PREDATOR III [MOVIE]

[Tony O'Black]

CLICK TO READ

Written by A. J. Black

2106. The dawn of a new space faring era.

The NASA shuttle Endeavour – the very first ‘impulse’ ship, an apex of propulsion allowing for solar system travel to take 1/10th as long as established speed – has been diverted from its maiden voyage of exploration beyond colonised Mars to investigate the loss of contact from Yutani station, the first deep space orbital facility positioned on the very edge of our solar system – beyond which no human has ever ventured.

Led by illustrious and heroic Spanish commander, Captain Diego Sanetza – born of a sea and space faring lineage going back centuries – the Endeavour and its rag tag crew believe their mission to be a straightforward repair operation.

How wrong they are.

Upon arrival at Yutani station, Sanetza and his crew face a baffling mystery: the entire personnel have vanished, those whose blood of course doesn’t line the walls! Something killed them. Something terrifying. Something inhuman. And something the Endeavour crew soon come to realise is still there and THEY… are its next targets.

But in coming face to face with this menace, Sanetza – in fighting the greatest battle of his life – also comes to discover a startling connection between the so-called ‘Predator’ and his family dynasty that could be the key to saving not only his crew, but all life on Earth…

[Kyle West]

Perfectly timed to download onto my shiny new Kindle, Mr Black.

Now I just have to work out how to do that...

[Pete D. Gaskell]

Easy enough to transfer PDFs across with the USB, Kyle.

I'll be on this soon, Tony - have Predator in my DVD player and ready to fire it up in prep...

[ChrisH]

Reading it now. Thoughts tonight. SO excited.

[ChrisH]

Okay, here are my thoughts...

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First of all, I loved it - let me just put that out there. It's suspenseful, it's gory, it does something interesting by having us care about the characters, which is unusual for some horror movies. The first thirty/forty pages set things up well and then the body count just keeps on piling up.

I was genuinely surprised at the survivors at the end - I had hoped when it was first pitched that sweet Lei would make it (as few sweet characters do in horror movies) and was very pleasantly surprised when she made it. It would have been nice to have seen her and Diego team up to take down the Predators, but it's all good. I take it Lei made it safe back home - the ending was slightly ambiguous about that?

If anything, I would have thought that Milena would have made it (more like the typical 'final girl' in horror movies) and found myself surprised when some characters bit the dust and I cared. The main example was Shelby - she became a sympathetic, brave character and while it would have been great to see her and Lei make it out, it was a shock visceral death that made me feel sympathy for the girl. Other characters such as Jackson and Gray didn't elicit much sympathy, but that was their purpose I suppose.

It's a very cool interesting turn investigating the honour side of the Predator culture, including the gladiatorial style coliseum battles (and the cheeky Gladiator reference that was put there) and it was suitably creepy, especially the classic 'red herrings'.

All in all, it was a fantastic slice of gory horror that was part adventure and a full thrill ride. The twists and turns were good and while the final act suffered a little bit from sudden genre-shift, it was still well worth a great read.

[Rocky]

Getting ready to read it now. Beyond excited.

[Tony O'Black]

Huge thanks for the excitement guys - I'll let a few more people lend thoughts before I start responding.

Happy reading. 

[Vaughn]

3D-ised the cover for fun

[Tony O'Black]

Now THAT is shiny. Oh how I wish this was real.

[Darrin McCann]

Just finished it and all I have to say is... when are you writing the next one?  Awesome.  Loved every minute of it.

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Why Shelby why? I was really starting to like her.  I really like how you had the suspense and horror of the Predator hunt on the space station but also showed their true "warrior" instincts in the arena.  I thought you included the wide spectrum of the Predator mythology while adding your own twists to it.  Uber-Predator was uber awesome! And I loved the mini-scene during the credits.  Take that Jackson.

All in all I think it was a great read and I await patiently (sort of) for the next installment.

  / 5

[The Doctor (Corvero)]

Get to DA REVIEW!!!

[Tony O'Black]

Thanks guys - and that's a great review, Andrew, huge thanks.

Responses coming soon. 

