Why Predator Reboots Haven’t Worked (& What Predator 5 Needs To Do Right)

The Predator franchise hasn’t been able to launch a successful comeback; here’s what the prequel Predator 5 needs to do to revive the franchise.

You Are Reading :Why Predator Reboots Havent Worked (& What Predator 5 Needs To Do Right)

The Predator series hasn’t launched a successful reboot yet, but the upcoming Predator 5 might have a shot at re-energizing the franchise. Predator hit theaters in 1987, becoming one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s most enduring action movies and establishing the titular alien hunter as one of the most iconic movie monsters of all time. The Predator would even become a kindred spirit of the Xenomorph from the Alien franchise, with the Aliens vs Predator expanding comic book lore and a Xenomorph skull being seen in a Predator trophy room in 1990’s Predator 2.

Unfortunately, the Predator series has never managed to capture the same lightning in a bottle of the 1987 original. Following Predator 2, the hunter from another world finally crossed over with the Xenomorphs on the big screen in 2004’s Alien vs Predator and 2007’s Aliens vs Predator: Requiem, neither of which were greatly embraced by lovers of either franchise. The proper Predator series got rolling again with 2010’s Predators, but it failed to successfully reboot the series, while the fourth installment, The Predator, seemingly cratered the Predator franchise for good in 2018.

Following Disney’s acquisition of Fox, the Predator series will soon be taking another stab with the Dan Trachtenberg-directed prequel through 20th Century Studios. Though the movie will take place well before every other Predator film, there are still important lessons to be learned from the previous failed attempts to reboot the series. Here’s what Predator 5 can learn from its predecessors in its bid to fully resurrect the Predator franchise.

The Predator Has Had Two Failed Reboot Attempts

After the poor reception to the big screen Alien vs Predator crossovers in 2004 and 2007, the series simultaneously went back to its roots and tried something completely different in 2010’s Predators. Produced by Robert Rodriguez from a story he developed in the early 90s, Predators was altogether fairly well-received, with praise for moving the jungle setting of Dutch’s showdown with the Predator to an alien planet and its concept of warring subsets of Predators. However, while its final worldwide haul of $127 million against a $40 million budget was a box office success, the movie wasn’t enough of a smash hit for the ball to immediately get rolling on another Predator movie.

The franchise would finally make its way back to the big screen with 2018’s The Predator, which saw a much more negatively tilted reception than its 2010 predecessor. The film was also the subject of pre-release controversy due to a scene involving Olivia Munn’s character Brackett and Steve Wilder, removed at the request of Munn after learning of Wilder being a registered sex offender. On top of that, The Predator was also heavily altered and reshot after principal photography, particularly The Predator’s third act being most impacted by reshoots. While it earned just shy of $161 million, its $88 million budget made The Predator a significant financial disappointment when adding in the marketing budget.

Why Predator Reboots Have Failed

Predators is the closest the franchise has gotten to returning to the heights of cultural significance and mainstream acclaim achieved by the 1987 original. It’s harder to say what held it back from becoming a bigger hit, but it may have simply been a case of Predators paying the price for the backlash to the Alien vs Predator movies. In the case of The Predator, its downfall was due to much clearer factors.

The Predator added little new material to the Predator mythos, while the reshoots made the film feel unfocused and disjointed. The ending with the discovery of a Predator Killer suit, in particular, came out of left field, with the suit earning widespread comparisons to Iron Man. It was a major step down from the originally conceived ending, which involved the discovery of Newt from Aliens in a pod. When all’s said and done, Predators was unfairly colored by the poor reception of its Alien vs Predator predecessors, while The Predator’s chaotic production and retooling left it a jarring, unorganized mess.

What Predator 5 Needs To Do To Fully Revive The Franchise

Predator 5 is said to focus on a female warrior protagonist along with the first Predator hunt on Earth, rumored to be set thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years ago, which completely retcons the Alien vs Predator timeline after Predators just simply ignored it. While full details on the story aren’t known beyond that, Predator 5 does seem to be borrowing at least a few concepts from Predator 2 and Predators with the idea of Predators having hunted humans for centuries. Since Predators has been the most well-liked film in the series since the original, it isn’t a bad idea to follow its lead on the Predator mythos, which could fit in well with everything that is known about Predator 5.

Still, for as much as Predators paid homage to the first movie in the series, it also charted its own course with another planet being used as the Predator’s hunting grounds and different factions of the Predator culture being in conflict. The Predator 5 prequel needs to similarly go its own route, and one way it can do that is by extrapolating the third act of Dutch’s last stand in the original Predator to be the bulk of the film itself. Essentially, Predator 5 can stand on its own as more of a singular conflict between one human and one Predator, with the horror undertones that made the first Predator click back in the 80s.

Predators made a very worthy effort to revitalize the Predator franchise, to the point of being the only Predator movie to be a solid follow-up to the original. Still, the series clearly hasn’t yet managed to get out of its rut and reassert itself as the sci-fi action series with its vast lore that it started out as. By going back in time as far as it is, the prequel could represent a truly fresh start for the series that it so far has not managed to attain. Though past efforts to reboot the series for the modern age have been unsuccessful, Predator 5 has a roadmap of what traps to avoid falling into, and hopefully, it can finally be the entry in the Predator series to truly bring it back to life.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/predator-5-reboots-franchise-failed-fix-reasons-how/