10 Reasons Why The Predator Is Better Than You Think
9. THAT Opening
When the film's title appears, with the backdrop and even the font being deliberately reminiscent of the original Predator, the audience feels very much in familiar territory. But then Black goes and does what he does best; he pulls the rug out from under us.
Suddenly two gargantuan Predator ships zoom overhead and the audience is immersed in the first-ever dog-fight space battle the Predator franchise has ever seen. It's some of the film's most impressive CG work and features the ships firing at one another and opening portals for interdimensional travel.
From there, one ship crashes into the Mexican jungle on Earth, which is where Holbrook's Quinn McKenna gets swept up into the action. He discovers the Predator's escape pod and gear, just as his team is brutally strung up and taken out by an invisible force.
With the Predator's gauntlet attached to his wrist, McKenna begins to unwittingly fight back, as the gauntlet turns him invisible and even fires a disc towards the invisible Predator. This knocks him down and cuts the corpse of one of McKenna's strung-up men in half, leaving his blood to pour down and cover the Predator, making him visible for the first time in one of the greatest monster reveals ever put to screen.
This entire opening is like Shane Black kicking in the door of the viewer's expectations and setting the table for a very different kind of Predator film.