[Brian 2.0]

Just got done reading Predator III!  As promised, here is my review:

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Backstory: I was really looking forward to this once I read about its imminent release.  I've always been a fan of the Predator franchise as well as the Alien franchise.  The AVP movies were silly, campy fun and the first one was stronger than the second one, possibly served by better characters and better special effects.  I've made it known I wasn't a huge fan of the Robert Rodriguez Predators movie that came out last year as well.

The review: This, for me, had some of the same problems as Predators did.  The characters were all a bit cliche and didn't divert too much from the action/sci-fi molds we see all too often.  I thought it was interesting to see Diego parallel his ancestor's struggle in his lifetime and I jived to that neat new twist in the Predator mythos, but other than that, Diego was a cardboard cut-out "I'm the LEADER, dammit!" type character that becomes kind of grating after 60 or 70 pages.

Lei was your typical damsel in distress with moments of action heroine splashed around for good fun, Milena the stereotypical hard-ass soldier woman, Jackson the predictable hothead that's just gonna get everybody killed or worse, Shelby the annoying sidekick type persona.  And then of course the various victims sprinkled around the main cast to serve as cannon fodder.  That aspect of the flick felt very mundane and by the numbers to me.  I don't know how anyone could have done it differently, but this should have felt like a fresh approach, being the first actual PREDATOR film to take place in space and not on Earth (not counting the AVP's) - yet it felt just like any other people vs aliens/beasts film.

I will give the script this much credit, and I'll give it in droves - it knew how to stage an action sequence!  No expense was spared in giving us a few balls-to-the-walls fight sequences and plenty of gory bloodshed to quench any gorehound's thirst.  Too bad it took almost 70-75 pages to actually GET to that bloodshed though.  I caught myself yawning a couple of times at the paint-by-numbers machinations of the space crew until we FINALLY got to the good stuff and witnessed some Pred vs human action.

On the slight negative side to that point, I would have liked to have seen some slightly more creative death scenes than what we got here.  All of the kills were very reminiscent of kills we've seen from all of the other movies.  It would have been cool to see the Predators utilize some new technology we haven't seen before or invent something new, instead of just treading familiar ground we've already crossed.  Also, kudos to you to actually having a shot where someone gets completely covered in Predator reticules, which I was SO PISSED got removed from Predators - that shot looked so badass in the trailer.

On the ending: Honestly?  I wasn't a huge fan of the ending.  The idea, in and of itself, is a pretty neat one, but it's pretty much just piggybacking off the plot of Predators, only taking it in a slightly different direction by having the battle take place in an alien colliseum versus a game planet with loose prey.  Also, I totally was NOT buying Diego's sudden transformation into Bad Ass Predator Slayer.  He spent the first half of the flick talking about how he's an explorer and not a fighter and didn't even want weapons aboard his ship, and now I'm supposed to believe in the space of a day and one weary escape pod flight later, he has morphed into some superhuman fighting machine that can take down not just 3 Predator warriors but ALSO a mega-sized Uber-Predator in hand to hand combat, straight after just barely surviving the ordeal aboard the Yutani Station.

I do applaud you for taking the more realistic approach and having your lead be killed.  It kinda bugged me that the two leads from Predators made it out with nary a scratch on their beautiful little heads.  You're going up against a PREDATOR for God's sakes.  The final scene with Lei being escorted onto the Predator ship and sent to her freedom was a nice scene and it kind of reminded me of the end of AVP1 where they let the woman go after helping to fight the aliens.

Also - nice little post-credits scene.  Loved seeing Jackson getting his final just desserts!

The bottom line:  I found this film to be a mixed bag.  There were parts I outright enjoyed, such as the first arrival of the Predators and scrambling about the ship to escape during the initial bloodshed, as well as the opening scene being a highlight as well.  Overall, this was slightly let down by the cliche, stock characters with little development to them and a fairly weak ending that didn't really do anything for me or add any new layers to the Predator storyline.  I applaud the effort, because writing a movie script is no easy feat and the fact that Tony was able to do it, and do it in a respectable manner, is worth the price of admission alone!

