Shortz: 'Prey' Is Great (AKA This Is Not Hard)

Making a Predator movie should not be difficult, or complicated, or any of the things it's been since after Predator 2 released.

'Prey' is a simple movie; it's an hour and a half long, tense action movie about a highly advanced alien hunter being dropped into a forest to fight a bunch of Comanche Native Americans, and it works like gangbusters. Frankly, it's amazing that this hasn't just been the formula for every Predator film; Predator fights people in this time period, and now this time period, vikings or ninjas or whatever really. The possibilities are endless. Instead, we've gotten "Predators hunt prisoners but we learn about their weird social structure for some reason and there's not really a lot of action" and "Predator tries to weaponize a young boys autism" which was even more odd than it sounds, alongside one good 'Alien vs. Predator' movie.

This is exactly what I want my action movies to be; it's a simple premise with a strong lead, good effects, excellent action, and a definitive ending. It tells the story it wants to tell and then it ends. It has great "show don't tell" moments, it isn't condescending or overly complicated, the characters are simple and easy to like without being tropes, it has perfect setup and payoff, it isn't riddled with nostalgia bait...I mean...this isn't hard. This is a very basic action movie and it works because it keeps things simple.

Please, please let this be the blueprint for Predator movies, and hell, action movies at large going forward.

Predator movie rankings as of this film (from worst to best):

6. The Predator

5. Alien vs. Predator: Requiem

4. Predators

3. Predator 2

2. Alien vs. Predator

1. Predator/Prey tie

4/5, and the dog doesn't die, good work film.