Loaded with Predators

Hello, this is Sonny Landon, welcoming you to Movie Meltdown. This is a chopper! It's showtime. The following feature has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. It is intended for mature audiences and parental discretion is advised.

Our nuclear reactor pumping out one million kilowatts of power. What's up and welcome to Movie Meltdown. I'm Brian and joining me today via the magic of. The internet is. Sam.

Hey. What's your name? We'll be Sam Drog today. It's always an identity crisis. Absolutely.

Who do I feel like today? So normally in most of these episodes, we end up starting off going over, hey, what have we seen lately? And then we'll get sidetracked. I mean, we get sidetracked anyway. So knowing that's on the table, I think this time we should skip the outside world, other things we've watched, start focusing more on the general universe we're dealing with here.

And I was thinking maybe more like our crow episode last year, where we actually did sort of an overview of the idea, the world of the crow, and then we just eventually rounded it out with the latest movie. So now we're entering into the world of predators. Ba-da-da-da-da-da. Ba-da-da-da-da-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch. So here's the weird part.

I mean, can you even remember how many Predator movies there are? I feel like most normal people, if you ask them, would get that number wrong. Agreed. Agreed. Okay, so Predator is weird.

Because there's this huge dry spell where they just decided not to make Predator movies. Well, not that long, though. Like, it still kept dragging on. Like, and especially if you had the crossover movies. Like, if you count the crossover movies, which I kind of don't, but.

Well, I kind of do, but. But even then, like, it's. Not that far. Like, it's... 87 90 2004 2007 2010 2018 2022 like it just kept like there's not a huge period there no no 2018 is maybe the biggest dry spell well i mean 2000 and i mean 90 to 2004 is 14 years is a long time to go without predator Not in my head.

Because look, it's a 90. That's the decade right before the zeros, and then it's a 04. So that's right next to each other. Just like the other day was 2000, right? That was just the other day in my head.

Yeah, that's right. I remember. The millennium. I remember it. I remember it.

I remember it just happened. Why today, dude? We've got to watch out for that. Just a minute ago. Just a minute ago.

I still need to update my plot. Not 25 years later. You're wrong. Yeah. Time-space continuum.

You're wrong. Yeah, yeah, no, I would say, no, no, Brian, Brian, I would say that this thing, in my opinion, there are a lot more Predator movies than you think there are, because for me, it is still the year 2000, and I'm going like, when are they going to make another Predator movie? Me, it's like, it's still 87, like, I'm still walking out of here. Going, oh, Dutch, you got him, good going, buddy, like... It's still kind of, you know, original run for me.

It was like, oh, yeah, then they followed it up with two. I remember that. Yeah. And then Dan came along. There's nothing in between there, right?

Because I feel like those middle two, you'd be lucky if you could find people that remember that those exist. Unless they're super movie geeks or just Predator super fans. Right, right. Those are totally forgotten. At this point.

Predators and The Predator. That's the ones you're talking about, right? Yes. Those are the middle two sandwiched in post-crossover movies but pre-ban movies. Right, right, right.

So. yeah let me tell you let me okay let me tell you because i binged as many as i could before uh in the week leading up to seeding badlands. You know that's what i thought would would be our other movies we've been watching lately because i also watched a couple of yeah yeah yeah so we're loaded with predators. I am i am so overflowing with predator and so it's like uh You know, the only one I missed, I think I got them all except for the Shane Black, the Predators one, unless there's something after that. And I haven't seen the cartoon that's on Hulu. The killer of killers is good.

Okay. So, so I'm, I think they've gotten some good, they've gotten a good hold handle on it, you know, uh, fine. Definitely these days. Yes. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, I think the Rodriguez one that he produced, I think that was like, like kind of like him kind of just being a predator geek but it was also like uh it just didn't have the i think that i think it was just like uh they had to make something to keep the ip going or something but it just i don't. Know if that was legally true but it kind of feels like. It feels like that it kind of feels like the fantastic four situation where they're just trying to keep the. Gotta keep it in our name.

It's the Sony reboot of Spider-Man. We gotta put something out, man. We're gonna lose the rights. Gotta get something going. I did go through that one, but I tell ya, it was a lot.

It is a. I don't even know where to go. I guess before we jump to that one, I think first we just have to address the fact that I don't know that McTiernan gets enough credit for being who he is because I mean, back to back, almost perfect, like certainly perfectly structured action movies. Like, I mean, Nomads is cool. I forgot about that one, but like he starts in 87 with Predator and like, I don't, know that like there's so many things about just the way it's put together as an action movie and then eventually a sci-fi movie but like you're halfway in before you knew it was a sci-fi movie if you'd never watched the trailer so like yeah it is just so well put together and then to follow that up a year later with die hard like the the most perfectly structured action movie ever so much so that it created its own sub-genre of die hard on a blank movies that They're still making today.

I still just watched the one with Rey in it. Did you know there is a thing? Rey from Star Wars. Okay, where she's a window washer, right? Yeah, she's basically just doing dialogue.

I was like, okay, because we all know the window washers we see in life all look like supermodels. They look like supermodels and they used to be in the military so they can kick ass. We all know that's how window washers operate. She has no heat damage to her skin at all. No shrapnel on the side of her face.

Just came out of a vat of butter. And like, as now she's, uh, I was like, yeah, I didn't get through it. I was like, I'm trying to imagine. It was fine, but it's just, again, you watch that and you're like, okay, now they're just not even going somewhere else to do a diehard knockoff. They're back in a building.

Yeah. And I was like, wait, isn't that already taken? But yeah, I was just like, but if you want a good way to see how good Die Hard is, watch that by comparison. And I'm like, it's fine if you'd never seen Die Hard. You'd watch it and be like, yeah, it's an action movie.

It's not even that much action, really. It's mostly her hanging on the side of a building for two-thirds of the movie. And then eventually there's some fight scenes. But for the most part, it's not even a huge action movie. But yeah, you watch that versus the vast, amazing structure and just the way that that movie is laid out is perfect.

And so McTiernan kind of, I mean, and then follows it with Hunt for Red October. So again, they've been making submarine movies trying to do that for you. That's it. That's it. Yeah, yeah.

McTiernan, let me just say. The 1980s had us all spoiled. I'm going to drop some hot takes here. Old man gets ready to hug cloud. I remember back in the old days.

The 80s had us spoiled. Because in my mind, when I saw Predator, I thought it was fine. I thought it was a Schwarzenegger vehicle. and I thought it was fine, okay? And I was like, I was not... Predator.

I didn't have Predator mania. I thought it was good, but it was not Terminator. It was like, it was fine. It was, I thought it was fine, but that just shows you. The level of genre cinema at the time was, I think, in my mind, pretty high, where something like Predator was just a common movie that would come out in 87.

Now. I haven't rewatched it, but I've seen Predator, you know, probably 200 times. On a loop. On a loop. Absolutely.

It's never not been on. It's why I didn't go back and watch that one. I was like, you know, I know that one. I can play it in my brain right now. I don't have to rewatch that one.

Exactly. It's like I put the Videodrome tape into my chest. It's there, you know. And.... But I had not, I had not, no, I did go back and watch it because I hadn't seen it.

I hadn't seen it in probably a decade. All right. You know? And, uh, what, what I was going like, I was going like, this is so much better than I remembered it being. This is like, so quickly put together.

Yeah. It's like, you have like a real, an app, especially after seeing the sequels, you have a real sense of direction and, and it's kind of about something, which the, well, A, number one, after watching all these movies, the testosterone overdrive of watching Predator movies back to back, I mean, you really just want to go wrestle a tree down out of its roots and then eat it. I mean, when you've got the arm-to-arm handshake of Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers, you've got Apollo Crews. Creed grabbing Arnold Schwarzenegger's hand. And you're just like oh my god it's all about the most testosterone ever and then Jesse the insurer shows up and Bill Duke and Sonny Landon for God's sake Billy's the coolest yeah.

Dude it is like the it's like such a movie about bro code and don't betray the bro code and just about primal masculine hunting being hunted and just like it's like it is like a it is like dude bro the movie and but in a good way but that's sort of like it's reason to exist you know is to portray and explore like you know dude code you know and dudes doing what dudes do best and you don't you know Carl Weathers kind of betrays the dude code and like Dylan I thought you were someone I could trust you know, and everything. And it's just like, that's like the worst. That's like the worst. They respect the predator. They don't respect the military industrial complex that uses them like puppets, you know?

Don't worry. We at least got a little femininity. We got Anna there. Oh, we got Anna. So, like, this ain't Glenn Gary again, Ross.

We still work in a female character. We're very progressive in our 1987-ness. Yeah, yeah. We brought in a female character. Aren't you proud of us?

Yeah, right, right. We brought a female character to be a victim in our dude bro move. Well, she's like the spiritual center. She, like, says some mystical things about, you know... you know the the the culture that they're they're tromping around in you know um i thought it was real interesting from a 1980s point of view you know like us our involvement in like uh south america and it's just kind of like it's not really it's very interesting it's kind of like saying kind of like what alien it's like uh you know, the company is corrupt, but the, the, the, the man, the feet, people on the ground are good. And, and awesome.

And yeah, man, he's trying to hold him down. That's right. Or he's just, he's just used misusing them, you know, for his own weird agenda. You know, I mean, I, I, When I watched it as a kid, I never really got why they were there. I mean, I knew it was a rescue mission, but it's real interesting seeing it now with like the 1987, because there was like the mention of the Russians are moving into the area.

So it's like, you know, trying to get, you know, I guess the Russians are basically arming these gorillas to, you. Know, forget the cold war, the cold war. So it's like, it's all seeped in cold war. That just shows you like how, how long these predator movies have been with us. and and you really what was interesting about watching all of them was just uh the the differences in technique as it goes forward and really uh yeah it what for predator to be basically gi joe versus the man from mars it is so much better than it has any right to be and it's it's almost just like freaking perfect and really and kind of like aliens uh it's been quoted so much that really i had a friend that loved predator so much and he probably would quote predator six times a day just in regular conversation.

How many times did you need to get to the chopper? Yeah, I mean, that was so many times. You're like, dude, I'm in the break room. We don't even have a chopper. Shut up.

Well, he just knew that movie so much. It was just like, oh man, it's just so great. And so when I was watching this, I just couldn't help but to think of this guy, you know, and how much that movie was, you know, indoctrinated into him. And, you know, kind of like, you know, with like Bill Paxton's character in aliens and all this stuff in aliens, which is, you know, just total, total quote machine. And so it's so great.

It's the movie is like, uh, phenomenal. And it always has pace and direction. And you're always trying to get somewhere in it. And, uh, what I have, what I found from the sequels was it felt like, cause we were about to, we were just started going on star Wars tangent before, uh, we started recording, the Predator movies start feeling like Star Wars product, where it's imagery of Predators, but there's no direction or reason for any of it to exist. Yeah.

We've got to keep the IP alive. God. That's all it is. It's just like a radio-friendly unit shifter. I mean, I feel like for a while there, it definitely was.

Again, in the newly crowned king of predators, I don't think that that's true. No, no, no. Definitely. Well, I mean, you go to the next one, and I feel like they were actually. I don't feel like that was. trying to do that but it was definitely like in the era of and we got to do a sequel so like it was just we got to keep this thing going but it wasn't the we got to save the IP we got to build a universe that came later with a lot of movies right it was more of just like yes the sequels that's what we do like that that's how the world works like we're making an action movie then we're making another action movie so right it just felt like it was trying to like tap into that thing the first time and it doesn't exactly.

I re-watched that one maybe about two years ago, I remember, because I hadn't seen it maybe since the theater, and I was like, all right, let's revisit this. I remember thinking it was all right. It's no Predator, but it was pretty good as it went, and it's fine. It's fine. It's fine.

It's fine. I had much higher esteem for it back in the day, actually. When I first saw Predator 2, I was like, man, this movie's badass, all right? I kind of like the cartoonish, hyper-frenetic energy of it, you know? I like the weird future world where the year of 1997 or whatever it was.

Yeah. There's a shot of Danny Glover walking through some puddles or something, and his suit is so big on him. It almost looks like... Oversized suits were kind of a thing for a minute, and his suit is so. On him it looks like uh you know dress up like a kid playing dress you know it well you know and.

It's also funny handing it like so you're you're mano on mano with schwarzenegger in the last one and now it's like danny glover who last year told us he was too old for this shit so now him by himself in a giant suit with a good like a handgun like that's all he has to fight the predator like So it seemed like a weird baton handoff there. Absolutely. He's like, oh, okay, Danny Glover here. He holds his own as best as Danny Glover can. I love Danny Glover, but it's just a weird shift.

