It’s official: Prey is the highest critically-rated movie in the Predator franchise, by a country mile.
At 94 percent and “certified fresh,” Prey‘s critical score on the review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes puts it even higher than the 1987 original starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, with Predator having an 80 percent score.
Predator is much beloved, especially among fans, and we wouldn’t have any sequels without it. But even on the (sometimes) more-nuanced review aggregate ranking that can be found on Metacritic, Prey is higher, with a score of 69/100, while Predator has a 45/100.
With so few worthy follow-ups to the 1987 original, we’re just excited to see a fresh take on the franchise. Prey is a prequel set 300 years in the past with members of the Comanche Nation facing off against one ugly alien.
Though we give a nod to the decently well-received 2010 effort Predators and we have a soft spot for the very ’90s Predator 2, despite its “rotten” critical score, the Alien vs. Predator duology and 2018 attempted reboot The Predator left us underwhelmed.
Despite Predator‘s 80 percent score, we still think the original is a near-perfect action movie, and it became quite influential, being the inspiration for memes, other action films, and video games. It was clear that Prey director Dan Trachtenberg has a similar reverence for the original film. For instance, Trachtenberg recently revealed in an interview with Digital Spy that he almost put an Easter egg in Prey that was a nod to the original movie by naming one of the horses “Chopper,” in a reference to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s favorite nickname for a helicopter, as We Got This Covered previously reported.
He ultimately decided against the Easter egg, but did go on to state that he and the team behind Prey put a concerted effort into “embracing the lore and telling a story that is somewhat similar to the story of the original film in its structure.”
Prey comes to Hulu on August 5.
