THE PREDATOR | How to Ruin a Franchise | EXPLORED

oh my god [Applause] [Music] hey good good predator is as iconic as 80s action films go and under the deft hands of john mctiernan it perfectly balances science fiction humor and action incredibly well but at its heart the movie is pure [Music] horror the first film was followed by a quickly made but terrific 90s sequel starring lethal weapons danny glover and the sadly miss bill paxton that lean more towards science fiction and action finally robert rodriguez was given a shot at reviving the fading franchise producing the 2010 nimrod antel directed predators the movie expands on the ideas we've had in previous films and takes it into a new direction with the aliens abducting their prey and dropping them off on a hunting planet used by the archwa i was then pretty excited to hear that shane black who starred as hawkins in the original film is going to be helming the next entry into the franchise surely someone who starred in and was the unofficial script editor of the film that launched everything would be a perfect fit dr brackett would you like to meet a predator come on turns out no this is why i was ultimately so disappointed with the end result which traded the dramatic tension in horror synonymous with a predator franchise for excessive humor with every single person in this film making a joke even if it doesn't suit their character what is this unicorn it's a unicorn two morons really making bets on whether a drug cartel has executed these options absolutely that was implying yeah just checking i'm in for 20. from the bible that's the most ridiculous thing i've ever heard it's a space alien this gets so out of hand that even the predators have a sense of humor comparable to shane black and like to make jokes now everything okay back there [Music] really funny as we're about to discuss the production also didn't exactly go as planned with the studio demanding major rewrites and reshoots which changed the entire third act predator wasn't only a box office disappointment and a major casting fail but a cinematic aberration and textbook example of how not to do horror why some things are better left untouched and how to ruin a franchise hey guys what's happening neat here with film comics explained and as voted for by you guys in last week's poll today we're going to be exploring shane black's 2018 the predator as well as the version of the film that was ultimately cut by the studio one of the fundamental differences between john mctiernan's original predator film and shane blacks the predator is the approach each director takes with mctin and skillful execution predator rises above its action movie sci-fi roots reversing our expectations by placing a handful of the most dangerous man in the world into a situation beyond their control predator goes all in on the jungle all in on the sci-fi and all in on the sweaty palm macho action yes there's some comedy in the dialogue between the characters and one line is that they spew but the jokes are always in character and they never get in the way of the film's true genre horror the larger than life soldiers appear to be on top of everything for the first 30 minutes of the film with a handful of clues scattered throughout the jungle as to the real danger they were actually in and by the time the predator begins to hunt them down the turn of the film changes from an action comedy to a horrifying thriller the predator on the other hand completely misunderstands how to use action horror and especially humor with its insertion often undercutting all the dramatic tension that's been built i just want the boy nobody's gotta die dad from here forward when shane black is in his element he's a master of dialogue and building character the best part of his two films kiss kiss bang bang and the nice guys is the superbly crafted dialogue noir sensibilities and witty characterizations but the predator franchise isn't noir it's not a buddy cup movie either although a predator buddy movie would be pretty cool i mean the best part of alien v predator was seeing alexa would send a predator team up to take on a xenomorph queen so i guess i'm game point is the series is a sci-fi horror but instead of getting high strung set pieces brimming with machismo terror and gore we got keystone cops levels of silliness it's like watching the helicopter scene from the original movie but with a two-hour punch line is it just your imagination or is this haunted room actually stretching every [ __ ] time while it's attempted expanding the predator law are commendable the overuse of comedy and issues with the fast pacing tone and script like the ultimate predator wanting to use the dna of a kid with autism to enhance the genetics of its species because science makes it hard to invest in what's going on [Music] the latest entry into the series opens in outer space showcasing a conflict between two predatorships after sustaining damage the fleeing ship goes through a portal that leads it crashing towards earth where we find our protagonist ranger quinn mckenna played by boyd holbrook engaging in a rescue operation when the damaged ship crashes into his location mckenna comes across some of the predator's equipment and takes it before he and his squad mate dupree are taunted by the alien which strings up a third member of their team the predator then characteristically attacks the pair and kills dupree but quinn is able to use its own gear to incapacitate it just as a secret government division named project stargazer arrives on scene led by sterling k brown's will traeger who likes chewing gum and wearing shades gentlemen remember they're large they're fast and [ __ ] you up their idea of tourism as project stargazer takes the predator to a research base mckenna swallows the predator's cloaking device and sends some of the alien gear he acquired to a po box that eventually gets routed to his family home moments before he's apprehended which begs the question if he has an invisibility