The problem is he has nothing to play. I mean, the problem with that movie is nobody has anything to play other than cop stereotypes. That movie actually feels like the, it actually feels like last action hero is directly making fun of predator 2 in some part ways you know it's like it's kind of making fun of every action movie that came before it there's there's there's a good job of it yeah yeah it does it does but i mean predator 2 is kind of like the same script just done for comedy in Last Action Hero. It's so... Predator 2 is like...

What I like about it is the energy that comes to it, but it really... it doesn't have the direction and for momentum. That movie basically is doing, uh, uh, uh, donuts in the parking lot until the last 30 minutes. Uh, when, you know, it becomes just a basically fight against, you know, man on man, uh, man versus predator, Danny Glover versus predator. I think what I liked about it when I saw it, it was like, well, I felt they really gave you your money's worth for the final fight scene. Um, which spans several different locations, you know, and I guess starts in the slaughterhouse.

But, you know, seeing it again now, I'm going like, it's not as impressive as I remember. And I remember, and the Predator gives up very quickly in this one, in Predator 2. He's hanging on the side of a building and Danny Glover is like next to him. And Predator. We know he can jump up walls and jump across rooftop to rooftop but him hanging on the side there he just says ah screw it.

Well I mean if you translate what he roars out in his language it's I'm getting too old for this shit and then he just gives up he's just like that's it I'm done. And it was kind of funny the fan service where Danny Glover goes like you know one ugly and then Predator grabs him and throws him and goes like motherfucker I'm going like oh so he saw Predator. We all saw Predator. Even the Predator. It was huge.

Even in outer space, they were like, oh, did you catch that beam from Earth on Predator? That movie's pretty good. Pretty good. They have HBO. Of course.

HBO Space Plus. It's a new space streaming feature. They'll change the name of it next year. Don't worry. It's okay.

Yeah, yeah. So that movie's crazy. I mean, it does have kind of like a last... I mean, national... What?

Natural-born killers, early 90s, hyper-violent. We're trying to turn everything up. The world's falling apart. You know. The ones that got Robert Downey Jr., not Robert Downey, Morton Downey Jr.

In it. I mean, it's just a big mess of a movie, you know? You can also feel them, like, trying, that's maybe one of those first era of them, like, we're already acknowledging, like, the great movies that just happened in the 80s. Right. So they're already like, oh, we gotta pull from that and, like, shove people in here.

So, like, remember how cool Gary Busey was in Lethal Weapon? I wanted to put him in here. Bill Paxton, man, that guy was awesome in Aliens. So we're going to put him in here. He's an alien, but it's Predator.

They're kind of connected, right? So let's put Bill Paxton in here, and it's kind of the same thing, right? You can feel them almost playing with their action figures, trying to recreate the magic that happened in these other movies just a couple of years ago. I don't know that it exactly works. No, it doesn't exactly work.

The movie just... It's really a weird movie that's... all drive and nowhere to go. And, uh, and I think the problem with it is that it gets buried under its own like, uh, tropes and cliches there, there, as in, there's no, nothing honest about it. There's there, it's all people play. I love the idea of predator being in, uh, you know, You know, basically it says it's from the future, but it's basically 1991, you know, L.A. and, you know, with the riots and everything falling apart in L.A.

And that's kind of a cool idea of that Predator would come out and prey on the gang violence, you know. Yeah. But it's a cool does it work because it's almost doing from that perspective it is doing the same thing like the first one is just yeah an action movie and we cram an alien in the middle of it right this is basically just like a procedural cop drama which we had a ton of at that point right it's doing that for the first two-thirds of this movie it just crams an alien in and somehow it isn't the same like it's weird because it's it is still trying to be a conventional cop movie for the first half of it. And they're just going to the crime scenes and trying to figure out what's going on. And like, somehow it just doesn't translate the same way the original does.

I don't, I don't even know specifically the alchemy that came into play in the first one, but it doesn't, doesn't click. The same in that second movie. And that's why, like, as you said, McTiernan used to give a lot of credit or it was just lightning in a bottle that, you know, the second one just doesn't work. The problem is also, yeah, as you said it, them going from crime scene to crime scene becomes very redundant. And so it's just like there's no progression of the story at all until the Predator and Danny Glover fight at the end.

So it's a big reveal, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's just a giant circular kind of plot of Predator kills somebody. They show up. And Danny Glover, I like Danny Glover.

He's great in Lethal Weapon movies, and he's done some real acting and everything, but this is kind of like a Saw performance where I just feel like the movie kind of like hangs him out to dry. It doesn't shoot him right. I just wanted to do a super cut of Danny running away from the camera. I don't know why I fixated on this. It was just like he's just always running away from the camera and uh, trying to start a fight with somebody.

And I was just kind of like, it, it doesn't, I don't know why that it, I think how you shoot your, your macho lead as a lot to how the power, uh, that he brings to a movie and Denny Glover is just always running away. And again, from that point, he was already built as a, I'm just, I'm tired, man. Yeah. I'm getting ready to retire from this cop job, and I don't need to be fighting a damn alien. I don't feel like I hear that from Dutch.

Dutch is like, I'm gonna kick some. Of his ass. Yeah, yeah. Dutch is like this natural leader in the movie. He's like, he plays.

He's equally as old and should be retired, but you don't get that from him. Yeah, yeah. I mean. Danny Glover's character could have been so cool, you know? But he does kind of play him as kind of tired and kind of beat down by the machine.

And then this predator comes along. He's got to show up, you know? Yeah. I mean, I don't know what it is. And it could have been like a, you know, like a dirty, hairy kind of versus predator, which would have been a cool thing, you know, but I don't know.

The movie just doesn't do him any favors. And, Can we just say that one of the great things about these new Predator movies is they ditched the jungle room nightclub interior of the Predator ship that was like. I'm sorry. I don't know. They still like to go to those inside the ship and we got the trophies on the wall.

We still got to get that in usually. That's fine. It may just not be the cool nightclub scene you're looking for. Dude, the interior of the Predator ship in Predator 2 is like such a mess, man. It's such a mess.

I can't stand it. You know, I like that they kind of have hieroglyphics and, you know, that the Predator, you know, iconography is kind of like a Mayan type, you know, look to hieroglyphics and stuff. But, oh, I just hated those backlit walls with the fog and. I mean, it looked like a nightclub. It was terrible.

I think you just want to hang out there. Let's be real. You want to hit the club with the Predators and dance around. I see it. All that set is missing is a mirror ball.

Come on, dude. It's just missing a mirror ball and a bar in the corner. That's all it's missing. You place the trophy case with a bar. You know, I mean, that place is good to go.

Xenomorph serving you drinks. He just sort of. Hisses and throws you a vodka and tonic. And you're like, all right, good enough. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Yeah. And I still don't know what the thing with the gun at the end. I know it would take me five seconds to look it up on Google. But, you know.

So as far as we know, I'd never really remember hearing about a Predator 3 gun. So as you said, there's a big stretch there. So it's like, why is it? Two still made decent money, I feel like. I went and saw it in the theater.

So I feel like it did okay when it came out. It seems like they were primed to be like, all right, heading down the rest of this road instead of just sort of coming to a screeching halt for a while there. Right, right. No, a screeching halt. And I guess it got kept alive on comic books and expanded universe.

I feel like the reason it didn't feel like as long a stretch is... Because the alien part of the alien franchise kept going on for two more movies, and it kind of kept it alive until we get to the crossover movie. Again, we still had a few years after that fourth one, but. Enough that people were still hyped about Alien, and then they remembered Predator from the other two movies enough to be like, oh, that's going to be awesome. Yeah.

I don't know if anybody. Actually said that. Certainly not after they. Saw the movie. Well, here's a hot take, all right?

So I really enjoy Alien vs. Predator. I, again, went and saw it in the theater. I don't know that I've rewatched it since then. Okay.

I rewatched it, and after. Predator 2, I think it's a better movie. And I would say that it's ridiculous. It's got Paul Thomas Anderson problems. But what I like about Paul Thomas Anderson movies is that he is obviously just this total geeking out fanboy who just loves movies and And he comes up with some, he, I think he can stage an action sequence pretty good.

And, uh, it does make you appreciate that it doesn't start. He had to Bovich at it. And before he might reinsert her in digitally now, right, right. Right. The special edition.

Right. Um, Hey man, if you find a, you find a person you like working with, you marry them. And you make a lot of movies together. That's it. That's it.

Um, It's like the Kate Beckinsale director. Just going to keep. Making these terrible movies with you in it. You'd think you'd want to make a better movie for your wife, but I guess not. As long as we're working together, good enough.

That's it. It's a vacation. I don't know. I enjoy it. My main thing is.

I. Don't know how many hot takes I've got left, but I think... The Alien vs. Predator design of the Predator fixed some problems I had with the Predator design. Of that...

So, the Predator from the first two, especially from the first one, I never liked fishnets and a space helmet. Alright? I just... what you wear to the club when you're getting your drink from the Xenomorph. You got your fishnets on, you're looking hot. I'm just like.

Music's bumping, you know, come on. Now, I know it's Stan Winston, but I also know the original design got scrapped halfway through production and they had to come up with something real quick. Hey, Jean-Claude Van Damme looks good in those fishnets. Don't you worry. They had to switch out the design.

And so they cobbled it together. And I feel like the combination of underwear, whatchamacallit, fishnets, and a big clunky space helmet just never worked for me. And I think it looks better in drawings, but on screen it didn't. What I liked about the AVP design was I feel like they bulked them out and made them look More like a cohesive design where it had Predators. It was still Predator, but it just looked, I think maybe the linebacker battle armor for the Predator looked better than a big shiny Corvette on your head and fishnets.

That's just me, dude. Each their own. I'm allowed to be wrong to say that. I mean, they aren't flying around in spaceships. It does seem like they'd have like a space suit to some extent, you know.

I don't know if they don't need to worry about the vacuum of space, but it seems like you'd still want a cool, sporty spacesuit for, like, you know, just looking cool as you come out of your spaceship and go mess with the locals like you do when you're flying around the universe. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I guess if you're in the middle of Guatemala, you'd probably, you know, dress down, dress for the occasion. He does seem. To go to a lot of hot locations.

He does. I gotta get this shirt off, man. Freaking 98 with humidity. I ain't gonna do this. It's like global warming.

But he's still got this giant space helmet. I don't know. Anyway. There's some things that I think that movie does pretty darn good. They shoot the alien.

And the alien queen in that movie is like amazing it's like you know just it's mostly practical but but you know some the cg doesn't look cg when it's running and it looks great the aliens move great um the the fight scenes between the aliens and the predators are great now there's all the dumb stuff with the human characters so it's like a godzilla movie it's like godzilla versus the smog monster you got to get through the human characters but at least the human characters are okay i think they're better than the human characters in uh predator 2 but uh. The recent american godzilla movies i keep going why are these humans here yeah we're here to watch godzilla fight king kong like quit talking and get to them fighting and doing stuff and that stuff works so well but every time they go back to me i'm like i don't even know what your motivation is like i don't like and i feel like even the actors are like wait what are we doing.

In this scene They don't know. And they have good actors sometimes. And I'm like, why are you here? I guess this is a paycheck, but I don't get it, man. No, no, no.

There's always been a Godzilla problem until... The Godzilla problem was always the two different... terrible human scenes intruding in an awesome Godzilla movie until, until this year zero came along, you know? Oh yeah. I mean, again, that's why I said the American wins. Like, yeah, yeah.

They're fun. Don't get me wrong. But yeah, when we, when we had a real Godzilla movie again, it was like, Oh, Oh no, that's, that's how you do a movie. Like as actual characters, like Godzilla is like the supporting character. In this movie.

Yeah. Yeah. Godzilla zero was like, yeah, it was like, I feel like they fixed the Godzilla problem where they made, uh, the human element as important as the Godzilla. Absolutely. Absolutely.

It was like, uh, it was like making it a personal story about, you know, I mean, it was just kind of like everybody. has a Godzilla to defeat in their life. But this poor mofo, his Godzilla is actually Godzilla. He's got a lot of problems before Godzilla shows up. That guy's got problems. He's got problems.

He's got problems. Anyway, anyway. Do we even count Requiem? Because I don't even remember. I feel like I watched it the first time it came out and I blocked it out even in the middle of the movie, maybe.

