However, there is also something very superficial and shallow about the Predator, something very generic and surface level. It is striking, and a creature that it’s fun to imagine in a variety of different settings.
The creature has green blood that is thick as goop and which glows in the dark, a nice little touch that establishes the creature as “other” even beyond its clammy reptilian skin and the pincers around its mouth. The helmet is imposing, but the face underneath the helmet is even more striking. Alan Silvestri’s soundtrack (and the sound design of the creature’s equipment) suggests a tribal aspect to the creature. The Predator is undeniably a cool design, even with its armour on.
The Predator provides everything that a good action movie needs from its antagonist it is sadistic enough to extend its kills, mysterious enough to hold the audience’s interest, imposing enough to provide a real threat. Inevitably, Predator movies suggest that humans make particularly engaging prey, although xenomorphs are a lucrative sideline. It is an extraterrestrial big game hunter that ventures to foreign planets in order to hunt the most dangerous prey. The Predator is undoubtedly a fascinating creation. The answer may lie with the Predator itself. Why is it so hard to make a good Predator sequel? For all the criticism of films like Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, they at least engender passion in their audiences, in a way that the sequels to Predator do not. There are sequels to Alien that are rightly regarded as classics such as Aliens, while other have launched great careers such as Alien³, and some still cause fierce debates. After all, the xenomorph has been at the centre of a franchise that is consistently interesting and at best innovative. However, this stock comparison does not flatter the Predator. Both have spawned a variety of sequels, and are loosely linked in the popular mind in the way that the Universal Studios films linked Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster with the Mummy or the Invisible Man. Both properties are owned by Twentieth Century Fox, allowing them to intersect and crossover within a shared universe. The xenomorph from Alien is another iconic late twentieth-century alien design housed within an R-rated science-fiction action-horror franchise. Indeed, the stock comparison for the Predator is the Alien franchise, and for good reason. ( Indeed, the latest sequel starring Michael Myers is critically outpacing The Predator.) It is not exactly an impressive track record for a reasonably big budget mainstream high-profile science-fiction franchise. This is the kind of showing that audiences and critics expect from low-rent horror sequels like those starring Freddie Kreuger or Jason Voorhees. Similarly, Predators is the only sequel with a vaguely positive rating on MetaCritic, scraping just over fifty percent. Of those five sequels, Predators is the only one with a positive score on Rotten Tomatoes. However, it is decidedly less impressive in terms of quality. That’s an impressive list, in terms of quantity and variety.
Predator: Requiem, Predators and The Predator. So the Predator became the cornerstone of an impressive multimedia franchise even outside of games and comic books, the creature anchored Predator 2, Alien vs. Although modern prognosticators decry the modern era as one defined by sequels and remakes and reboots, but they have always been a feature of the landscape. After all, that is how the film industry works. It is no surprise that the Predator was quickly franchised.
Predator narrowly averted disaster when Stan Winston redesigned the monster from scratch, so it is all the more impressive that it became such a classic. The original design for the creature is something of an internet urban legend, part of the pop cultural folklore. This is especially notable given that it could have been a disaster.
Even people who have never sat down and watched a movie featuring the creature are familiar with the design. The creature created by Stan Winston for John McTiernan’s 1987 action blockbuster is instantly recognisable. The Predator is one of the most iconic creations of the past thirty-odd years.