Just watched it today and I am little conflicted about it, on one hand there many elements about it I enjoyed and on the other... many I didn't.
First the bad.I really don't like the dna plot thing, it makes no sense because genetics do not work like that and I know most of you do agree it was a terrible concept, one that was thankfully dropped from Predators.
The Predator technology seems to be borderline magic. The plasma weapons apparently don't need firing, they just do so automatically whenever their user is attacked. Of course this is possibly only just some of them, as previous Predators aim, track and kill using plasma weaponry without ever being attacked.
Don't like AVP being referenced, even if it is only an easter egg.
Spoiler
Rory accidentally kills someone and it is not brought up again in the movie, I understand some people on the spectrum may sometimes have stunted emotions or poor social skills, but they are not sociopaths.
Also while Rory wasn't used as bad as I thought he would (I thought he was going to be a typical godmode character and single-handedly save the day), he still does things he shouldn't have been able to and his ability to translate or at least understand the predator language is just silly. Even an autistic person needs to have a basic understanding of something before they can excel at it. I don't know much about translations but don't you need the proverbial rosetta stone?
The Predator hounds....oh man this is one of the face palm moments in the movie.
Spoiler
One gets shot in the head and suddenly because friendly and just like an ordinary dog, one of the loonies say it got "lobotomized", I don't know much about lobotomy but I doubt it would instantly cause such behavior not to mention it is still a living animal with a bullet wound to the head, yet other than behavior change, its not really affected by it
The Predator killer weapon would have suited the film had the first movie been a superhero genre with fantastical technology in the first place. Here it just looks like someone watched the latest avengers and the black panther, and just plain copied them.
There is a few continuity issues I noticed straight away too, the vambrace keeps changing from left arm to right arm in between some scenes. Fugitive isn't able to penetrate the Upgraded Predator's skin with his predator tech metal wristblades yet Baxley drew blood with his knives.
The movie is a far cry from the suspenseful first movie that had some genuine horror moments.
Now on for the good.I got to say, Fugitive might just be my favorite Predator.
Maybe its just because I haven't long come from the theater and I am still riding on some of feelings from watching the movie, but I think Fugitive was done well and his design was terrific.
Now the nostalgic part of me wants to keep Jungle Hunter as my favorite because he is the first, his appearance is awesome and while he did use his Plasma Caster a lot, he killed one at a time in a hunter style fashion.
But Fugitive is almost on another level, whereas JH fought two teams of special forces and CH took on gangsters and the police, Fugitive took on a military force that was actually prepared for him and spent decades trying to find his kind. Also unlike the previous Predators which had the technological advantage right from the start. Fugitive starts his slaughter unarmed and not long out of sedation, and takes down the armed threats with just claws, mandibles and cunning.
Spoiler
He then retrieves his equipment but cheekily uses a human rifle to take down some more in such a casual manner. Between that and some of his other moments like using a severed arm to make a thump up gesture to deceive the aemt truck driver that everything is ok, makes him a bit of a character with a twisted and cheeky sense of humor. Where he does falter however, is in his fight with the Upgrade, I get he was kind of stunned or concussed from being pulled through a wall but I would have thought he would have put up a better fight since his plasma caster could easily have fired more than one shot
Baxley, Thomas Jane's character is a laugh riot and I got to say other than Fugitive, he really was one of the better things in the movie. I would say all of the loonies are really, though Alfie's character is probably the weakest.
Final thoughts.
I think this film could have been so much better but that goes without saying. They should have dropped the upgrade thing and just have a berserker predator fill in that role instead. Also instead of having Rory translate the tech and access the mask to have him know where the ship was from that, it should have been automatically like when Fugitive is using his mask to view where his ship is, it is connected wirelessly to the other mask while Rory is looking at it, and he simply sees what the other Predator triggered. That would have been slightly more believable.
Another way would have been to reverse the roles of Fugitive and Upgrade (or a berserker). Fugitive being the one hunting the other predator for either maybe stealing technology to use against other Predators or perhaps some other reason but Fugitive crashes his ship first while trying to find him due to being ambushed and ends up captured (that way we still have his cool escape scene) and the plot can follow from that but with necessary adjustments.
Traeger is another issue too,
Spoiler
I get that they needed a human antagonist but he seems a little cartoony, whereas Peter Keyers believed in helping mankind by taking the Predator technology, and had a very serious and professional demeanor. Traegor acts too casual and humorous for a man that kills mercilessly and without hesitation or good enough cause. He gives termination orders of Munn's character literally not long after being friendly to her and with no good reason except that she took a sample from a lab that he couldn't possibly know about due to the mayhem that occured. Though even if he did know, that seems like an overreaction to me because she was cooperative with them