I don't remember. I just know everyone talks bad about that movie. It is the revenge of the Sith of the Predator movies. So it's the best one. Right, absolutely.

It brings it all together. It is probably the lowest point. I had not seen it until this week. Because when I saw the trailer where it was going to be Alien and Predator in small town USA, I was going like, absolutely not. They barely made it work in LA.

This is not going to happen. Absolutely. This is the sci-fi channel version of this franchise. I did not go see it. Then I watched it on streaming this week and it was just as bad as the trailer made it look.

I would say it has cool shots of the Predator but So for me, it was like the Revenge of the Sith thing where I go like, wow, I'm watching Star Wars stuff happen, but I don't know where anything is going or what's happening. It's just things to look at. It's kind of like looking at somebody's display case of Star Wars figure. Well, I will return to the Star Wars thing later. But for now, I'm just saying I've avoided that movie since I think I tried to watch it.

I don't even remember. Like, I remember nothing about Requiem. I at least remember watching the first one. But I don't even remember anything about Requiem. It's so garbage.

It's so garbage. It's like all the bad. It's like, talk about just them being not distinguished characters. What Predator has is distinguished characters. And then Predator 2 has, like, you know, stereotype, you know, characters.

Caricatures. And then AVP has whatever comic book-y stuff P.T. Anderson is doing. You know, it's not really even about the characters. But then by the time you get to Requiem, it's not about anything.

And really, it's just the people are all completely indistinguishable from each other. And nobody has any kind of arc. They're just there to get attacked by predators and aliens. And there's no point. This movie has no point to exist.

It's not saying anything. And I'm not trying to sound like Mr. Arty Farty Filmmaker. Like a movie should be about something. But Predator is about something.

And it gives the movie a skeleton to hang on. And the sequels aren't about anything. Until recently. And Requiem is the worst case example of that. Where it's really...

It just feels like a guy with a camera shooting fan footage of Aliens and Predators. It feels like a YouTube fan movie. It's that terrible. Then we hit the dry spell, as you mentioned. Right.

So.... The thing is, there was supposed to be, I guess the closest to a potential three was Robert Rodriguez. Because he was super into the Predator thing. So it says that he had originally written a screenplay as a continuation after 2. And it was basically going to be almost like a gladiator situation.

We were going to get more of the Predators going to get people, bringing them back to whatever this planet was, and hanging out watching people fight each other. And it was supposed to involve Schwarzenegger because they were going to come get him, I guess, and bring him there to fight. It's basically the Ragnarok of... predator movies. So you were going to see Dutch fighting a predator in the middle of an arena, according to, you know, what they said he was working on. Dude, that would have been awesome.

At that point, Schwarzenegger was not really an actor anymore. He was a politician. So that went on ice and, uh, sat there for 15 years, more or less. And then eventually when he got back to it, he sort of still came on as producer and I think was involved in the storytelling version of it. But yeah, he handed it off as a director.

So yeah, Then we get Predators. In an aliens move, we get Predators. Right. 2010. Right.

Which I have one big problem with. Do it. Do it. From the get-go, from the first time I saw the trailer, I went, okay, so our big military tough guy, our Arnold Schwarzenegger carrying a gun in this movie is Adrian Brody? Shit. that is my main issue and it was initially because I feel like he is massively miscast but on top of that I did go back and rewatch this one this week and I'm like Man, I don't like Adrian Brody.

Like, as time's gone on, now I have so much. Personal, like, real world stuff. Oh, okay. Well, again, like, we just gave him another Oscar. I'm not going to say he can't act.

Right. In his fancy Oscar movies, don't get me wrong, I've heard great things about this thing we just gave him an Oscar for, but I'm like... He got up there to make a speech, and he came off like an asshole. I'm like, I don't like this guy. The words he was saying was nice, and they meant something, and they were about family and horrible things we've done in our history.

I get it that it was about something, but the way he presented it, the way he spit his gum out as he walked up on stage... And then sat there, and as they tried to get him to shut up, he told them to stop playing the music. Oh, wow. This isn't my first rodeo. I've already been up here and won an Oscar.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, you're great. You're real great. Quit being an asshole. So I just don't like Adrian Brody is what I've discovered over the years.

I got it. So going back to watch this, I'm like, now it's just a one-two punch of, like, I can't take you at all. I can't take you seriously in the role because you're massively miscast. And on top of that, I just don't like you as a person. So way too much of the screenplay is built around you to just sort of not pay attention to you.

So that's the biggest hurdle for me. Other than that, I think there's some interesting things in this movie. It's just Adrian Brody. This is the problem. I can overlook the Topher Grace of it all.

That's the one I can be like, yeah, whatever. That's weird, but whatever. But that one I can write off. But, yeah, I can't get over. The Adrian Brody.

Yeah, I forgot Topher Grace was in this. I did, too. The credit came up, and I went, oh, yeah. I forgot. Well, he was just hanging up from behind the tree.

I didn't remember him showing. And it was like, Topher Grace is in this? And it wasn't like, oh, yay. It was like, oh, no. Well, I think that's what everyone says when they see his name in a movie, credits.

Topher Grace is in this? The thing is, I mean, he's easy to make fun of, and we certainly have over the years on this show. We watched a whole horror movie with. Him in it, and it was just Chopra Grace jokes the whole time. But he's not.

A bad actor. Like, in the right role, he can do amazing work. Like, him in the... what's the black clansman he's amazing and you give him a really heavy role to play and i'm like dude he brought it like he is good in that movie yeah so i'm like you give him the right role he can do really good work with it but you give him this or trying to be venom like you know it's like you miscast him in these weird roles and it's just like what what is topher grace doing here like I think there's also that. This is the problem. There's just an overall unlikability to everybody in that movie.

And yeah, Adrian Brody, I've seen him in movies that I think he's really great in. I don't know. He's probably an asshole, but I mean, whatever. I like him in some movies, you know? He can be good in movies.

I won't discredit him as an actor. I just don't like him personally. Yeah, there's like... This movie he did called The Jacket. Oh, yeah.

That's one of my go-tos. I remember seeing that and thinking it was a great movie. Absolutely. And he happens to be good in it. Absolutely.

But from Schwarzenegger to Danny Glover... To Adrian Brody. And he bulked up and whatever for the role. He tried, but it still doesn't. By the end, he very definitely takes his shirt off.

He's like, look, I worked out in the gym every day to get this. I'm going to show it off. And I'm like, yeah, I mean, you look good, but I'm still not taking you seriously. He still looks like Adrian Brody went to the gym. It's his sad little puppy dog eyes.

You just don't believe that this guy is a cold-hearted mercenary. Not at all. He plays sensitive, tortured, psychological roles and everything. He's like, oh, you know, and pathos. And he's not the person that's described in the story.

No. No. He just doesn't feel right from the second he shows up. It's a vibe. And you don't believe him seeing these lines of like, yeah, that's what I would have done.

It's like those sad puppy dog eyes. They don't lie. I'm going to go over here to Bush and cry now. Okay, Adrian, you go over there. We're going to make a plan.

So you go cry or whatever you're going to do. That's right. You're going to go to random events. A poem about the Predator or something like that. You believe that?

I wrote this for you. Yeah, yeah. My saving grace, I really like Alice Braga. And I think, again, I feel like she should have been in more stuff back in the day. And I think she's the only person maybe, one or two, but she's the one I'm like, no, I buy her in this role.

She's doing good work. She's actually believable in this. And the one that has... sense to her where the rest of the again it's a whole lot of macho bros so like there's some stupid things going on and she's there going no idiots look here's what you need to do like yeah agree so she's the only one that seems to kind of hold this little group together both acting wise and within the story itself. I agree i think she's good she gives a movie a little bit of a nuance which has zero nuance yeah otherwise it's it's just all you know, just a bunch of indistinguishable from each other badasses. I mean, even with Topher Grace, he really doesn't have any, it's just nothing to look at.

There's just, there's, it looks like it was shot, you know, in somebody's backyard, you know. I know we're supposed to be in the forest planet, you know, or something, especially when you compare it to what they can do nowadays with Badlands. You know, this game preserve planet, it looks like, For a lot of the shots, it looks like, you know, I think it was shot in Texas and the woods are real sparse. And it looks like, yeah, they went into Rodriguez's backyard, you know, and like, you know, played guns. And, you know, it kind of suffers a little bit from Robert Rodriguez's backyard syndrome.

Yeah. Like Rodriguez. I think he does put together some really fun stuff. Usually he's way more concerned with putting together this really cool, fun idea than something heavy and worried about the details of it. Watch your Spy Kids movies.

He's just worried about that kind of stuff. He's just like, yeah, this was a cool idea and I made it happen. I'm down with him. I'm down with him. I'm not throwing shade on him.

The You know, there was just something sort of, you know, I guess it just, it just, there was a kind of a low budget aspect to the movie. I mean, better than Predator Requiem, but still. But I feel like there's an. Center of this that could have been good like I do like the idea again instead of us seeing them get kidnapped and taken off to a gladiator match like it is interesting like we've just heard that this is you know the what the predators do they hunt people so right to like get this other version of like okay how do they get these people and what happens do they know what's going on no I They wake up being airdropped in. I love it.

That's a cool concept. And then the fact that they get there and they don't know what's going on, they are around these other people, they don't know who to trust. So it's like that basic idea is really cool. It just never really goes any further than that. The whole time it's just like, yeah, this is a cool idea, but we're like 90 minutes in.

So what are we doing here? That's it. I think the problem is the characters are not interesting. So you're kind of just watching the mechanics. of the story function, trying to get to the end, but it all feels kind of a slog to get through it because you're not connected to anybody because the movie's not about anything. It was interesting.

This is sort of the first time... Well, I mean, definitely the first when we get nothing but... dudes with giant guns in the jungle and that's how we start with this but it's interesting mixing in other types of people yeah you know we got a serial killer a serial killer a gang banging Danny Trejo type yeah yeah who that is how they build him in the script yeah when it was written it was a Danny Trejo type which made its way to Danny and he went uh Robert hey yeah I'm a Danny Trejo type and that's how you got Danny Trejo in the movie But even the Yakuza guy, that's a badass killer. I like the idea of adding that element in. It's just never really... Again, it just doesn't work up to its potential.

Yeah, absolutely. There's a scene where a Yakuza guy has the samurai sword and he's fighting the predator and you're going like, this should. This is a really cool idea right now. That is one of the few times I'm like, okay, here's somebody that again, doesn't seem like your big Arnold Schwarzenegger type, but I'm like, this guy seems like he's a bad-ass enough to be able to hold his own. And with the predator in the fight, you know, it's like you put the weapons down, you just have a sword fight.

It's pretty cool. Like, you know? Yeah. So, so there's, there's the line and the thing was like, we are the monsters of our world. And so they brought us here, you know, and I, So I kind of like that idea, but because there's, besides the female, there really is no, they're not, they're not.

Young Mahershala Ali's got a moment or two. He's pretty good at, you know, trying to bring a little something to this role. Sure. Even though, again, he's like from the. Death squad or something.

So the fact that we're starting to like, oh, I really like this guy. Oh, no way. No, these people are all terrible. Right. Alton Goggins, he's the one I forgot was in it.

Me too! He was doing his most over-the-top Alton Goggins stuff, but again, by the end, you're just like, the things he keeps saying, you're like, but no, you're horrible. You need to. Die, dude. It's hard to attach yourself to these characters.

That's it. That's the problem. It's hard to attach, and so, you know, in Predator, you really, even though of all their, you know. Machismo and you know and all that you kind of you like yeah they're bad jokes dude bro behavior dude bro behavior you really like them you don't mind hanging around them for 90 minutes and you kind of feel bad when they get uh killed you know uh but but these guys this is like a group of people you just don't want to hang around for 90 minutes with you know i mean and so it becomes becomes like a jason movie where you just kind of waiting for him to die. You're kind of waiting for the movie to just sort of perfunctory.

And it takes a long time, really. Other than we off Danny pretty quick, but the rest of them hang around for a long time. And it's like, yeah, it seems like you should be often at least one by one. If we're doing this Jason style, you should be taking them out a little faster, but it'll be into the movie before we start taking them out. Yeah, yeah.

A lot of movie people, it seems like everybody that's in this movie, you forget that it's in the movie. Larry Fishburne shows up and I go like, oh, I forgot he was in this. Again, that's one of those, if ever, cash and a paycheck, because they're like, he's got less than 15 minutes screen time, and yet they put him, like, on the poster, in the trailer, like, they were billing, look, we got Larry Fishburne, yay! Like, yeah. So it's just another one of those crazy person Larry Fishburne roles that I feel like he was doing a lot at this point.

