means theyre going to try to make a CHARACTER, not a monster. Im not arguing they succeeded, only time will tell on that, but Im saying thats the goal.
Its also getting a little tiresome for all this "Predator Lore gate-keeping" where people bring up every pred-wiki factoid or panel from a 30 year old Dark horse comic that the movie probably isnt taking into account, and it shouldnt.
I dunno if the movie will work. I know Prey was getting astronomical hate, and the movie turned out decent. Not great, but decent. And Im fine with decent compared to slop like The Predator. Original Predator is a classic, and I dont need or expect other Predator movies to be classics.
I loved predator 2 as a kid, and because I loved it I still have a lot of goodwill towards it even though Adult Me realizes it is objectively not a good movie, and even does what people are complaining about in this trailer and breaks the "lore" of the previous movie. But I was 12 years old and didnt a care and a Predator with a spear was dope and Gary Busey makes anything better no matter what, even when he makes it worse.
Thats the kind of attitude I want to have with Predator movies. I dont want to be this old nerd bitching about changes because they arent the same thing or it didnt take into account every minute detail from everything that ever existed, regardless of whether or not it was a story I even read or cared about. I wanna treat it like 12 year old me where I was just happy as a clam to get more Predator. If the movie is decent, not great or as good as the Arnie version, just decent, then I can have 12 year old me be happy again instead of me in my 40's being upset because "THAT'SS NOT HAIIRR!!!! OMFG!!!" or "Look at this panel from a dark horse comic series 30 people read back in 1998".
My generation absolutely loved Predator. My Parents generation liked it because it was good, but it didnt capture their imagination like it did ours and unleash furious debates for hours about who would win, what that thing on the Predator ship meant, etc. Now we are the older generation, and we arent going to love any Predator movie like we loved the original. Its not possible.
But our kids? My kids loved OG Predator when I showed them. Oldest boy convinced his soccer team 2 weeks later to name their team The Predators and I couldnt have been more proud of him if he had saved 100 lives in a burning building.
Then they also loved Prey. They loved Prey like I loved Predator 2, and theyre absolutely going batshit for the animated movie and Badlands. I cant be that person going utterly batshit for Predator stuff anymore because that time has gone, and the movies arent going to age with me nor should they. But my kids? Goddam, the fact that theyre super into Predator and ask me about the old comic stories and shit is frigging awesome.
At its core, Predator is just supposed to be cool and fun. We're talking about a movie that had a guy carry around a gun from a fucking helicopter, that would have 300 pounds of ammunition that would last about 20 seconds. Lets not be that critical. Let it be cool and fun, even if it means some panel from a Dark Horse comic written by Dan Johnson when Clinton was president isnt taken into account. You are not the cool guy in the room when you're in your 30's arguing about how movies in 2025 dont follow the lore of a 30 year old comic.
But instead of bemoaning that its CGI, at least its trying to do something the original couldnt. Its only a few seconds of footage, but theres more emotion ATTEMPTING to be conveyed than other Predator movies. I say attempted because I dont know if it will pull off what its trying to do. But the way its eyes move and the brown furrow means theyre going to try to make a CHARACTER, not a monster. Im not arguing they succeeded, only time will tell on that, but Im saying thats the goal.
Its also getting a little tiresome for all this "Predator Lore gate-keeping" where people bring up every pred-wiki factoid or panel from a 30 year old Dark horse comic that the movie probably isnt taking into account, and it shouldnt.
I dunno if the movie will work. I know Prey was getting astronomical hate, and the movie turned out decent. Not great, but decent. And Im fine with decent compared to slop like The Predator. Original Predator is a classic, and I dont need or expect other Predator movies to be classics.
I loved predator 2 as a kid, and because I loved it I still have a lot of goodwill towards it even though Adult Me realizes it is objectively not a good movie, and even does what people are complaining about in this trailer and breaks the "lore" of the previous movie. But I was 12 years old and didnt a care and a Predator with a spear was dope and Gary Busey makes anything better no matter what, even when he makes it worse.
Thats the kind of attitude I want to have with Predator movies. I dont want to be this old nerd bitching about changes because they arent the same thing or it didnt take into account every minute detail from everything that ever existed, regardless of whether or not it was a story I even read or cared about. I wanna treat it like 12 year old me where I was just happy as a clam to get more Predator. If the movie is decent, not great or as good as the Arnie version, just decent, then I can have 12 year old me be happy again instead of me in my 40's being upset because "THAT'SS NOT HAIIRR!!!! OMFG!!!" or "Look at this panel from a dark horse comic series 30 people read back in 1998".
My generation absolutely loved Predator. My Parents generation liked it because it was good, but it didnt capture their imagination like it did ours and unleash furious debates for hours about who would win, what that thing on the Predator ship meant, etc. Now we are the older generation, and we arent going to love any Predator movie like we loved the original. Its not possible.
But our kids? My kids loved OG Predator when I showed them. Oldest boy convinced his soccer team 2 weeks later to name their team The Predators and I couldnt have been more proud of him if he had saved 100 lives in a burning building.
Then they also loved Prey. They loved Prey like I loved Predator 2, and theyre absolutely going batshit for the animated movie and Badlands. I cant be that person going utterly batshit for Predator stuff anymore because that time has gone, and the movies arent going to age with me nor should they. But my kids? Goddam, the fact that theyre super into Predator and ask me about the old comic stories and shit is frigging awesome.
At its core, Predator is just supposed to be cool and fun. We're talking about a movie that had a guy carry around a gun from a fucking helicopter, that would have 300 pounds of ammunition that would last about 20 seconds. Lets not be that critical. Let it be cool and fun, even if it means some panel from a Dark Horse comic written by Dan Johnson when Clinton was president isnt taken into account. You are not the cool guy in the room when you're in your 30's arguing about how movies in 2025 dont follow the lore of a 30 year old comic.
