Director: Nimród Antal
Cast: Adrien Brody, Topher Grace, Alice Braga, Walton Goggins
Have I Seen It Before: Nope. I distinctly remember wanting to go see it during its theatrical run, and that it was even a strong candidate for my birthday movie that year, but I couldn’t get the a good screening time, and went to go see The A-Team (2010) instead.
Did I Like It: I’m not sure I would have been any happier if I had gone the other way in that decision. It’s might be unfair to view Predators as fundamentally flavorless in 2025. At the time of release, we had seen hide nor hair out of the Yautja* in twenty years, and the two preceding films were testosterone-fueled, basic action movies. This may have a slightly stripped-down, almost Twilight Zone-esque set up to the carnage that will inevitably follow, but once that action is set up, that’s all there is. More testosterone. We know now that this series can do better, after the revelation of Prey (2022).
It isn’t helped at all that by the time the film is no longer content to check off action-movie boxes, it goes into a series of a plot twist revelations that serve only to underline how little I cared about these characters, as those revelations ended up so inconsequential, that I’m not going to mention them here not so much to avoid spoilers, but because it couldn’t possibly matter less.
Like I said, I came into this film at precisely the wrong time. Had I watched it fifteen years ago, I might have viewed it as a fun-enough diversion for a lazy afternoon. Now, it seems like the least essential entry in the series.
*Outside of a couple entries of Alien vs. Predator, which incidentally the wikipedia article for this film only tangentially links to, and so I think we all decided we’re not going to count it.