There was a few that he falls into this, oh, look, look who showed up halfway into this movie. Larry Fishburne, yay! Like. He pulls up in his car, he gets out, throws on a trench coat, says like, ah! Then he takes off the trench coat and gets out of there.

Check, please. Yeah, yeah. And Predators ends so terribly with, like, they kill the guy, then there's no way off the planet, and then they don't know how to end the movie, so they just go like, let's figure out how to get off this fucking planet. And then they walk off into the sunset, and I'm going like, well... They just didn't know what to do or how to satisfactorily close this movie out.

And even that, I was just like, as our doofus leader keeps going, like, I can probably wing it. I can figure out how to fly the ship. And I'm like, all right, maybe. Maybe there's some basics to aviation there that you can pick up on. I've seen this in other sci-fi movies.

You just sort of wing it and fly the ship. My thing is, you don't know where you are, like not even on the planet, in. The universe, like in the galaxy. You have no idea where you are. How would you navigate to get back home?

For real. You don't speak their language. You don't know their technology. Even if you could wing it on the ship, how do you get back home? Yeah, exactly, dude.

You're there's some problems there. Yeah even they didn't know how to end that movie and they kind of they were just like yeah whatever were they thinking they were setting it up for a sequel i don't know maybe i. Don't it doesn't feel like it i mean maybe it feels like it but it feels like uh they just were out of ideas they. Had like i don't know let's wrap this. Up they had one idea, let's show predators.

And then once they did that, they were out of ideas. No, it does kind of, but when we talk about mythology, yeah, as you said, it does kind of like give us another layer of the mythos, you know, predator two said, I, this is part of the alien universe and predator three predators kind of says like, Hey, sometimes they kidnap people and put them in a game preserve and hunt them there. Okay. Well, and we start adding in other creatures, too. So we get the, like, giant animals that they drop down there with them, like, is the first wave of, like, how can we take out these people?

Which is weird. I'm like, aren't you the ones that want to hunt them? Like, why bother? Right. later it almost makes sense when they have like hunting dogs then it kind of makes sense but like those are just some other weird creature they threw down there so i'm like what what what is this accomplishing if you're the one supposed to be hunting them but yeah so but we we then at least widen the universe to okay here's some other alien creatures that they hang around so yeah yeah we we continue that on with the next movie definitely as we get into predator dogs Predator dogs. Right.

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. They have hunt dogs. That's kind of a cool idea.

They expanded it. It does make sense. Right. Exactly. It fits in the universe.

As much as anything in this movie is going to make sense. It fits in the universe. It fits in the universe. So after Predators left everybody lukewarm, how many years before we got to the next one? I mean, it wasn't a...

It's like 2010 to 2018. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So....

It's a good stretch. Almost another decade, all right? And so they brought. Did you re-watch this one this week? No, I didn't.

See, I did, and I'd seen it. Like, I guess when that first year it came out at least. I don't know if I... I might have gone to the theater to see this. I don't know, but...

Right, right. It is interesting because it's almost like then you gave... the Predator franchise, you're like, what if we did a funny one? He basically gave it to comedy writers. No offense to Shane Black, who is a good writer, but he is known for doing pretty humorous stuff, and Fred Decker is a great guy, but he's also made really funny movies, so it's like you gave it to these two guys that, and I remember, I do remember thinking this when I saw it the first time, it's like you basically handed over one of their favorite franchises to a couple of 12 year old boys and went, okay, what do you guys want to do? And they were just like, watch this.

And like, they just, they're giggling to themselves every step of the way as they make this movie, because it comes off as a comedy and it's got so many little like shout outs to the previous movies and like just so many little, and just sort of nerdy sci-fi fan inside jokes and movie geek inside jokes that I'm just like, it is just sort of made for that purpose alone. And I don't know that it even like plays for somebody who just likes predator movies. Yeah. Yeah. I, I, so I'm kind of with you.

I, a lot of people hated this, but I had a really good time watching it. So just from watching it from what my memory of watching it going, like I'm going like, man, that was a good time. You know, I don't know if it's like. You know, uh goofy as hell yeah it's like i just re-watched it it's so goofy like it is just a silly movie and they kind of know it like it's not like they made a bad movie like they knew what they were making like they they set out to make this movie they wrote it she directed it like they knew what they were making so it's just kind of funny that Again, for a series of movies that's been so serious up to this point, and definitely coming off of Predators, taking itself super seriously.

And then you get to this, and it's just goofy as hell. And it is fun, but you have to throw everything out the window. You can't hold on to your old-timey Predator love, because if you're expecting the Dutch movie, you're going to be very upset. Because this is. Again, two 12 year old boys having fun playing with their action videos.

Yeah and i think it was so good just to see fred decker's name in a credit again and like finally getting awesome getting out of movie jail for robocop 3 you know it was like i mean you know he's done his time let him put something out you know let him write something. Again, talking to him years ago, he even said that. He was like, yeah, I know people don't like that movie, but they came to me and said, hey, do you want to make a RoboCop movie? And I went, yeah. What, are you going to say no?

I'm a big fan of RoboCop. They came to me and said, you want to make. A RoboCop movie? He's like, yeah, I know the deck is stacked against me, but I don't care. I got to make a RoboCop movie.

That's it. So, yeah, he kind of took. He took, yeah, but I was like, yeah, he took the heat for it. But I'm like, I can't blame him. I would have done it too.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Go down swinging at least, you know. So this felt like that same thing. He loved the Predators thing.

And like he, well, he loved Predator as a concept in the old movies. And like he got to come play in the sandbox with his toys. And like, that's fun, you know. It's not great, but it's fun. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm not mad at Fred Decker for making a bad RoboCop 3 movie. I mean, this was the, you've got so much goodwill from Night of the Creeps and Monster Squad that, you know, you go like, ah, man, sorry it didn't work out. But, you know, things don't work out sometimes. And they were trying to PG-13 eyes everything back then. So, you know, I mean, yeah.

And you don't even have your lead anymore. So, again, like the deck's stacked against it. Deck is stacked against you, bro. and uh but but uh yeah so it was great to see him and i think the movie has like it's got a bigger budget than uh whatchamacallit predators so they can do more stuff and i mean i. Don't remember i was pretty good and it like the effects you know for what they were doing and the budget they had it looks pretty good. Absolutely and and and here we go who would you rather hang out with Adrian Brody being dour and trying to act like tough guy or Thomas Jane with his wacky little idiosyncratic performance in that movie.

I think he's so much better. The question is, do you want to hang out with Olivia Munn all day? Yes, I want to hang out. With Olivia Munn. Right.

Right. To me, that's the geek thing. Like it is just nothing but geek cred. Like Olivia Munn was like the queen of the geeks at that point in time. And they got her to be in this movie.

Then they're like, well, what if we put Jake Busey in it? There's a little tie to the old movie. Remember his dad was in that one movie. Yeah. We got him for this one.

So there's your little geek tie in. Right. It's obviously a comedy. We're working in Keegan. Michael Key is like doing jokes off.

It was like, we're back to the old bad jokes again. Like from the first movie, like, So it's like it's so not taking itself seriously the whole way through. Yeah. Yeah, I remember watching it and I remember going like, that was pretty good. I don't know what everybody's problem with this, you know?

I mean, I guess they like. I think it's just because it's so silly. Yeah, yeah. No one had seen... Like, even Predator 2 took itself relatively seriously.

It wasn't as heavy as the first one, but it took itself seriously. Where this movie does not. Like, everything about this movie is just... Let's have fun, guys. It's just goofing around with the Predator property.

You want to make Predator dogs? Sure. Let's make dogs with dreadlocks. Who gives a shit? And they did.

Is it ridiculous? Yes. Yes, it is. Okay, I forgot that there's Predator dogs in that. Okay, so I thought you were talking about the Predator dogs from Predators, but no, there's Predator dogs.

No, this is, yeah, that's the one that has actual Predator dogs. They have the Predator mouth, they have dreadlocks. No, wait, I think the mouth is a little. Different, but they definitely have dreadlocks. Oh, my gosh.

That's hilarious. Also, this is a movie that describes the Predator as if Whoopi Goldberg was an alien. In the movie. That's not a smart-ass reviewer making that comment. In the movie, they say that.

And I was like, so Guinan? We already have that. What are you talking about? Absolutely right. So, yeah, I was just like, this movie is so ridiculous.

And it knows it, and it's having fun with it. So I think it's an all or nothing. You either are okay with this movie or you hate this movie. Right, because it doesn't take it seriously. It doesn't take the legacy of Predator's seat.

I'm like, dude, it's Predator. Calm down. Everybody should chill. I agree it's ridiculous, but calm down. Right, right.

So I haven't seen it in a while. What does it add, if anything, to the mythos of what do we learn more about the Predator story? Well, this is the one we... It's on Earth. The creature sort of crash lands, and then it's almost Area 51.

We've got one in a. We've almost got the ID4 room where they walk in, and we've got one strapped to a table. So we've got a Predator. Once again, the self-awareness of the guys in the room are calling him the Predator. They nicknamed him the Predator.

And then joke within a joke, then Olivia Munn's like, well, he's not really what you're describing as a predator. He's like a game hunter. Predator is, you know, like they're breaking down the terminology of the entire franchise as being wrong. So like they're making the joke about the whole predator as a whole, as a concept. You're even calling it the wrong name.

I love that. Like that's how like irreverent they are about this. Like they don't care. So yeah, then the difference is, and the thing I think that was most interesting, and I totally forgot, this is also maybe one of the first mainstream movies that started working in... characters on the spectrum which. I thought would be interesting right right right knowing we've both seen kids with that issue and yeah our main kid the kids that are making fun of him keep keep making Asperger's jokes so I guess technically maybe I don't think he ever says it or his mom ever.

Says it but I guess he has Asperger's right and then we also Thomas Jane's character has Tourette's so it's like we've got all these weird spectrum issues going on in this movie and like It's weird because... Surprisingly, it's from the kid at least. Thomas Jane's a little cringy. But the kid, not bad. Usually they really...

It's hard to get somebody to do a performance that's even close to what really goes on with somebody on the spectrum. Where this kid is just a little different, but he's not overplaying it, which is the best thing you can do in that kind of role. Absolutely. That was an interesting thing on the rewatch. There's a whole lot of dealing with that.

But yeah, as far as the universe, we add in the fact that the government knows about Predators. We have photos of him from hanging off the building in LA back in the day. So they're like, they've got a dossier going on this whole overrun process. Right. And then now we've got him trying to do tests on him.

And of course, then he wakes up and goes crazy and kills everyone. Right. Right. And then he's just on the loose and they're trying to not get killed by him and try to get back to... Because then the guy finds his mask and the arm piece and mails it to himself.

But it ends up going to his house and then the kid has it. So he knows he's going after the technology. So he's trying to get to it before he gets to the kid and kills. His son, essentially. Got it.

That becomes the focus of the last half of the movie is this race to get to the... the helmet and the stuff before the Predator also gets. There and kills his kid. Got it. Are there multiple Predators in this one? There is.

Well, this is where we get the Super Predator, too. Super Predator. So we get the, and I, this, the Super Predator is there, and it's, like, an 11-foot Predator. It's, like, huge. Got it.

And, like, murders the other Predator, and then, like, we chase him around for the whole last half of the movie. Got it. Got it. Yeah, super predator and predator dogs. Got it.

Well, they kind of do that than the predators because that was kind of like something they talk about in the Rodriguez one was like how there's kind of like this blood feud between like the. That was, yeah, the first time we saw that infighting between predators. Right. Because you got the guy tied up that he frees and then he's the one that kills the other predator. So our guys don't even kill the predator.

The other predator kills the predator. Right, right. Yeah, yeah. So it's like... Yeah, so there's big, big mega predators, and then there's little shrimpy predators.

But yeah, I think they did a better job with that concept than the Shaman Black one. But again, expanding that universe of characters and creatures as well. So now we've got different versions of predators, and we've got the predator dogs that we had no idea existed, but obviously shows there's a whole other piece of whatever. Like, are they genetically creating these predator dogs? I don't know exactly.

Right. they're trying to figure out some weird basic stuff. Cause they also do a test on the predator and he's got human DNA in him. So like, once again, the silliness of this movie, Olivia Munn says, so do you want to, you want to find out a human fucked a predator or something to that. Effect or vice versa. So yeah, like there's weird stuff they're throwing into the mythology here that I'm like, I don't even know where they were going with it.

