Shane Black’s The Predator: 10 Critical Reactions You Need To See

3. It's The Thor: Ragnarok Of The Predator Franchise

Thor Ragnarok Trailer
Marvel Studios
"In some respects, The Predator is like the Thor: Ragnarok of the franchise - the film that takes what came before and turns it all into a pretty funny gag. The Predator is so far removed from 1987’s Predator that to compare them would be unfair." - SlashFilm
"There’s such a furious procession of jokes that, inevitably, not all of them fly, and at times the miss rate outnumbers the hits quite considerably." - The Guardian
"One thing to know going in is that The Predator is starkly different from any other film in the series. They don’t try to ape any of the previous instalments, all of which, while occasionally tongue-in-cheek, took themselves seriously. This one doesn’t - not for a second." - JoBlo

Thor: Ragnarok is commonly hailed as the best in the character's trilogy, in large part thanks to the way it completely reinvigorated a character who was growing more and more stale with each successive movie.

The Predator aims for a similar reinvigoration. As we previously mentioned, the franchise used to be known for its horror and action, but with Black at the helm, it's now about the action and the comedy.

Whether you like this new direction or not is completely up to you. It's not automatically bad. You'll either embrace all the jokes and the quips - like many did with Ragnarok - or you'll long for the days when Predator films were serious.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!