PREDATOR: The Entire Film Series (From Worst to Best)

With a new Predator film hitting HULU this weekend, it's time to look back on the iconic sci-fi/horror franchise...

By: Josh McCormack

Well, there's a new Predator movie hitting streaming today. The series' first prequel entitled Prey is the first Predator film to be released since 2018, but it's actually the seventh official entry in the ongoing series that began in 1987.

During that time, the titular intergalactic hunter has had run ins with Gary Busey, Xenomorphs, and Thomas Jane doing a very offensive depiction of a man with Tourette's syndrome. 

Let's look back on all the films of the Predator series, from worst to best...

7. Aliens vs Predator: Requiem (Dirs. Colin and Greg Strause; 2007)

Alright, let’s just get this one out of the way.

Most Predator movies have something to enjoy (hell, even Shane Black’s The Predator features a gloriously unhinged Sterling K Brown and some solid kills), but AVP: Requiem is the exception. A slog of a creature feature not even fit for syndication on the SyFy channel, AVP:R is far worse than any other film on this list. The plot is that of a bad CW show, complete with god awful teen actors, and the gore that is there is so gratuitous and cheap that it offers no real enjoyment.

I might have been able to praise the designs of both the titular creatures and their fight scenes, but the lighting is so terrible that you often can’t even see what’s going on throughout the majority of their bouts. Utter trash.

6. The Predator (Dir. Shane Black; 2018) 

What the hell happened here?

When I first heard the news that Shane Black–hot off of his underrated masterpiece, The Nice Guys– was not only directing, but co-writing a new Predator film with former collaborator Fred Dekker (Monster Squad, Night of the Creeps), I thought I was in for something really special. However, the resulting film is a tonal mess that feels less like a Predator movie and more like a lesser entry of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but with a heapful of uninspired vulgarity.

While it’s clear that the studio really cut what could have been a much more coherent film, the more I revisit The Predator, the more I realize it’s fundamentally broken. With a cast this full of great character actors and so much talent behind the camera as well, you’d expect so much more. Yet, Shane Black’s directorial foray into the Predator universe is a tonally inconsistent–and often obnoxious–entry that offers very little and proves to be the cinematic stain on Black’s formerly spotless filmmaking career. 

5. AVP: Alien vs Predator (Dir. Paul W.S. Anderson; 2004)

Yes. I just put a film by the director of the Resident Evil movies above a Shane Black joint. I really wish that it hadn’t come to this.

The first half of AVP is a bore. None of these characters are at all engaging (with the exception of the always great Alien franchise veteran, Lance Henriksen) and the backstory as to why the Aliens and Predators are ancient rivals is pretty ludicrous and doesn’t even make much sense if you consider the lore established in either creature’s significant franchises. However, the second the Predators come in contact with the Xenomorphs, the film turns into a pretty schlocky romp. 

The fight scenes aren’t incredible, but on this rewatch, I was surprised with how much fun I was having whenever the two creatures were duking it out on screen. While it’s mostly junk, I was fascinated that I didn’t hate AVP as much as I once had.

4. Predators (Dir. Nimród Antal; 2010)

Now we’re getting to the pretty good stuff.

Predators is a really solid entry in the series, that–with a bit more polish–could have been one of the absolute best. The concept is wonderful, with a group of the most dangerous people on Earth being chosen by the Predator for a game of the hunt on the creature’s never before seen home planet. The ragtag group is made up of a wonderful cast (led by Adrien Brody and featuring the likes of Danny Trejo and Walton Goggins) and the first half of the film does a great job building the group dynamic and throwing them into increasingly dangerous set pieces.

However, the seemingly simple narrative takes a few unnecessary detours as it reaches its conclusion. At one point, for example, we’re introduced to Laurence Fishburne’s character who seems to be set up as a big player in the story, but he’s unceremoniously killed off five minutes into his screen time once he gives our leads some clunky exposition. And stuff like that is a shame, because beneath some of the script’s faults lies a very entertaining action thriller.

