My thoughts were spinning as I watched _The Predator_ in the cinema tonight. Because I’d heard so little positive feedback about it, my anxious brain was working overtime throughout the entire film. As a result of that, I almost feel like I experienced three different movies while sitting there. First, obviously, the movie on the screen itself. Secondly, the really good movie I kept imagining could have unfolded based on each new scene and development, but which ultimately didn’t happen. And thirdly, the terribly disappointing and franchise-damaging film that I worried it was about to become at any moment, thankfully avoiding that fate. That's essentially my experience with _The Predator_ and why I'm giving it a "2.5 outta 5" review: It wasn’t as good as it could have been, but also not as bad as it might have been. When you consider that the movie I was constructing in my head while watching it ended up being better than what was actually onscreen—and acknowledging that I'm not a particularly creative or skilled person—it just doesn't quite measure up for a sequel to _Predator_, one of only five films I’ve ever given a perfect score. The strongest parts of _The Predator_ are the scenes featuring the Predator itself. You might think, "Okay, it’s not a great movie, but at least it’s a decent _Predator_ movie," and that's a reasonable conclusion to reach. But even so, part of the problem is that this film could have worked just as well with any alien creatures at all. Remove the Yautja and replace them with… I don’t know, the blue-skinned pogo-stick people from Planet Hurfadump, and it would still play out in essentially the same way. Although I enjoyed watching the Predators do their thing, there wasn't really anything beyond superficial similarities that distinguished them from the Predators we’ve seen in previous films. I suspect one reason for this is that every other movie featuring a Predator has been an action-horror film—albeit with steadily increasing science fiction elements over time—whereas _The Predator_ is more of an action comedy, albeit with some gore thrown in. I don't think shifting the tone in that direction was necessarily a disaster, but it’s pretty clear now that it wasn’t the best approach for the _Predator_ franchise. It’s kind of ironic that this shift came from Shane Black, who has a connection to _Predator_ because the original film's crew insisted he work on the script, which he initially refused. And here we are, more than 30 years later, with Shane Black finally having his name attached to a Predator movie, and it’s not even good. Seriously. At least it was better than _AvP: Requiem_!

Source on TMDB