They're just throwing out ideas. Can we breathe some life into this? Uh, It can just be a viable franchise that we can make a movie. Every three years. And the answer was, no, not really.

Not yet. not yet. Because then it died again. Yeah, exactly. DOA. Yep, yep.

But it deserves a better rep, I think. It's a pretty fun movie. So, you know. And it quotes its own movies like three or four times. Like, it works in lines from the other movies... or variations that are in jokes like it is so inside jokey in its own little predator world it is ridiculous so again i think that's the kind of stuff that people are going to roll their eyes and write this movie off so sure that's what happened for several more years till we get to uh you know 2022.

And that's prey right but we finally got the first it doesn't say predator right right anywhere in the title it's the only one really They didn't call it Predator colon Prey. Predator slash Prey. Predator slash Prey. Right, exactly. So I love this one.

It kind of came out of nowhere, and even because it didn't have that in the title, people, I think, didn't know for sure that's what it was until, I guess, maybe it's in the trailer, and you were like, oh, wait, this is like a Predator movie? They're rebooting Predator again? It's more or less what it feels like they were doing. Absolutely. Well, I had... it just not going theatrical from what I remember.

I think it just came out on Hulu. Yeah. But that's also coming out of a bad time for things to go theatrical. Right. So I think that was part of it too.

Yeah. I don't really know that. Maybe they just made a deal to go straight to Hulu. I don't know. But yeah, I don't, more importantly.

It's, it's, the first time we've handed it over to Dan Trachtenberg. Right. So that's where I guess we're eventually going to go to. That's pretty much it. He's the new king of the Predators.

Yes. And again, if ever you're a geek that feels seen, like... Dan is like one of us, man. I knew Dan as a podcaster, for God's sake. Oh, really?

Wow. When I first started doing one, one of the few that was out there that I was listening to, because I had to go back and make sure. I was like, I think this is what he was on. I think he was on Slashfilm a lot. Oh, okay. slash film cast was like one of the earlier podcasts specifically about movies and like I couldn't remember if he was actually like a rotating cast member but I think he was just guest a lot like I remember him being on there enough that I knew his name from that far back yeah and then he also went on because then he's part of a bunch of shows so he's then let's see He was a host on geekdrome.com.

He then had a video show that was the Totally Rad Show that he co-hosted with two other guys. And then at that point, yeah, he started, I think he directed episodes of Control Alt Chicken podcast, which I guess I need to go find. So at that point, yeah, he was just kind of on the geek side of things and like doing that kind of stuff and started like directing short films and And, like, obviously that's what he set out to do, was be a director. But he just sort of edged his way in doing short films. And then he did an episode of Black Mirror.

And then he full-fledged kind of jumped into it and made, again, what I think is one of the best horror movies that gets lumped in as a sci-fi movie. But 10 Cloverfield Lane is amazing. It's good. And I was not prepared to like that near as much. As I did.

Right, right. Absolutely. Yeah, he got. He got in the J.J. Abrams circle and got some real money to work with and showed that he could handle it.

And did the best movie out of them. I like Cloverfield alright, but 10 Cloverfield Lane is so much better. Just as a film. As a concept and as a film. It is solid.

And like Cloverfield just feels like an experiment. Like, can we do it like this? Like it felt like them presenting this idea in a, in a world that was about to be overrun with found footage movies. It was like, can we make this work? And yeah, they can, but which do I want to go back and watch again?

Yeah. It's Tim Cloverfield. Right. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. It's a cool movie. Um, yeah. Yeah, so I don't, I gotta say, I did not go back and revisit Prey before watching this, but I do just, I have nothing but fond memories of it.

It's just such a like a hardcore version of this idea, you know, because it's it's the first time we go back in time. Like we're not doing modern era, you know, before it was modern era out in the jungles. And then we had future in quotation marks, L.A. like we're back in the jungles again. So everything's modern day now. But we've alluded to over the years in this mythology that they've been doing this for years and years and generations.

So we go all the way back to before the stupid white people showed up in this country. So we've got these native characters that are here. And the fact that they speak their own language the whole time. The whole thing is presented as if it's their story. And once again, kind of like the first movie.

It's their story telling this version of, once again... something totally different. We have a female protagonist for God's sakes, like, and she's good. Like she's really solid and like carries this movie. And so like the fact that we're telling her story and her dealing with what's going on in her tribe and like all this other stuff. And then like the first movie, Oh, by the way, an alien shows up trying to hunt people.

Like, yeah. So again, it's like revisiting that concept of, but in a new and pretty serious way. Not that it's not fun, but not silly like the last movie. It takes itself seriously again, so much so that we're immersed in this tribe and the whole thing is kind of from their perspective and that time period perspective and it's not winking at the camera doing silly stuff like the last movie. It's back to being a serious movie about this woman.

The good Predator movies seem to have a point of view and being told from an interesting point of view from predator with like the, the, the, the, the, the band of brothers point of view. And then with prey from a, an Indian tribe point of view and, and the dynamics within the tribe and treating that with, with real respect and like going like, okay, this is like a real world. You know, there's a certain amount of what it feels like. you know, Predator, you can actually, it feels real like these guys would have to be that way to survive in the world that they live in, right? Predator 2 feels like a bunch of actors playing Law and Order. You know, they don't, it doesn't feel real, you know?

But Prey, you can kind of get into that world, you know, and go like, oh, this is being told from a, this is like not just going to be a retread, We're actually going to tell it from an interesting environment, you know, and a new point of view looking at this story. So which is a good reason to make a sequel. We've got a reason to exist here. How does this story play out in this environment, you know? I mean, everything is kind of new.

It's like it's a new perspective. It's a new time period. It's new in the Predator sense because it's also old-timey Predator. So we got like a bone mask and like our. Technology is way more rudimentary.

It's still like way more evolved than the tribe as far as weaponry and space travel, obviously. But like it's still. pretty like primal compared to where we get in the rest of them where they have you know all the crazy laser attachments and all the stuff that the mask does for them and like all this other technology that they're reliant on that like there's not near as much of that with this predator so even the predator itself is a different version of the predator well it. Makes it more i guess mythic what i what i like about the thing about the predator is because it's been around for so long where they talk about it in the in the first one where it would seem like this evil spirit. They keep calling it the demon.

And even in Predator 2, they call it the demon a few times, where it's like, you know... like some kind of bad voodoo spirit. Because it's a serial killer in this film. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're like, who's this weird guy that keeps stringing people up and ripping their spines out? It just seems like part of Seven for a minute there.

Yeah. They're on the crime scene, blood and guts everywhere. It's true. This killer is doing weird stuff to the bodies. And I'm like, yeah, that's Seven.

I watched that movie. I like that one. Yeah, yeah. It is kind of part of the serial killer phase. It was for a minute.

A little bit, yeah. Yeah, but, so, so, yeah, but, you know, you think of, like, things like the Windingo and, like, you know, you know, it seems like the Predator would just fit right into, like, the, the, the Native American, it kind of does, you know, kind of. A mythology of everything. Yeah, the, the, the Predator kind of feel of, you know. hunters and tribal and there's always something kind of you know uh ancient you know indian culture about it you know uh you know with like a lot of the mayan kind of look of everything it. Is tied more to their life than like you know your la cops you know so it's like yeah the tribes and the hunting is very rooted so again that's why this story is so different and important you know in what they're trying to do is because it's the parallels between the two and like so what happens when you come up against somebody who is also living this kind of life and is also pretty hardcore and is ready to take you on and like yeah that's sort of what the first movie was and then we sort of returned it in a whole different way in.

Prey absolutely Dang. Yeah, Prey's pretty awesome. Prey is really awesome. Which is why I was going into it going, oh man, they gave it to the right guy. Yeah, he gets it.

He's taking it seriously and he's involved in what the mythology is supposed to be and what he wants to do with it. yeah but then like moving forward like then he also like that you can see that planting the seed of like okay well now we've established that this has gone on for thousands of years at least if not you know who knows how long so we're going back in time you can take all these different little snapshots of people and places and insert a predator and you've got a whole new story so that's the next movie that comes out is killer of killers And, like, it is that version done, like, three different times. So I know you said you hadn't seen this one yet, right? I haven't seen it yet. I haven't seen it.

So don't spoil it, but tell me kind of the gist. I will, but it is, yeah, this one is animated, and it does basically just take a little snapshot of, like, three different characters that's sort of the same type of thing that was going on in Prey. So we go to Scandinavia in 841 with Viking warriors. Oh, dude. Again, we're just taking the greatest warriors of all time now and inserting a predator into the story.

So we go back to Viking times. Then we go to 1609 Japan and we pull in a samurai. And then we go to World War II and we pull in a fighter pilot. So it's like we've got these... people from battles and all different parts of time and space and, you know, anywhere that's going on in our history. Anyway, we're pulling these characters from, and this is more of that original, like Rodriguez idea.

Cause then they take them back to do battle essentially. So it is more of like a, a arena type of battle then. So that, that is more or less where it goes again. I won't go too far into it, but it is, it is really cool that we're doing that same thing of taking, uh, different perspectives and different warriors with a different take on how they approach battle and how they approach being a warrior themselves and what, what it is they're supposed to do when they have an enemy that they come up against. Cause they each kind of have a different take on how they deal with this.

So it's really well done and the animation looks good. And yeah, so it's, it's, it's worth seeing, even if it wasn't also, you know, done by Dan Trachtenberg. So I thought maybe it would have even been farmed out, but no, he's, he's involved in this just as much as the other one. Yeah, he seems to be getting... He's kind of quiet on... a pulse on how to expand this out and actually meet, make it mean something, you know?

And again, like if, if he were a lesser filmmaker, I think. This could have fallen flat or just seem like cashing in because, Oh, that made money. So now we're going to do this one. And when I saw this coming out, I was like, wait, they're doing two predator movies in the same year. Yeah.

Yeah. Once again, I thought it was different people. I thought like a whole different crew is making the animated one. And then Dan was coming back to do the theatrical one. But no, it was him doing both of them because he said because Prey was received so well that he then had this idea of three.

New things to do. And because Prey had done well, he kind of had the green light to start doing them. And because... the animated one, you know, the animation at least was going to be not him hands on every day. He could start working on the film part of that one while still sort of running the, the overall take of how everything was going in the animated one, but be working on the live action. So that's how he got them kind of rolling at the same time and how we got to in the same year.

That's pretty great, man. Pretty great. Yeah. I got to check that one out today and everything, or, you know, this week, uh, uh, yeah, that sounds great. That sounds like a good concept.

Yeah. It's kind of like cool. It was like the predator is like this thing that like feeds off the bad vibes of, uh, the, the earth, you know, or other places too. I guess, you know, it was like, uh, you know, all you do is hear about this, uh, all the war, you know, it kind of like takes like headlines, you know, the Guatemala, uh, you know, our involvement, political involvement in, uh, Guatemala. And then like the LA problems, uh, You know, and then...

The. Worst parts of humanity. That's what we're looking for. The worst parts of humanity. Yeah, I guess the Rodriguez one, you know, the...

All the different. Serial killers and Yakuza. Serial killers and Yakuza. Gangbangers. Gangbangers.

All the, you know, death squads. All the bad, you know, the human conflict, the war and everything. The people. Man's inhumanity to man, and Predator's this being that feeds off that. It's like, this is exactly what I'm looking for.

That's exactly what I'm looking for. Right, right. If it was like a kumbaya planet, nobody would. He just shows up and just shrugs. Like, what am I going to do with you damn hippies?

You're not even going to give me anything. You're not even a challenge. You're wasting my time. And he closes the door and flies off. That's right.

But it comes down. They're like, peace, man. Puts a little flower in his silver cannon. You're like, I'm out of here. You guys suck. nuke the planet from orbit.

Just to be safe yeah just to be safe just. To be sure speaking of crossover universes just to be. Safe that's right um heading into the badlands I guess we should officially if we're calling this our movie of the our. Movie of the episode uh technically I know it was a little bit of a. Lead up it was get.

More out of life Go out to. A movie. So this is your first hunt. And you've come to the most dangerous planet in the universe. You're after a creature that can't be killed.

The definitive apex predator. I could help you. Well, good luck with your journey. Here, you're not the predator. You're the prey.

