Once again, an alien species of hunters comes to Earth but this time it’s not trophies that they’re after. Can our ragtag crew of soldiers with PTSD, a biologist, and a kid with super autism stop this threat? Yes, obviously. Is it any good? Ehhhh.
System Mastery
Jef and Jon review roleplaying games, Star Wars novels and anything else that crosses their paths.
System Mastery 
Jeez, I didn’t even know this was made. Sahne Black, co-writer and director, was at one time the HOTTEST screenwriter in Hollywood after he penned Lethal Weapon. That reign didn’t last long. I see he is doing Doc Savage next. Not enthused.
For what it’s worth, I assumed the whole “THEY’RE GONNA INVADE” idea was just Project Stargazer being morons, and in reality the Predators showing up more frequently was the equivalent of 19th century big game hunters hearing that a notable game animal is dying out, so they all rush in to get a trophy for their wall before the species goes extinct.
Hence, I assumed the “good” Predator was essentially a conservationist trying to keep one of his favored game animals around for future generations to hunt, and the”gift” would be the secrets of clean energy, or technology to reverse environmental damage from pollution – because he doesn’t give a shit about any particular human surviving, he just wants humans as a species to still be around.
Then he gave them a suit of Iron Man armor,and I threw up my hands. At this point, I’m assuming that the “good” Predator just really hated the idea of people who weren’t him being allowed to hunt humans and was metaphorically poisoning the hunting ground for future Predators.
I don’t think you guys need to worry about losing any military audience. If there’s anything we hate worse than the “we’re all a bunch of broken PTSD-fueled maniac-depressives” stereotype it’s the kind of indulgent mil-porn fan-wank the hero of this film seems to embody. And, apparently, this movie wants to use BOTH of those.
I will say, though, that the bit where he tells the whole crew to shut up and they all start laughing at his “badassery” is kind of great. It’s how a lot of us react to that kind of crap.
I’m a bit late to this since I waited until after I saw the movie to listen to this episode. Apparently, there were some pretty heavy reshoots that led to a lot of dropped threads and disappearing characters. (Edward James Olmos was completely cut from the movie.)
Jake Busey’s character also shares a last name with Gary Busey’s character from Predator 2, so I’m guessing they’re supposed to be related.
Overall, I’d say that it wasn’t as bad as I’d heard but not as good as I’d hoped.
BTW, I totally disagree re: AvP: Requiem being better than the first AvP. Requiem is not only poorly shot—seriously, it’s often so dark you can barely tell what’s happening—it’s also really mean-spirited. (The maternity ward scene was the point that I definitively decided that I hated it.) AvP was at least goofy fun.