I agree with you. On paper Predators was promising, but the planet shouldn't have been jungle-like. And there should've been more of the new elements e.g. the falcons, the dogs, the river hunter, etc.
There was no wonder and the cinematography was awful. It looked like a backyard movie and in essence it was. "Make it at TroubleMaker studios, keep it away from our meddling!" So, a Texas backyard. I did enjoy the casting of Brody, Grace, Fishburne, and Goggins though.
A Predator film that is not a hunt is refreshing and novel and so so so welcome. Shane being inspired by Spielberg, Hawkes and Cameron makes me very happy. All I could remember were Antal and Rodriguez talking about their sole inspiration for Predators: Predator. And boy did they ever get inspired, but not in a good way.
And why do you think a lot of the top talent they courted all turned it down? I heard it was because Predator is not seen as a cool franchise and kind of shopworn at this point, even with a talent like Black at the helm. And there was even surprise that they managed to snag Del Toro.