We might not be alone in this hunt. Looking through the forest Around the mountainside Moving through the darkness I'm a creature of the wild Sneaking up behind you Hunting in a pen Attacking out of nowhere. Our out on the town feature is Predator Badlands. The year is 2025, the director Dan Trachtenberg, and they plot, according to IMDB, A young predator outcast from his clan finds an unlikely ally on his journey in search of the ultimate adversary. Spoiler alert, we're going to ruin the hell out of this as much as we've probably done with most of the other ones, except the last one.

I kept the last one pretty minimal because it's all so new, but this one we'll probably go ahead and lay into it. So, you have been warned. And this is also kind of the first time we've shipped sides because every time we're we're following a human character of some sort some humanoid from wherever that like is our protagonist and the bad guy in quotes is the predator right so we've never really had a predator main character before. Dude that was what, for me, was such a breath of fresh air about this movie, was telling it from the Predator's point of view, was, like, I think the Rosetta Stone that just made this movie so special. And with the advances of makeup effects, and I guess maybe there was some CG altering to it, I couldn't tell.

I can't tell you when... what was CG and what was, you know, practical in this movie. Which that's when you know, it's good. Yeah, absolutely. Again, it all has a signature look. Like I think it definitely had, you know, a lot of background stuff that was probably not physically there, but it doesn't look bad ever.

And I think it all matches with what's going on within the story, within the foreground. So it's like, I think it all looked good from that element too. But from just from our main character predators point of view, from his, he gets a lot of performance in this movie. You know? He's actually, it's actually a well-acted lead person who you want to hang around for 90 minutes and see what they, how they get out of this mess.

It was something that was so missing in most of these Predator movies that I was watching. After part one, this was like, I was like, going into Badlands, and I was like, what, two minutes late. So I came in, you have to tell me what I missed. They were talking about what alien they're going to catch. He was talking to his brother, like, do you want this one or this one?

So I probably didn't miss much. Pretty much where it starts. If Dad hadn't showed up, it's pretty early. Okay, Dad hadn't showed up yet. So, telling it from the Predators society point of view, learning about the Predators culture learning about what a dick a dad the predator dads are.

That's what i'd heard again just because we're already going into the dad thing so i'd heard it described beforehand because i wanted to see it just when i saw the trailer and knowing that they're bringing in a really cool human character that like again we've had a bunch of them like you don't care about but like Ella's just so good in this so it's like I saw her in the trailer I was like oh this is already gonna be a step above what we've had in in the olden times again not not the Dan versions but anything before that you know you weren't getting that level of performances so absolutely but then I also like the the week before I heard it described as it's a very Star Wars predator movie And I was like, all right, let's see where we're going with this.

So they're not wrong. They fight with laser swords. There's now cute, lovable creatures hanging out with them. That's true. And most importantly in any Star Wars movie, there's a terrible father behind it.

We have bad fatherhood issues going on throughout the movie, which is maybe the most Star Wars thing ever. So we also, you know, not to jump ahead, but we also get a not-so-subtle carrying your broken droid torso on your backpack. Oh, jeez. I was like, oh, yeah. That's very Empire.

Yeah. There's a good amount of Star Wars-iness to this, but in a good way. I know that would almost be a backhanded compliment for most people now, but I'm like, no, like in the Mandalorian way of him hanging out with a sidekick, getting into adventures, and trying to figure out how to get out of it. That's kind of what we're dealing with here. It's like he's still being sort of himself, and he's following his ways, but he's... got this new character with him that's kind of like changing the way he deals with things and how do they get out of these crazy adventures and like that's pretty much everything going on in badlands.

It's so it's so funny that you go from the machismo of part one to this one where it's like basically teaching the predator to be a kinder more sensitive predator. That's the other thing. Like I, as we get into their culture, like not to cross our universes, but I'm like, these are just like hardcore Klingons. Yeah. Cause they have a very Klingon as much as we've learned so much about the Klingon lifestyle through all the crazy Trek stuff that like, their way of looking at things.

And it's all about battle and honor. And like this, if you add the hunt aspect into that, it's just a hundred percent like living the Klingon lifestyle, only a little more hardcore. But because at this point they just off people, you know, like you're the runt of the litter, you need to die. Like everything is like taken to the extreme because you know, it's so like alien machismo. What, what, what this movie is just, If we're just going to...

There's all this stuff. Use it. There's like... There's like... This movie kept earning its.

Every time I thought it was about to go south, it earned its place to keep my attention. Like the little cute little monkey thing. I have... I hate. Cute little CG monkeys.

All right. And it just like, like lost. In space is a good movie. I don't know what you're talking about. The double one, two punch of Jumanji and, uh, and lost in space.

You just go like, it's just like never worked, you know? And, uh, it's just something I've always hated. And so when the cute little space monkey CG creature shows up, I'm going like, Oh my gosh, this movie is about to take a dump. and uh but it kept it around it kept it it gave him like a reason to be there and you know just. Like by the end yeah yeah yeah yeah. Absolutely the movie just it you don't care and and after you know what feels like eight movies of just you know macho posturing you know uh ellie fenning's uh character is like just so like happy and interesting and curious and scientific and you know, a fun character to be around.

And, uh, you know, it gave, gave like a contrast to, you know, the posturing of the predator character. So there was like, you know, yin and yang going on, you know, and then they had their happy little dog with them. So it was just like, it was like, ah, man, this is, this is good. This movie has contrast where like the Rodriguez one has no contrast. It's all, you know, and, uh, And so there's contrasts.

But what I liked about this movie most was just the mirroring of the Predator's life and the mirroring of the robot's life where both of them have these tyrannical parental figures and the movie being about, hey, at a certain point you've got to decide what life is best for you, you know? Who do you want to be? Who do you want to be? You've been assigned what you're supposed to be up until this point, your whole life. That's right.

And now you're roaming around the Badlands, and you can kind of decide what you want to do and who you want to be. Absolutely, absolutely. So choosing your own identity, choosing your own adventure, and going against the weight... Of the society that you were raised in. I thought that was such a good message.

Like the real thing of becoming... The real, you know, trial by fire. The real hunt. The real earning your place in society. Is the point where you say like...

I need to do what's best for the way I'm configured. You know? Because I'm not going to be... I'm not configured the way... maybe the society that raised me wants me to be. So I've got to find how I can best contribute to society with what tools I was given, not with what, you know, they want me to be, you know?

And so I think that's such an important thing to tell. It's like a good story to tell. That's a good story to tell. Wow. Who would think to make a movie out of a good story?

That is the thing. The movie has a reason to be here. That it's going to tell this story that has a little bit of meat to it. And it's not just predator imagery. You know, because this movie could have been so boring had it just been like a Chronicles of Riddick type, you know, or Riddick, you know, walking through a planet.

Now he fights a plant. Now he fights a monster. All the depth of Riddick. Yeah, yeah. It could have just been a travel log.

All the puddle depth of Riddick. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It could have just been like, you know, a safari kind of like, oh, this happens and this happens. But this really had the feeling of like it was going somewhere. Yeah.

I think even more than that, there is definitely a finding your own way, finding who you are. But I think equally as much like it like. Thea makes the mission statement of the movie at one point, and, like, it really hit, like, me being in the weird mental state that I am in my life, in life as a whole. But I'm like, she specifically, you know, Dex says to her, like, you need to learn to survive on your own. And she says, I can't survive on my own.

But who would want to survive on their own? Right, right, right. And, like, she says that out loud, and it just... It hits at that point. You're like, you're watching him do nothing, but try to be Mr.

Badass solo action. And like the whole point of this is more of like, no, you, you build a community. Like you find who it is you want to be with. You create your own family. If your family sucks, which yours, your dad certainly did.

Your brother seemed cool. That didn't last long. So, you know, you, you are outcast from this family and your clan and everybody that was supposed to be your community, uh, You can go out in the world and find your own family, create your own community. And like, you don't have to be solo, Mr. Badass doing, you know, again, it's so going against the macho machismo bullshit.

Like she's like, no, like create your own family. You are leader of your own pack. If you bother to go find your pack. And like, there's so much of that that comes into play later that I'm just like, wow. Once again, like this, has something to say, it has something to build your characters around, which is so unusual for a movie, let alone a movie that's a big crazy action movie that's also a lot of fun.

So the fact that it does all of these things at the same time is kind of amazing. What's so funny is this movie is saying that the Predator's greatest adversary is is toxic masculinity. Exactly. Coming from where the first movie brought us. And everything that's come in between.

Now it's finally like, ah, God, no wonder you guys are going nowhere with this franchise. Take a chill pill. learn this because it's okay to like have a dog and you know friends and you don't have to be that's what was so good it was such an anecdote from all the chest thumping of the last 20 movies they're saying like look civilization did not you know advance because of the lone wolf or you know When they even talk about wolves, like Alpha, I mean, it was just so, it was so, it's about cooperation and building a society and interconnected, you know, interconnective relationships, interpersonal relationships that connect and make a society strong, you know. It gives you a reason to be what you are and who you are.

Otherwise, if you're just off by yourself, who knows. What you are? Who cares what you are? You're just some idiot roaming the wasteland. That's right.

If you have other people there to build your life around, then it's worth having a life. Sure, sure. Yeah, so it's deep. It's deep. It gets into some pretty interesting places.

And I just liked even the evil character. Who's the evil robot? Not the monster? Yeah, not the monster, the evil robot. I thought that was just, oh, I was going with dad.

It was like dad sucks. But no, the other version of her is Tessa. Tessa, right. So Tessa was a really cool, you know, just like going like, oh, I've got the thing of like a robot, you know. I like this whole thing because with AI coming up and everything, you know, it's just like these robots. these stories of artificial intelligent robots, I enjoy them a lot, you know, and with, like, her being given a task by, well, I mean, it just feels like, you know, kind of like your job, you know, it's like you're given a task by this, you know, bottom line driven force, you know, and you're.

So, you're. Your purpose is to appease this thing. You know? And so it's just like, it's really interesting. It's like in, because mother is a direct, you know, an AI creature, you know, blow, you know, dictating and being tyrannical over another AI artificial creature.

And, and the, but you see Tessa's like stress and, and what she has to become to appease this thing. It's like, what the society makes you become to fit in and to appease its whims, you know? So, kid predator or teenage predator has to mold himself and change himself to appease the authority. And this even, you know, and Tess has to do the same thing, you know? And so they're both kind of the same they're they're two sides of the same coin which is a really interesting way uh you know it's it's got more going on than what a predator movie you would think would.

Have certainly before dan got involved well especially because she's she's opposite of him but then you have thea as like this yeah part of the triangle here that's like So different. And, like, so different from even what she realizes is her sister. And, like, she, like, sort of lovingly refers to her as her sister. And, like, that, I think, became the more interesting thing to me after the movie was over. Like, I'm going on with my day, and I'm still thinking about it.

I'm like, okay, so we have, you know, your Tessa, who's like... almost going back to old school Hal of like, hey, look, I'm just doing what I need to do to keep this job going. I've got my mission I've been stated. I have to protect myself and my own interests, but I don't care about anybody else. I'm doing the job that was given to me. So it's like it's very like following my orders, even if it means taking out humans, taking out whoever's in my way.

I have to follow my mission. And then you get to Thea. Who is 100% different. And so that was, I was like, what is it that makes her, like what piece of humanity is locked in her that's different from all the other synthetic creatures in this universe? It's like, why does she have so much humanity?

And so much like curiosity and like, and wanting to connect with other creatures that like we don't get from the other synths. Like Bishop is our best thing in this, you know, cause it is a shared universe now. So it's like, he's kind of the closest we had to like a synth that was never like taking care of his own interests. He was more concerned about serving humans and keeping them safe. And like, so it's interesting because every other example we've seen has been The opposite.

You know, you've got your Ian Holm and you've got Alexis David or whoever from The Last Aliens. And like, they're always like going out of their way to screw over humanity because that's what they do. Like that is what's built into their programming and their following mother or some human in charge of the program. And everybody is just like, you know. the least important people are, you know, expendable. So don't worry about them.

And like, what is it about Thea that's different? What is it about her programming essentially that makes her so different from every other synth that we've seen? Right, right. Well, you know, I guess they said like, why did they give us emotion so we can connect or understand the creatures of the planet? So maybe she just had a different, you.

Know, extra chip. Got an extra chip. Doubled up on emotions. Yeah, yeah. They maybe, like, you know, because all the, you know, soldier ones, you know, the security detail, you know, they're all completely identical and, you know.

