The degrading of the Predator.
PREDATOR
Let me set the scene, Its 1987. A man named John McTiernan had an idea. What if you took the standard Action movie heroes and put them into a horror setting? So how could he do this? He went and got some of the best Action movie actors around and make a film called PREDATOR. The Predator in this film was one of the all time great villains, It was mysterious, It was realistic, It was big, Bad and unstoppable. It was a beast! And the best part is McTiernan doesn't milk it one single bit. He doesn't reveal the main antagonist until at least halfway into the movie and even then its only cloaked and very quick and brief shots. The unrealistically tough and macho Billy (Who fears no man) Is even accepting of his own death due to the sheer presence of this god of cinema. We only see the villains FACE in the last ten minutes.
The idea was very Jungle cat like. Sleek, Elegant and ready to pounce. It was unseen and left no tracks. This made it seam to be the perfect hunter rather than a rugby player in a mask as it is portrayed in later films. The predator is the ultimate HUNTER, Not the ultimate warrior.
PREDATOR 2
Cue PREDATOR 2, I cant really comment on this movie much. Yes the claustrophobia is taken away but that's the point. The idea was take a cop movie hero and put him in a horror movie, Yes the Yautja does talk abit too much and yes it does reveal itself too early but what can you ask. Its wasn't perfect but still a great cheesy movie for fans of the Predator Franchise. It's also in this movie that we get the beginning of why we are all here. The hint that Yautja hunt Aliens. The single most important factor of the AvP franchise. I digress. The Predator was still a hunter and NOT a warrior at this point.
Alien Vs Predator
And then we have... It. The Film we waited 20 years for. The cross over. Alien Vs Predator. This is the point at which Predators LOST their grace and skill. At this point they were just Rugby players in suits. This movie was NOT designed for Alien or even Predator Fans. This was a movie designed for people who knew OF Alien and Predator and wanted to see a popcorn flick. In this the predators take 2 minutes to introduce themselves. This removes all the traits of this race that we already knew. The predators were giant, Very bulky as compared to there regular slim sprinter physique predecessors and were bumbling oafs, Tripping over things and being noisy as hell.
This movie destroyed the Predators image of a jungle cat and turned it into some spartan, But i guess i can accept that as it is bound to happen. Cult icons are bound to be exaggerated. But the worst thing, The worst thing is the fact that they made a Predator a GOOD guy. WHAT. Predators are douche bags who kill humans for the hell of it! Not our big cuddly friends who protect us from scary aliens. NO. As far as the original predators are concerned, if you aren't prey then it doesn't care what happens to you. Its degrading to think that an adolescent male Yautja needs the help of a human female. How WEAK is this predator? What does this reduce them to?
Predators were there for one reason. Kill Xenos. That's it. These Yautja are raised with the idea that Humans are like deer. I cant even put into words how much this upset me. The great and mighty hunter brought down to your buddy who will be your best buddy until you pick up a gun. They didn't even LOOK realistic when they took off there mask. Look at Predator, The mask in that looked real. It looked like a creature. It had presence, In AvP The Predator looks as if it is wearing a mask. It FEELS like a man in a suit, The mask is rubbery and doesn't have the same effect.
I need to calm down, AvP:R was no better, At least the Predator didn't team up with any humans. And at least it wasn't 400lbs of muscle.
PREDATORS
This film was a step in the right direction. Despite Super Preds (Which i refuse the existence of!) the film did pay homage to the older films and do them some respect. I watched this and didn't violently vomit. The one thing i could say is that this film is too short, The predators don't feel real when they move as they still look like men in suits (I.e. In batman 1989 where he had to turn his whole body to look at something) but the faces look kind of real. This was an improvement. That's the most i can say.
In conclusion
What happened to the beloved jungle hunter? The Unstoppable and invisible foe? In a few words. He was sold out. He was sold out to broader audiences, They tried to appeal to a broad range of people and in doing that they diluted the personality and fear factor.
I have high hopes for the Predator franchise. Maybe not in movies but in comic books and novels. It's been a long time waiting but i have started to read the books. So what now? Where do we go from here? Do we ignore the abomination or consider them separate from the PREDATOR universe like we do with the Alien films?
Yes. That is EXACTLY what we do.