A good movie

Wow… The ‘Predator’ franchise is really having a banner year. Since I already really enjoyed ‘Predator: Killer of Killers’, I was quite eager to see Dan Trachtenberg 2nd Predator movie released in 2025. And guess what? It was even better than the animated anthology. Basically, his master move was to finally make the Predator the actual protagonist. You might wonder why they never thought about it before but Trachtenberg really made the most of it, that’s for sure. Indeed, the intro took place on Yautja Prime, the Predator’s planet, and right there, the tone was just so pitch-perfect. I also really enjoyed how Dek, our new Predator/Lead character, was not softened whatsoever as he was another ruthless killer like any respected Predator should be. It was also a brilliant idea to give him some android as a sidekick. Indeed, it wouldn’t make sense for a Predator to have a friend or even a partner but there is a grey line when it comes to a synthetic being like Thia. There were still a couple of things that didn’t work for me though. First of all, the Predator is supposed to be the most skilled hunter in the whole universe so how come he arrived to this planet completely clueless and unprepared? It didn’t make much sense to me but it was a minor issue. By the way, this lethal planet called Genna with all these weird creatures was just awesome. A bigger issue I had was the fact that it took Tessa, the other synthetic being, only 2 mins in the arsenal of the Predator to figure out how to take down the Kalisk (a successful method that she would use twice). I mean, the Kalisk was supposed to be this mythical unbeatable being and, yet, it didn’t seem to be so complicated to kill it after all. Finally, even though I really liked the idea of the Predator tagging along with a robot, since it is not really living, it can be considered as a tool, but to give him also a pet at the end was too much though. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was probably not a masterpiece, it was still a really solid Predator installment, it is definitely worth a look and I can’t wait to see what Dan Trachtenberg will do next with this franchise. 

7/10