And lame. And lame, yeah, yeah, yeah. All got the same haircut, you know. And so they all have the same chip, you know. And so maybe different AI, different robots have different purposes, so therefore they have different, you know, configurations, you know.

Or if it's actually, like, real AI, like, it's supposed to be learning as it goes. So maybe... But again, it's like she started off the same as Tessa. So Tessa just went down this cut-and-dry version of what she's supposed to be doing for the company. Yeah.

And then, like, Ella, you know, takes Thea off in this other direction. And, like, she, I guess, has... like adventures on her own. Like it's weird. We don't know how much time she's been around or how much she's been separate from Tessa enough to create this. Like, was it just this one adventure or had they been on other things?

Like she'd been on the planet long enough to know other predators have been there and learn the language. And she, she knew a lot about the planet. So she'd at least been around that planet a while, but we don't really know what the story was before that. So it is weird. interesting that, like, she, somewhere along the way, started, like, developing as an AI creature, and, like, started, like, expanding what it was, not only that she knew, but the fact that they had emotions, she started expanding that as well, which Tessa obviously didn't do, but, like, she's attaching herself to these biological creatures, because she knows so much about biology, but then you add in the emotion part of it, and, like, she starts to care about these creatures which again is it normally how it goes with synths.

So that's sort of like maybe also just works into the theme of the movie of like you know Tessa got the good one got separated out from the control thea got separated out from the the control of the authority you know and then had the space to start making her own connections you know. Making her own decision of who do i want to be like back to our theme of yeah who do i want to be do i want to be what the corporation tells me to be and to follow orders or do i want to branch out and meet new characters and be part of this community and like do other things and like again that sort of goes against the robotic thing that is presented as what they should be but like screw that like that's the whole point of this movie is like yeah I don't have to do that I don't have to be that I can do whatever I choose to that's my point like so the fact that they're all kind of going through a version of this is pretty cool.

Yeah yeah but you don't have that voice telling you that telling you what you are all the time and you you she was like been able to be stuck in a vulture's nest for two weeks you know she was you know it probably started a long time before that but you know two weeks to think and start making your own connections and not having that you know uh voice in the back of your head telling you what you are you know you're able to evolve you know and that's what happens with the you know it was so nice having character arcs in a Predator movie. So, you know, everybody learns a little something about themselves. And so, you know, I know that's like lame to have that. You want that in a movie. I'm thinking of the movie Adapt. adaptation you know you know we're like and I don't want to make a movie where they go through stuff and they learn stuff about themselves but.

It was nice to have because I think people feel that way I mean I think that people feel like oh I went through this stuff and now I feel this way about things so I've changed as a human you know and. So it feels true when you see a movie that has that you know well. And watching our predator go through that because he's so cut and dry and so set in his ways at the beginning and she keeps saying this stuff to him and usually he sort of shrugs it off for the first half and then like midway in you get that change of like him watching these changes take place in front of him he's like oh i actually care about this not it's like he's realizing in in real time he's like whoa wait I'm supposed to be doing this, but I actually care about this over here.

And like, I'm going to make this decision and decide to do, you know, decide to go my own way and, and still get to where I need to go. By the time we get to the end, like he is the hunter he needs to be. He is the leader that he needs to be and proves it to his dad and like proves that like my way still got me where I needed to be and And I'm better because of it, which again, shouldn't be in a movie like this, really. Yeah, I know. It's so much, you're getting, you thought you were going in and getting, I might get a nice, I might get a familiar passable cheeseburger, you know?

And then you end up getting something, you know, it's maybe still a cheeseburger, but it's a damn good cheeseburger. And I go like, oh man, I want to come back. And have this guy make me another cheeseburger because that was so much better than I thought it was going to be. Like it never backs off of the entertainment as well like you get big giant like there's when he gets to the planet there's an extended period there where I'm like this is just crazy action like one thing to the next to the next and he's fighting the tree and he's fighting this creature and he's like and then it gets into like goriness and like you're watching him just slice into the giant monster and behead this creature and I'm like it is still delivering.

Absolutely. The 12-year-old is still going, kick ass, did you see that? He just chopped that creature's head off. It still works on that level, but then it backs it up with an actual story and character development. It's crazy.

It's crazy. It's crazy. And that just makes the action... feel like something like, yeah, you're on the journey with this thing. Yeah. It felt like, uh, King Kong, you know, it felt like, Oh man, he landed on King Kong planet with like, you know, just like everything there's out to kill you, you know?

And, um, and yeah, I really like the weird biology of the planet and razor glass and having razor grass and, and just the weird, all the weird, I love it when the designers can come up with like new monsters and new plants and new this, and they had the budget to like actually actualize it and make it look like a, uh, another planet and not like, you know, Rodriguez's backyard. It was like, it looked like, it looked like something. Uh, yeah. Well, one thing I, my thought was going through the, was like, like, uh, I was watching this going like, this is so damn entertaining that this might be... And I had this glimmer of hope where maybe, because now movies have to compete with people staying home and watching everything that has ever been made on the streaming services, or... video games or social media or this or that there's like there's or like there's like so many reasons why not to go to a movie you know filmmakers need to realize that they gotta up their game if they want people to come out all right and they're gonna have to like up their game and something like this where it makes it worth going to see it in the theater you know and uh so it kind of gave me hope because going like okay you've got 90 minutes to tell a kick-ass story with a beginning, middle, and end.

And you've got to give them production value. And you've got to give them a full experience. And you've got to give them the sound. And you've got to give them everything. You can't just show like Predator versus Alien and have them fight a few times.

And that's just not going to cut it anymore. Because people aren't going to go out just to see that. You've actually got to give them the story first. and the acting, and the likable characters, and the drama, and the conflict, and the spectacle, and the sound, and the this, and the that. You've got to give it all. And it's got to be self-contained enough where you don't feel like the Marvel thing, where if you didn't watch the 20 other movies, you're not going to know what's going on.

Even the three that he's done, they're self-contained enough that you can enter into Prey, or you could come into this one having not seen anything else. And even the last I actually thought when we get to that, because there's a portion within the the animated one where there's a ship. And like by the end, I thought the ship was I was like, oh, is he crossing over? Like, are we going to get live action characters and people from the animated like that? But I don't think that's where he's going.

But he also has the freedom to do. Like, he's telling a story in this giant universe, and he's got several different stories kind of going at once here. So if he wants to bring in... But again, he's so... He's so conscious of what's going on, I think even he knows, like, you don't want to embed it so much that you can't just come into this movie and enjoy it on its own.

That's the point. But he knows he's dealing with a bigger thing, because that's also why he worked in, like, the touches of Alien without being Alien vs. Predator. I think he even said it was, you know, it was cooler that we just take, you know, Weyland-Yutani and, like, we make them the real big bad behind everything. Right.

And we take the synths, but we're not taking, like, we didn't work Lance Hendrickson in again. Because how many times have we seen him come back into a movie in that Alien franchise? Even though he should be long dead, he keeps popping up in movies over and over again. So it's like we didn't work that in. We gave us a whole new version of the synth to deal with.

And then even so much so is, like, again, the inside joke just for geeks, the fact that we get the, like, power loader fight at the end, only it's the massively bigger giant robotic version of this now versus another big monster fight. Like, it's just, we get a little touch of the, you know, the alien crossover world, but without... But even then, he's like, I don't want it just being jamming your toys together. It doesn't need to be Alien vs. Predator.

Here we go. Which is what we tried to do with two movies years ago. And he's like, I didn't want that. He's like, I want touches of it. I want it to be a larger universe.

But you don't have to hit people over the head with it. It can just be adding this stuff in to kind of enrich the whole thing. But it's still self-contained enough to be its own movie. No, it felt real organic. And it was nice if you've seen Aliens to kind of get the reference, you know, but it was like, I think if you came in as a 13-year-old and saw that, it wouldn't feel like, what?

Where's that coming from? It would feel very organic to the story. And I got to tell you, this is probably the first movie in a long time where I felt the geeking out enjoyment of it. You know, where, not just, that was in the Aliens power loader, I was just, like, so invested in the movie by the time, you know, Giant Robot versus giant monster and a alien planet for some reason i got real you know 13 you know kid giddiness about what was going on on screen where i was i was taken away. And I was like, that is just some big, awesome science fiction, uh, spectacle that I really enjoyed.

Yeah. Without it like devolving to the silliness of the predator, which don't get me wrong. It's fun. But like that, when you feel like the 12 year old, like you don't feel like there's anything else going on where this gives you the excitement of that 12 year old, uh, But you're also like, you brought your brain with you too. And you're like, Oh, but we're telling a bigger story and we've got sort of a grand take on things.

And like, we're looking at like people making decisions about their life that like, you're not going to get in a silly action movie for 12 year olds. So this like. Somehow melds them both into one thing. And like, it works both ways. It's, it's impressive that this works the way it does.

Absolutely. Absolutely. This movie could have been so boring. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, just, again, from the writing and directing standpoint. Yeah. And, again, I think what takes it up several notches is the acting. Like, Elle Fanning, like, sold so much of this movie. Absolutely.

And, like, it'd be different. Like, Thea's just so likable that you love that. But the fact that she's also the villain. Like, she also is Tessa and gets to turn up and be, you know, be... the evil badass, you know, that's ready to kill everyone. So it's like the fact that she does both of those, it's impressive.

And then not to undercut Demetrius is the guy playing deck. And like, he's as much as, you know, he's buried behind either physical makeup or CG coverage. I don't know how much they are with each of them, but yeah, exactly. I don't care because so much of this character comes through in a guy that looks like a predator and, doesn't speak English, and yet we still are so attached to this guy. And we see him going through this journey and kind of growing as a creature, as a person, but he's not a human.

So, like, you see him as a character. Become better and more enriched as a character to watch. And, like, you don't normally get that from somebody, you know, encased in makeup or covered in CG green screen action. Absolutely not. So the fact that we still are really kind of invested in him as much as, as Elle Fanning's performances, that like it's, it says a lot about him as an actor as well.

So both of those two lead performances, I think take this up several notches. Absolutely. It's, it's all, unfortunately, unfortunately for movies, it comes down to story and character. And it's like the oldest thing to say. It's like the actors that you have, the characters they're portraying, and the story that they're going through is like what the freaking movies are about.

And so often, you know, it's just about, you know, pre-frozen elements that they think they can show and that's the movie but they they they forget the most important part you know they can do like great predator armor and great props and great this and great that but if the story isn't compelling all that is just so empty and it's just kind of like staring into a lamp after a minute you know yeah. I mean, that's the thing. I've watched a lot of sci-fi stuff and crazy action movies, and there's so many now that I'm just like, eh, it was fine. I'll watch it, and even if the action part of it works, it's still hollow, and there's not much to it. Where this one, I felt so happy by the time we got to the end.

I was so enriched by these three characters by the end there. Right. And I kind of like, not to, it is interesting that the cute character worked. Like, the cute thing at the beginning, because you don't get that in Predator movies. We don't have a, again, that's a very modern era Star Wars, definitely Mandalorian, of like, here's my cute sidekick, and like, every time you cut to him, you're like, aw, look how cute he is.

And like, it seems like that wouldn't work in a Predator movie. But we introduced Bud, and like, he's still so damn likable. Right. And is like, so like, attached to our main character that starts mimicking him and you're like all right you have to like this guy look at him and like yeah her actually so you you know you you like the character and then as it goes on and you see what she becomes like that is important as well But even my other favorite thing is once he, like, loses most of his high-powered fancy weaponry, and by the end battle has to resort to, like, the natural elements. So he starts using, like, the killer tree to, like, attack them.

And then the thing that whatever the creature is that he wears on his shoulder that starts spitting acid at everybody... is also adorable. And, like, somehow, this little slug-looking thing that spits acid is adorable, and you're really upset when it's not part of the team anymore. Right. Yeah, when it's, like, all burnt, like a piece of chicken, and you go like, aw. It's so sad.

I was like, because it sacrifices itself to. Save our lead. And, like, That's amazing. Like, in a few minutes of him being introduced in, and, again, it's. A slug that spits acid.

Yeah. But somehow I was like, oh, man. Like, it was the fact that it sacrificed itself to save our character. Right. It was important.

Yeah. It, like, shouldn't have been in this type of movie. Absolutely. Yet it was. Yeah.

I mean, like, the, yeah, it's like Beastmaster, right? Ah, Poto. Yeah. No, it's great. I love the fact that he gets biological equivalents of the old Predator stuff.

That's so cool. And again, so different. All we've had is them so reliant on technology. Absolutely. I'm just recycling the same thing over and over again.

