Shane Black

Sometimes I feel bad for the Predator. Of the two major sci-fi creature-feature franchises Fox popularized in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, the Aliens have had much better luck with both critics and audiences. But the Predator series has long felt like it’s struggled to keep up with the mastery of the original 1987 John McTiernan thriller. In the ensuing 35 years since the first film came out, there have been four direct sequels and two spinoffs (in which they square off against their xenomorph cousins), and hardly any of them have had the rapturous reception of the first one. With this weekend’s Prey, though, that tide seems to have turned, which made us decide to revisit the other major attempts to depict the Predators on screen (sorry, we’re just not going to count the Aliens vs. Preda...