I give this 3 out of 5 stars. 

[Tony O'Black]

Ah fair enough Brian. You've come at this from a different angle than I would have hoped, so I disagree with some of your points, but I'm hugely grateful for the thoughts.

Again, except me to respond in more detail in due course.

[Brian 2.0]

It was my pleasure!  Hopefully the review didn't come across as mean or nasty.  I truly did like it for the most part, there were just a few things that bugged me, is all.  Can't 100% please everyone in an audience, unfortunately. 

Thank you for providing us with a worthy script to read though, Tony!!

[Tony O'Black]

Not at all, it was honest. Only constructive going forward in a couple of areas, but honest and true. Much rather that. 

End of the day, it was a blast to write so whether people enjoy it or not is just a bonus to me.

[Brian 2.0]

That's all that matters.  Long as you had fun writing it and creating it and living in that world while you wrote it, that is what truly makes a writing experience worthwhile.  We say all the time "don't write for an audience, write for yourself" and we like to believe that is always 100% true, but some things ARE written for an audience AND yourself.  Congratulations on achieving that goal!

[Tony O'Black]

I genuinely always write for me, first and foremost. It helps and it's inspiring when people are behind you - as they were for this, infact - but even if no one cared, I'd still have done it. I recommend everyone comes at writing with that approach.

[Jay]

Started this during the hurricane a few days ago and lost power, so I re-read it and just now finished.

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Pretty good. I liked the focus on a more futuristic setting than recent Predator films, taking us closer to the world of Alien, which the early scenes here with the crew really reminded me of a lot.

I'm afraid I don't really have a whole lot to say, TBH. I enjoyed it; not much negative at all. Perhaps my one gripe would be that it seemed a little unrealistic that Diego managed to kill three Predators by himself at one time. Not impossible, of course, but unlikely. Three in separate fights, perhaps, but I felt like three at one time was pushing it a bit, but again, it's certainly not impossible given what we've seen in the other movies.

I really wish this had been filmed because the visual of the Predator arena - not to mention the uber-Predator - would be fantastic. The opening with Alberto and the Spanish ship as well. And it was great to see Jackson realize how screwed he was at the end 

Overall, I expected to like it and really did. Wouldn't mind seeing a Predator 4 one day...

[Pete D. Gaskell]

PREDATOR III

So, Tony's big summer blockbuster - how does it fare?

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I wasn't sure what to expect coming into this - every time we've seen Predators on screen, they've been handled differently, and never successfully except for the original film.

But this feels like a brand new franchise - or, now I come to think of it, more like another. This film has many more traits in common with the Alien franchise than the Predator one - but seeing that I love both Alien and Aliens with unbridled passion, then that's a win in my book!

The plot is simple enough, but necessarily so. This isn't a film to be lost in narrative complexity - it does what it sets out to do, and does it well. Like Alien, Aliens and the original Predator, the first half of the film is dedicated to building atmosphere and introducing our ensemble - before all hell is let loose in the second half. It's a tricky balance to get right, but is handled well here - any longer and it would have been plodding, any sooner and we wouldn't have cared about the events.

The ensemble of characters is a nice mix, too - and given enough room to breathe so that when they face their sticky ends, as almost all of them do, then it hits you in the gut, because you care about these people.

Tony's also a very visual writer - and he utilises that strength extremely well. The number of set-pieces here are all presented with flair and a great eye for detail. The galleon attack in the opening is sumptuous, and the station itself is well described and laid out.

There were surprisingly few nods to the Predator films - I half-expected a chopper to feature, or a few cheesy one-liners - but they aren't needed here, which is a good thing. In fact, the most continuity-concerning stuff is everything to do with Weyland-Yutani - which is the Alien franchise again...

Negatives? Well, the Predators themselves, unfortunately. For the vast majority of the film, the Predators are presented as almost feral beasts - much more like Xenomorphs in fact. They spend most of their time ROARing and chasing our team down corridors, instead of displaying the intelligence and vast array of weaponry they have at their disposal.