device why does he allow himself to get captured the only answer that black gives us is that it needs to happen so that the plot can progress we then meet quinn's autistic son rory who receives the package and somehow manages to decipher the alien language because this film wants us to believe that autism is a superpower more on this later but as he turns the gear on the ultimate predator that was chasing the fugitive gets a lock on the gears location and sets off to earth kicking the story into motion the unconscious predator is then transported to a secret lab where an evolutionary biologist olivia muns brackets who was literally swept off the streets is asked to study it because science and government so how'd they rope you into this i wrote a letter to the president when i was six told him how much i loved animals and that if nasa ever found a space animal they should call me the success of films like predator and alien is that they don't show the full creature until the end forcing the audience to piece together an image of what they thought it might look like based on each of their encounters until the horrifying revelation in the final act [Music] the newest addition to the franchise shoots itself in the foot by revealing the ultimate predator in the trailers rather than making it a surprise reveal worse than this is the framing and lighting used in the shots with the predators instead of using tight angles darkness and scenery to set an ominous mood we have the predator strapped to a gurney in a huge bright white room filled with scientists of course the predator who we discover had human dna spliced into it escapes just as quinn and a group of one-dimensional military convicts are very to the location holbrook is solid as mckenna and brings the same sort of grit to the role that he brought to logan antagonist pierce and trevante rhodes as likeable as mckenna's troubled but dependable right-hand man unfortunately other cast members don't fare quite so well theon greyjoy might as well not be in the film and keegan michael key and olivia munn are criminally miscast as a tough former soldier and apparent genius scientist respectively [Laughter] then there's thomas james tourette suffering baxley a character almost as unfunny as he is offensive kickoff [ __ ] a problem worsened by the fact that his main purpose in the film is comedy relief these dirty half dozen take over the bus they're on and taking bracket along for the ride head over to mckenna's home prompted by the realization that quinn had put his wife and son rory in danger but the issue is that up until this point none of the characters seem to be terrified of either predator if the protagonists aren't scared of the titular creatures how could we be expected to suspend our disbelief and feel fear honestly the only moment that had any sort of sustained tension or dread was the earlier sequence with bracket attempting to leave the lab while the predator went on a killing spree in the room beside her this should have been the tone of the film and was what i was expecting based on the trailer but it ended up being a single moment of terror that got lost in the film's attempt to blend suicide squad with predator the scene was also then undercut by the following actions of bracket who with no military experience or training is then seen chasing down the predator on foot the predator is literally killing every soldier that gets in the way and we have a biologist keeping up with its pace and doing some ridiculous stunts in an attempt to shoot the most experienced killer in the galaxy with a single shot tranquilizer gun this is national lampoon levels of absurdity that streets behind apart from rory quinn and trevante rhodes's nebraska who all effectively have their characters somewhat fleshed out it was really difficult to connect with any of the other characters because they all feel like parodies of human beings the loonies are all expendable as are all of the other characters in the film and as such little thought is put into who they are and what they have to say they're just there to tell jokes the worst part is that this humor comes in at the most inappropriate of times with an eye-rolling joke pun or comedic moment that totally ruins the dramatic tension that's established it's probably a project stargazer that's what the [ __ ] it is with project stargazer as well as the fugitive and ultimate predators after rory the scoundrels arrived just in time to save mckenna's son who's wearing the predator mask as a halloween costume what's messed up is that right before they find him the helmet is triggered by someone throwing a can at rory and responds by sending a plasma round at the offender's direction killing him in a gruesome display in front of trick-or-treating children before rory just walks away as if nothing happened because character development the fugitive locates mckenna and rory but is then promptly taken out by the upgrade our team are then captured by traeger who explains his theory that not only did the predators learn new tactics and strategies from the game that they hunted but that they were trying to improve their race with superior human dna before we all die out due to climate change because science the predators are supposed to be perfect hunters and we're all small puny insignificant beings with regards to strength and intellect when compared to the predators so why would they want to mix their dna with ours traeger then kidnaps rory and uses him to open the crashed alien ship forcing quinn and the loonies to rescue him just as the ultimate predator crashes the party and gives everyone a head start before it started hunting them in a roped in attempt to replicate the hunt from the original film the loonies now teaming up with traeger who literally shoots himself in their head like an idiot start fleeing through the forest where they're whittled down to mckenna bracket nebraska and rory right before the ultimate predator decides to also get into the kidnapping game