Which is an interesting little tidbit, because I've heard people mention that before, that it... This whole story, this whole adventure shouldn't work because he wants to be Mr. Solo dude. But Thea is smart enough that she knows their ways and is like, oh, I'm a tool. So it's okay.

You love your gadgets. You love your tools. So you can use me. Even though she's kind of using him. But she knows how to kind of work his tools. his old timey ways and his like traditions and the way that they think as their species and like their society.

So that was a cool little touch that like, this shouldn't have worked. He should have just thrown her aside and be like, Nope, I'm on my own. That's how real warrior does things. And like, but she like played him enough to be like, no, I'm just a tool. It's okay.

I'm a piece of machinery for you. Right. Right. So the fact that then later he'd like strips all the machinery and like is fighting with sticks and, creatures he just is back to like the natural. World yeah yeah i think the movie is like kind of it goes into the theme of cooperation you know of like uh of like using you know of developing a community and working together with a.

Community to to fight you know to to achieve a better goal you know to do something noble you know um yeah uh uh It was cool. It's awesome. And the more I've thought about it, at the time I left and I was like, that was cool and I really liked these characters and I was just kind of happy to see it come together in sort of a non-traditionally happy ending that I didn't expect. But again, when the trio comes back together, trio pun intended, I suppose. Uh-huh.

Comes back together at the end there. And, like, we take out our original bad guy. And, like, we see him, like, just hanging out together. And, like, they're this new badass team. And I'm like, I love that.

And, like, now I just want to follow these three around on adventures for every other movie that is made ever again. I just want to hang out with these three and see what they get into next. And luckily we kind of get to do that, I'm assuming. Because we definitely left it. Yeah.

And answered a question as I was going through before I got to this movie, and I'm re-watching the other Predator movies, and I'm like... question I asked myself the day before was, we've never seen a female predator, have we? We've seen so many predators and so many variations of monsters created for or by or that hang out with them. We've seen all these other creatures, but as far as we know, every predator we've seen has been male and very masculine so i'm like what the hell is the mom like so we get a fact that yes there is a female predator out there and now we're going to be introduced to one so it would seem so the fact that we've got that tease at the end there is like oh i just asked that question what the hell are the female predators like if these are the guys like what what's the other end of this deal right so i guess we're assuming this is done relatively well financially I'm guessing we're going to get that uh question answered in the next movie.

There's gonna be bigger and gnarlier and you know like praying manas you know like how often in the animal kingdom the female is like much bigger and you know uh aggressive in a way. You know that's what i was gonna say like are they the more hardcore. Ones yeah right like Like, these are, the guys are just trying to keep up with, to be worthy mates. Guys are like, I gotta go do this or my wife's gonna beat my ass. It's just domestic abuse through all the predator households.

That's it. And that's why the men are all such assholes. It's because they've just been beaten down by the females of the species, which makes things even worse, actually. Yeah. Yeah, you want to blame it on machismo, but now the women are just going to show up and be even scarier.

These predators, they got issues, man. Our guy is the only good one so far. Yeah, yeah. Well, I think, yeah, I'm really looking forward to seeing Dax or whatever, like, riding around on the back of the monkey and, you know, like Battle Cat and, you know, throwing a spear or something, you know, and I'm down with that. Yeah, I mean, he got into this and he said he had, when Prey got really well received, he had like three more ideas.

And one was Killer of Killers. One was the movie we just watched. And there was a third one that he's now working on. So he's supposed to be bringing us the next Predator movie. I'm assuming that's just a direct follow-up to this.

I am interested because, again, Killer of Killers leaves the door very open at the end, too. So I'm like, is that story also going to come into play? Or is they just going to, somewhere down the line, do another animated movie that's separate? But yeah, he seems like he's got... a lot more plates spinning in the predator world. And I'm like, thank God because I don't want it to go to anyone else.

He's so good at this. Yeah. Just yeah. Keep, keep letting him make good stuff. Right.

Right. He had an idea. He had an idea other than, Predator stabs a guy in the face. Now, I'm also, again, he made a great movie to begin with. We've seen him do a little more work on TV over the years, but now he's just been immersed in the Predator world for so long.

I kind of want to see what else he does outside of that. Sure. There's only one other thing that's supposedly. In the works. Have you heard what else he's working on?

Mm-mm. Nope. So, he's also, in addition to this next Predator movie, working on a TV series adaptation of Waterworld. Oh. Dan, I have so much faith in you.

Can he save the Waterworld concept? Can someone make something useful out of Waterworld? Well, I mean, look, dude. I'm kind of mad at him for getting distracted by Waterworld. You can't complete thoughts because Waterworld took over your brain.

Yeah, I can't... No, I'm sorry. I'm mad at him for getting... distracted by water world well. But at the same time i mean i might have questioned him taking on predator as a concept as well and yet somehow he's knocked out three solid stories so i'm like i mean there's a there's an essence of something interesting in water world at the If someone can do something interesting and maybe impressive with the concept, Dan Trachtenberg may be the man. Yeah.

I mean, look, I love Mad Max stuff, all right? So Mad Max on jet skis was a good one-time watch, okay? But yeah, I mean, yeah. Well, here's the thing. If he's got a... angle on it if he's got a story he can tell in the water world world you know water world world and uh and it's not just you know uh whatever the hell that was uh you know.

Just as the water world stunt show. Yeah. That's it. Cause I was like, I've heard amazing reviews. Like people have been like, yeah, water world's crap.

But if you ever went to. The theme park and saw the stunt show, it's amazing. So like, maybe you just saw that as a kid and went, okay, I can do something with this. Right. I can take this stunt show.

He's like, never seen the movie. He just saw the stunt show. I can do something with it. Yeah. Yeah.

All right. All right. Yeah. I mean, look, he's, He's definitely the best hope Waterworld has ever had. Most definitely.

The only other thing that was amazing that was ever connected to Waterworld was Dennis Hopper. Man, I could not have been more bored by Kevin Costner in a movie. And he's been boring in several movies over the years. But no offense, he can turn in a good performance, but he can also be the most boring man on the planet. What a World is a good example.

But to counterbalance that with crazy, over-the-top, scenery-chewing, one-eyed, bald-headed Dennis Hopper was amazing. It's not the worst movie ever made. Because of Dennis Hopper. Because of Dennis Hopper. I agree.

He's so good in that. Again, as ridiculous, as over-the-top as you can be. And he's just awesome and hilarious and crazy and... Yeah, it was the reason I saw that. Again, I had to play it in the background, but I would put it in to hear Dennis Hopper say his crazy shit.

Oh, yeah, yeah. His big speech. And I would just hear it. All the time, and I'd be like, ah, that guy. I love that guy.

Crazy bastard that he was. Right, right. He's so good in that movie. Yeah, yeah. But the bad guys in Mad Max movies are always very entertaining, you know, and that's, that's basically what this was.

So there's not enough 11 to dial it up to. You're the bad guy in the post-apocalyptic movie. Absolutely. You can do whatever you want. That's it.

That's it. The sky's the limit, you know? Uh, yeah, yeah. Great. Well, no, I'm, I'm, I'm down with it.

You know, we'll, we'll see, you know, it's, uh, He's definitely good at breathing some life into some franchises that definitely need it. Maybe that's what he needs. Maybe he needs that structure to fight against. Sometimes when these guys go off on their own and do their passion project, then you go like, oh, no. But the fact that I'm assuming Predator was his passion project, you know, he could have done whatever coming off of, like, Cloverfield World was tons of money, so I'm assuming he at least had a mid-budget movie he could have made after that, and, like, he took on Prey when he could have done whatever, so...

Again, it feels like he's got a good sense of what he wants to accomplish, even if it's weird and unconventional. Waterworld is weird and unconventional, so if anybody can pull it off, Dan is the man. Yeah, absolutely. I don't envy him, though. The production horrors.

Of the Oh, yeah. The original was. Don't shoot on water is like the basic, you know, stay away from kids, animals, and shooting on water. Those are the rules of making anything. Right.

Yeah. Yeah. That's not the best plan, but, you know, he seems to like a challenge, so. Yeah, dude. Yeah.

Totally, dude. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. So, in summary, in summary, there's Predator....

And then there's Dan Trachtenberg. Dan Trachtenberg, after several floundering additions. You know, we finally, after what, how long ago was Predator? Almost, what, almost 30 years ago? 87.

Yeah, geez. Oh my gosh, almost 40 years ago? It's been a long run. It took a while to get back to being impressive again. Right.

Space Hunter... It took a while to get the Space Hunter formula right. Figure out what these movies were. Just a few misfires along the way. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely. Yeah, so, yeah. I was so glad I saw it in the theater. It made it better, just being immersed in all that, because it's a crazy landscape. It is the Badlands.

So to be in the theater and have that sort of up and around you and immersed in the sound and all of it, it's definitely worth seeing in the theater. Yeah, definitely. Cool. Cool. So yeah.

Yeah. Check it out. I liked it so much more than... Well, again, I came in knowing he was involved. So I did already have my bar set a little higher because it was involved.

But if you would have told me years ago that I was going to enjoy a Predator movie this much, I would have been like, are you... Are you sure? Are we talking about the same predator? Yeah. This isn't like the ketchup predator, because those aren't funny either.

Like, what are we talking about? Right, right. What are you selling me? So the fact that it somehow came around to this and Dan made it work, like, more power to you, man. This is impressive.

Yeah, it felt like a movie, not like a movie. a placeholder, you know? Yeah. Not a save the IP. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

It actually had something to say, a story to tell characters to bring us like, yeah, it's impressive. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Cool. Cool.

We went on quite a predator journey there. So, um, yeah. Yeah. Do you have anything to say to wrap up. Your entire run here?

No. Or any parting words of wisdom to anyone? Absolutely. No, I don't. I mean, they should see it, but I'm about to go completely nonverbal here.

This is the most talking we've done in months. Yeah, yeah. It's been a while. Since we were on one of these, actually. So, yeah, I realize that's the only time I talk to humans is on the show.

Absolutely. And yours are always the most extended of conversations. That was maybe a little more precious. It was a little ambitious. It's the only time I have these kind of conversations.

Yeah, it was a little ambitious to go over all... I tried to hit all the Predator movies, but that was a lot. I mean, I don't know that I knew we were going to go as in-depth as we did, but yet I kind of did because I knew it was both of us. Yeah, it kind of needed to happen. It kind of needed to...

It was like. If you ever had anything you wanted to say about a Predator movie, this was your opportunity, so. And I don't know that you can't, again, you probably should jump from the first one to these last three, but like you kind of can't without experiencing at least a wrap up of all the weird missteps along the way and attempting something. And it didn't work. And like, so yeah, it kind of brings it in perspective and makes you appreciate these last three even more.

That's it. Absolutely. It's about the journey. It is. Take your pack and go on a journey.

That's it. That's it. Grab your CG monkey and get out there. Get out for the ride. That's it.

All right. Well, thank you. Yeah. And thank you for anyone out there that is hung on for this crazy journey. And thanks for coming along with us and being on this Badlands planet with us.

That's right. That's right. Yeah. Otherwise, that about does it. We will return next time.

Same geek feed. Thanks for listening. Thanks, y'all. Listen up now, I'm a leader. You don't want a dad by the hand that feeds you.

I ain't never been scared of the wrath of my demons. I'm a monster and I have your bitches screaming. Hands up, I am designer. Built from the ground and my house, it gets higher. Open up the door, everything I desire.

Back down now. I'm here to take what's mine. One, two, three, four, drop the smoke and hit your door. Five, six, seven, eight, hold up, let me demonstrate. I'm wired, I'm hot, we're starting, can't stop, I come out, I'm talking.

I'm the predator. I'm the predator. I'm the predator. I come fresh with the army. Heard you got the gasoline, pour a little on me.

I spit fire, I ain't never been sorry. Belly of the beast, this is my damn story. I always win hands down. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Handed down the play, but I love the chase.

R.I.P. To the one that gets brave. 1, 2, 3, 4, triple snacking at your door. 5, 6, 7, 8, hold up, let me demonstrate. I'm on it.

I was going like, We are wasting so many more words on AVP than needs to be said when we've got this amazing movie to talk about here. Again, by comparison, that makes it so much better when we get there. When we get there. Look at all these messed up things they did years ago, and then Dan comes in and just saves the franchise. This episode is a production of Movie Meltdown, produced and edited by The Oddity Studios, with opening music performed by The Empires.

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