Predator Design in Badlands, how should he look?

[The Cruentus]

Yeah, say what you want about the first AVP predators, but they weren't stupid as Wolf was. Granted Celtic got cocky which is what killed him, but they fights should the Aliens to be actually a threat and not whatever was in Requiem.

Kind of interesting switch really.
AVP = Poor Predator design but decent performance and fairly competent bar one or two things.
AVP-R = Good design for predator but incompetent behavior for most of the movie.

[Corporal Hicks]

Completely agree. It would be really nice to see the Predator's agility and speed properly realized on the screen.

Have you forgotten about Jungle Hunter already? It was realized in 1987. 

We don't really *see* it, though. Jungle Hunter is cloaked through most of those feats.

I liked Feral jumping from tree to tree, that was a bit too short of a scene but it was cool.

This scene in particular is one that I was thinking of with Prey. It's not quite the Predakour of Hunting Grounds, but it was a nice demonstration of it. Even if it was short.

[Samhain13]

I would have received Prey infinitely better if it were a better face design, and they altered that ending fight scene to feel a bit more grounded, other than that I think the Predator behaves appropriately and has some of the cooler kill scenes in the franchise.

Plus very good cinematography

The P:HG version of Feral has a better looking face, I still liked the movie design but I can agree that the cgi/prosthetics on the face stuck out a bit too much.

On that one they managed to make him look good, on Mr Black and Falconer not so much

[The Cruentus]

Yeah, the berserker preds didn't look as good in the game, head was too bulbous looking if recall.

[SiL]

Maybe, but I don't know...its harder to gauge the "competence" of a xenomorph.

It's easy to gauge - does the Alien actually do anything when in arm's reach of an opponent, or does it just wiggle and squeal?

[The Cruentus]

An alien has claws, a tail, an inner jaw, can occasionaly spit acid and has tremendous strength, if its not using any of them while held by a predator, its definitely incompetent.

Despite the more technical challenge of it back in Aliens, they succeeded in showing an alien using its tail when in close quarters combat. It very nearly hits Ripley in the head.

[Mr.Turok]

Jungle Hunter's way more graceful, and that run towards Dillon before killing him has no match in subsequent movies including Prey.

Suspenseful and filled with tension? Absolutely. However did Prey properly show how quickly a Predator close in on his prey than the dramatic final moment of Dillon before he met his grizzly end? MUCH more clearer than 1987. I'm looking at it from a technical view and Dillon's scene was in slow motion but Prey's chase of Naru and one of her tribesmen in the tall grass scene shown that speed much more clearly than past films ever done.

[Cougerboy]

Maybe, but I don't know...its harder to gauge the "competence" of a xenomorph.

It's easy to gauge - does the Alien actually do anything when in arm's reach of an opponent, or does it just wiggle and squeal?

Whether it just squeals or actually attack...depends on the situation, specifically what the director wants from the scene. So not really I think...its all totally subjective depending on the movie.

Completely agree. It would be really nice to see the Predator's agility and speed properly realized on the screen.

This is the thing that bug me about 2004's AVP. I didn't have an issue with the design of the predators in AVP, but I did have an issue with the way they fought. Sure, they seem powerful, but they also seem so dumb and slow in AVP. Almost like they were some second rate WWE wrestlers (please no Jessie Ventura references here, yes I know he is an ex-wrestler).

What good are their sheer bulk if they can't fight and move properly? So I agree 100% about wanting to see some agility and martial skills of the predator(s) in Badlands.

All the films Post Predator 2 and before Prey always had them slow and lumbering about. To get any notion of speed and agility were always set aside in EU stuff like games and comics.

Honestly I'd argue Prey displayed it better that the first film, as those scenes had it slowed down a bit.

Perhaps, but not as bad as in AVP, where all three preds seem quite incompetent physically. Maybe the pred suits the actors wore were just too bulky to allow for the necessary range of movements. Maybe the actors just weren't very good at conveying the physical ability of the predators. Maybe they were given bad instructions by the rather talentless director Paul Anderson. Maybe its all those or some other reasons. Whatever the case, the end result was not good...to put it mildly.

How were they incompetent physically ? I hate those preds but they were mostly portrayed as brute force predators and appeared competent enough in that regard.

Celtic and Chopper Predators was taken out by that one single grid xenomorph. While in AVP2, the Wolf Predator was slaughtering countless xenomorphs. I just thought Celtic and Chopper must be pretty pathetic on the predator skill level chart, hahaha.

But they weren't taken out because of physical incompetence. One was killed during a surprise attack while focused on a human, and the other became a bit arrogant and too reckless while fighting a resourceful alien.

Arrogance and recklessness could be a cover for incompetence too. Anyway, I think I am getting too much into Predator psychology and over-thinking this, hahaha.

[BigDaddyJohn]

Jungle Hunter's way more graceful, and that run towards Dillon before killing him has no match in subsequent movies including Prey.

Suspenseful and filled with tension? Absolutely. However did Prey properly show how quickly a Predator close in on his prey than the dramatic final moment of Dillon before he met his grizzly end? MUCH more clearer than 1987. I'm looking at it from a technical view and Dillon's scene was in slow motion but Prey's chase of Naru and one of her tribesmen in the tall grass scene shown that speed much more clearly than past films ever done.

I still prefer Dillon's scene (my favorite death in all predator movies) but I agree that the grass scene in Prey was really good.

[BlackNoir]

How the design was described:

https://x.com/AndrewJ626/status/1907913759911457160

[CANNON]

How the design was described:

https://x.com/AndrewJ626/status/1907913759911457160

That's the most promising point thus far, in fact the only point I can show any optimism for.

[BigDaddyJohn]

That is reassuring if true. Still wary of any early comments though, there tend to be a good amount of exaggeration in them quite often.

[CANNON]

Very true, always that way.

[Nightmare Asylum]

Not sure if anything here could really be exaggerated, to be honest. Like the "hot" comments and anything else hyperbolic/reactionary, of course. But there hasn't been much of that, all things considered. Most of what we've read (or at least, most of what I've read) has been more or less a description of the footage, not so much opinions on said footage.

And then we've all just been forming our own opinions as reactions to those descriptions of the footage.

[BigDaddyJohn]

Yes but I suspect people to not really care about the subtle details of the original design to which this guy is comparing it to. That could lead to an exaggeration when saying it's closer to that design. And of course considering Feral was the latest creature, I also suspect people could just say that because it will not be a Feral like design.

Kinda similar to what happens when people think the avp aliens resembles greatly to Big Chap.