I'm also not overly keen on the arena scenes right at the end - whilst I understand the intention behind them, I felt the story ended at the station, and this seemed like an extended coda. It didn't help that Diego suddenly seemed to develop exceptional fighting abilities, either. Although his eventual death was one of the highlights of the script.

All in all, then? A firecracker of a script, playing right to Tony's strengths and giving us exactly what we wanted with this - plenty of good action spliced with characters you care about and some eye-popping visuals.

Character of the Film:
Shelby. I didn't expect to say this after her first couple of scenes, but Shelby was the character who had the best arc of the lot. She matured considerably over the course of the narrative, and her death was easily the biggest shock of the lot.

Quote of the Film:
Diego: Comforting to know, even in this day and age, the Russians still make for poor company.

Rating:
8/10

[aaron2310]

I'm about halfway through. Enjoying it so far but Yautja....grrr, that always irritates me. I hate that whole culture Perry invented.

[Tony O'Black]

I forget you're a Predator buff, Aaron. Apologies on the Yautja, but at least it's brief! Look forward to your thoughts on the script given how well you know the franchise.

And cheers Pete & Jay for reading - responses soon.

[aaron2310]

I'm definitely more in Aliens than Predator but I do enjoy the Predator stuff. Will post my impressions when I finish the 2nd half.

[aaron2310]

Aaron's impressions -

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I'd been very interested in reading this script since I stumbled upon the pitch thread. I think I may have been coming at the script with a slightly more critical (fan) eye than the other readers here. For those that don't know, I co-run the biggest Aliens/vs/Predator fansite online (www.avpgalaxy.net) and I've dedicated over half of my life to those franchise. While I prefer the Alien franchise, I have some strong views and opinions on the Predator series that most don't agree with.

I believe one of the strengths of the Predator franchise, be it movies, games, novels, comics, etc, is it's flexibility in storytelling. It can easily be placed in...World War 2 (I still want to see something big revolving around this), present day, Ancient Japan, other worlds, etc. So I believe the story for A.J Black's Predator 3 works very well. As far as the rest of the (single) Predator franchise goes we've only see 1 other entry set in the future in the novel Predator - Forever Midnight (which was less than stellar) and all other future entries have been the AvP's and all been focused around the Alien side of the franchise.

Predator 3 follows that direction...kinda. We get the not-so-distant future, which works very well and brings about a fresh environment but then it still has to tap into the Alien franchise through the Weyland-Yutani reference. This is a pet peeve of mine in that it seems people don't believe that Predator can survive without something Alien propping it up. You wont be seeing anything Predator in Prometheus and you never saw it in Alien Resurrection (bad movie, I know). Anywho, I really enjoyed the setting. It did create a different feel for a Predator story and it's something I would like to see more of.

In terms of characters, I think Shelby was easily the standout. She was the one with the most growth and change and greated genuine sympathy. I rather liked Jackson. I hadn't anticipated his turn so I was surprised by that. While he obviously clashed with Diego, it seemed more of a (ex-)military vs civilian kind of thing. Plus, he was charming and soft spoken. It was surprising. I did rather enjoy his segment with the Predator and ending though.

I have to agree with Brian about Diego though. He hadn't really been presented as a fighter. He was certainly determined and played the "caring captain" role, it was hard to buy into him being that kind of lead.

And I think I can now know a Tony script! It's gotta have BANG! BOOM! ROOOAAAARRR! PPPPPFFFFFTTTT! in it. That really made me smile as I had been expecting plenty of sound effects. The writing was extremely solid, it all flowed well and the action was all well described. Some slightly sluggish bits (the first time the disk was thrown, didn't realise it had been thrown due to description) but otherwise it was all good.

Nit-picking here. I don't like the Yautja. I don't like this "honorable" crap. It humanizes them too much. I much prefer a sadistic race revolving around hunting for pleasure, not some ritualistic honor. That is my opinion and as such I didn't like the inclusion of it in this script.