3. Predator 2 (Dir. Stephen Hopkins; 1990)

What a sweaty, nasty sequel. I kinda love it.

Predator 2 is a big, dumb fun and vulgar little sci-fi thriller that expands on the first Predator without ruining the mystique of the titular creature as so many later sequels did. This time the action is set in a crime-ridden futuristic Los Angeles, so sleazy and drug-fueled that it would make Frank Miller blush. No longer hunting in the jungles of South America, a new Predator is hunting for sport in this big city and the only man who can stop him is a very sweaty and frazzled Danny Glover.

I love the setting change of Predator 2 and I really dig how we get to see more of the Predator tech, all rendered with mostly convincing, pre-CGI techniques. The script is certainly quite stupid, full of clichés and characters making proud declarations of things on screen as to make sure the audience isn’t confused, and Stephen Hopkins’ direction isn’t as powerful as McTiernan’s before him and Antal’s afterwards. However, the resulting film is both a wonderfully entertaining product of its time and one of the more inventive entries in the series. This critically reviled sequel definitely deserves a second look.

2. Predator (Dir. John McTiernan; 1987)

The one that started it all. 

Now, let me first say that I don’t think any Predator movie is perfect…and yeah, that even goes for the first one. While Predator still holds up incredibly well, its second act can tend to drag at times, mostly because the design of the Predator has entered the pop culture at such a large scale, that we already know what’s hunting our main characters and therefore some of that tension is lost. On top of that, I feel that Alan Silvestri’s score–reused in just about every Predator sequel–is not well utilized at times and frankly sounds more fitting for the Back to the Future films he worked on, as opposed to an intense action picture.

But come on…this movie just works.

Starting off with the most overblown versions of the 80s action heroes that dominated Hollywood filmmaking at this time, McTiernan deconstructs the genre by putting these usually unstoppable badasses in the warpath of an intergalactic terror. What starts as an action film, soon becomes a slasher movie as the titular creature picks off our heroes one-by-one. While it doesn’t necessarily develop these seemingly stock character archetypes, it allows the audience to see them as vulnerable. Led by Arnold Schwarzenegger at his prime and all culminating in an incredible mano y Predator battle where we are introduced to the coolest creature design in film history, Predator has more than earned its legendary status even with its imperfections. 

1. Prey (Dir. Dan Trachtenberg; 2022)

Yeah, you read that right.

Perhaps it is a symptom of recency bias–having literally just finished this movie at the time of this writing–but as of right now, Prey is my new favorite Predator movie. Utilizing an assortment of the elements that worked in the previous films and integrating them with a unique point of view (that of a Native American main character named Naru) and a refreshingly new setting (the early 18th-century), Prey manages to bring the series back to basics in a way that values good old-fashioned storytelling and strong filmmaking over lore building and sequel teases.

While there've been some great characters in the previous movies, I don’t know if I’ve ever been able to root for any of them the way I did for Naru. Played wonderfully by newcomer Amber Midthunder, it’s really Naru’s movie as she proves to her tribe that she has what it takes to be a hunter. Along this journey of self-discovery she finds herself face-to-face with the first Predator to come to Earth and the remaining hour is a nail-biting action spectacle that makes for one of the most downright entertaining movies I’ve seen all year. 

The homages are there, with some easter eggs and even a certain character recalling a classic Predator quote (one of the only moments that didn’t quite work for me), but Prey is good enough to stand on its own two feet. It’s a wonderful action movie in its own right with beautiful cinematography and a great score from composer Sarah Schachner (an artist whose majority of work is with video game scores) that opts not to rely on the Silvestri score–as all of the other sequels have–but instead has its own distinct mood that works perfectly with Prey’s singular atmosphere. All buoyed by the terrific direction of Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane), the film is deliberately paced but incredibly satisfying.

Finally, after 35 years, the Predator franchise has released a film that is worthy of the original classic.