I really enjoyed it. Predator is one of my favorite movies of all time and I'm so happy we got a worthy sequel/prequel.
I loved how this Predator was more savage and willing to take hits. He wrestled a freaking bear!
I thought the cinematography was beautiful and I would have loved to have seen this in a theater. But I don't think Disney is going to let that happen.
https://www.polygon.com/23291993/pre...-hulu-theaters
"...according to Variety’s Adam B. Vary, before it was acquired by Disney, 20th Century Fox had a deal with HBO Max to stream all its theatrical releases there. This deal still applies for any films that originated before the Disney merger. This explains why recent 20th Century releases like Free Guy, Nightmare Alley, West Side Story, and Death on the Nile have appeared on HBO Max instead of, or as well as, Hulu or Disney Plus.
I agree with a lot of what you said here. While I overall loved the flick it did have its issues.
The scene with the shield as well as the final fight between Naru and the Predator had some weird moments. When the Predator's arm gets cut off and she tears off one of his mandibles, he didn't really flinch. I know he was tough but they should have had him react more to show that something crazy just happened. Give us a Predator screaming in pain moment! I had to rewind those scenes because his major injuries were just seemingly glossed over.
I felt the French trappers were ok. He had already killed a number of Camanche warriors so we got to see him take on another group with different weapons and tactics.
The magic flower was pretty silly, but I guess no worse than the Predator's weakness being mud. Btw, that doesn't work against infrared.
The gun was a cool callback. I'm wondering if that was the first time a human had managed to defeat a Predator so that's why that gun became something of a legendary artifact to their culture.
While Amber Midthunder was amazing, I felt the fight scene between her and the Camanche warrior didn't look that great. Even my girlfriend said that while it's awesome to see a woman kicking ass, there's no way a 120 lbs female with no real muscle definition is going to overpower a big guy like that. She should have kicked him in the balls to start the fight.