because consistency turns out rory's autism is an advancement in human evolution and the ultimate predator wants to use his dna for hybridization with nebraska taking his life to bring the ship down the remaining group confront the pistol ultimate predator instead of ending mckenna the ultimate which killed the fugitive in one blow decides to throw him around the place giving our remaining trio time to bring it down with the turn equipment in the original film the last 30 minutes is dedicated to both dutch and the predator readying themselves for the battle of all ages the sequence is well paced lit and choreographed showcasing how dutch uses his wit ingenuity and grit to defeat a nigh unstoppable hunter that wiped out his entire team but here we have a bulletproof upgrade that can do this taken out by a series of unfortunate events because resolution the film then concludes with mckenna and rory working for the same government body that was straight up trying to kill them and other citizens with impunity because narrative progression we also find out that the fugitive had left us a gift in the form of a predator-killing suit to level the playing field between humans and predators but considering so much of the original story which we're about to discuss in the next chapter revolving around humans and a pair of predators working together to defeat a clan of upgrade predators had been cut out in the reshoots mandated by fox this moment makes absolutely no sense in the context of the story we just watched given its striking similarities to the iron man suits and the fact that shane himself directed iron man 3 i can't help but feel that they were trying to take a monster horror series we love and universal it by turning it into a superhero franchise by the film's conclusion none of the characters have grown or gone through a meaningful arc and the predators once feared and respected mortal hunters and now honorless bulletproof brutes the only thing shane black's predator succeeds in doing is to highlight how much better the original film was due to the presence of an actual sexual predator in a few scenes ann fox generally not being happy with the direction that black in co-writer fred decker had taken the film in rewrites and reshoots were mandated fundamentally changing the backbone of the narrative and the motivations and goals of our protagonists and antagonists during production of the predator you might have remembered seeing set photos that featured predators and armoured cars along with our human heroes fred decker shed some light on the film's original intention and how these good guy predators fit into the story i think we were halfway through the shoot we devised a sequence which was essentially our heroes commandeering a military convoy at that point in the film we established a pair of predator emissaries basically good kai predators what was interesting to shane and i was to ask a question that nobody tackled before which is what do the predators do except for hunt they've invented interstellar spacecrafts so they're clearly not stupid and they've obviously got a civilization and culture which is worth exploring our idea was that their planet is dying so they decided to take what previously was explored to dope creatures with the dna of other types of predators from alien worlds and create new targets for the hunt but now they realized well hey maybe we need to genetically upgrade ourselves to survive creating a fracture between traditional yachtshua and the new wave of bondless upgrade predators since earth is warming up and predators love the heat the idea was that the clan of upgrade predators wanted to move in leading to our heroes and the two good predators teaming up the story revealed that the upgrade had been developing gestating hybrids by splicing predator dna with the dna of creatures from all over the galaxy which they planned on releasing on earth to eradicate mankind what was to follow was an epic battle between the two groups but as dekker described the studio felt as though they were straying too far from what audiences were expecting the predator to be so they turned it into more of a hunt and set the sequence at night deca continues i'm actually quite pleased with the first half of the movie but it kind of goes off the rails and hollywood does this all the time by trying to appeal to everyone they end up appealing to no one what's frustrating is that this plotline is so much more interesting than what we ended up getting considering the significant changes made to the film and post-production it's no wonder the pacing turning characters are all over the place in the predator fox essentially created another fanfic situation by hiring a director that probably wasn't the right fit and then undermining their choices and punishing bold creative decisions by straight up overhauling their vision story and characters the end result isn't one cohesive film it's a fragmented patch up of scenes from two completely different movies the first predator succeeds because the script was solid the performances were on point and the film understood the balance necessary between action comedy sci-fi and horror the predator has all of these things just not in the right quantities or order the action sequences are great there's a good level of goal but every scene and i mean every single one is degraded and spoiled by a lack of focus and a ponchon for humor through a fundamental misunderstanding of the source material and a range of poor storytelling choices the predator ended up being a pale distorted shadow of the series we love by focusing on humor above horror the predator fails to grasp the quintessential truth of the first film that predators are terrifying and as a result i think it's a prime example of how to ruin a franchise [Music] [Music] you

Channel: FilmComicsExplained

Views: 231,198

Keywords: The Predator, Yautja, xenomorph

Id: MPzEux2Trm8

Length: 18min 8sec (1088 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 22 2021