I do think these projects need to stop playing off of references to earlier material. IMHO these kind of movie franchises don't have enough meat to be constantly playing back to elements from before, or even non-used elements. Thankfully you didn't include too many. I counted Harrigan, a few slight quotes and (my previously mentioned) Yutani and Alien connections. And the gladiator bit at the end, that was in some unused ideas for the 3rd movie.

I had been worried when I read Uber-Predator. I had been fearing some mutant, four armed monster thing (it's happened) but you handled the "boss" enemy well and it made complete sense.

I think over all I'd rate Predator 3 a 3 out of 5.

[Tony O'Black]

To respond. Chris first...

Okay, here are my thoughts...

First of all, I loved it - let me just put that out there. It's suspenseful, it's gory, it does something interesting by having us care about the characters, which is unusual for some horror movies.

That was the key thing, number one, this had to do - so that's a WIN.

I was genuinely surprised at the survivors at the end - I had hoped when it was first pitched that sweet Lei would make it (as few sweet characters do in horror movies) and was very pleasantly surprised when she made it. It would have been nice to have seen her and Diego team up to take down the Predators, but it's all good. I take it Lei made it safe back home - the ending was slightly ambiguous about that?

And it was meant to be. Though you may or may not find out in the sequel...

If anything, I would have thought that Milena would have made it (more like the typical 'final girl' in horror movies) and found myself surprised when some characters bit the dust and I cared. The main example was Shelby - she became a sympathetic, brave character and while it would have been great to see her and Lei make it out, it was a shock visceral death that made me feel sympathy for the girl. Other characters such as Jackson and Gray didn't elicit much sympathy, but that was their purpose I suppose.

Everyone would think Milena was safe, hence why I took her out. Shelby the reverse - I really wanted people to think she'd die, then make it, so her death would be a shock.

It's a very cool interesting turn investigating the honour side of the Predator culture, including the gladiatorial style coliseum battles (and the cheeky Gladiator reference that was put there) and it was suitably creepy, especially the classic 'red herrings'.

It's all stuff I've heard others wanted to do with the mythos, so I decided to give it my own spin.

All in all, it was a fantastic slice of gory horror that was part adventure and a full thrill ride. The twists and turns were good and while the final act suffered a little bit from sudden genre-shift, it was still well worth a great read.

Can't say fairer than that. Muchas gracias Chris for reading. 

[Tony O'Black]

Just finished it and all I have to say is... when are you writing the next one?  Awesome.  Loved every minute of it.

Huge thanks for reading Darrin and very chuffed you enjoyed it. 

The next one? It may not be next year, I have to be honest, but 2013 you're going to see one awesome Predator story that builds on this one and runs with it.

[Tony O'Black]

And now to Corvero...

PREDATOR III:

First thing: it was different from the others. More of a horror-thriller than a straight action flick, at least until the insanely entertaining (and quite unexpected!) last twenty-something pages. And this was a very good thing. Tony toyed with the concepts of the franchise and built a suspenseful and thrilling climax with them.

I didn't want to just rehash the previous three films or the AvP franchise. I saw moving into the future the best way to avoid that.

The decision to change the setting to a closed space (an abandoned space station, no less) was a clever one, which made the movie very different from both the original and the second sequel. In his pitch. Tony talked about Event Horizon (check it out if you haven’t…but be prepared to lose your sleep for quite a few nights) and I can see how it could have been a source of inspiration.

Very. No way is this as good, obviously, but the Event Horizon ship was what I had in mind when picturing Yutani Station quite often.

And unlike in many slasher flims, the character were all well written. Even if we didn’t get to know them too much they all had their different voice and personality. Of course this is makes it all the more difficult to tell when one of them is going to bite the dust. Perhaps the least interesting, at least IMHO, was Lei. Sure, she was nice enough and I didn’t hate her, but she never really grabbed my attention. Her less deep characterization made her surviving a surpise, though, so maybe it was intentional on Tony’s part.

I'd love to say yes, but chances are I just didn't write her deep enough! But I'm glad all of them felt like people, not just plot ciphers. It wouldn't have worked if they were.

I also liked Jackson’s betrayal, a good counterpoint to the Predators’ code of honor. His death was by far the most satisfying and a really good treat at the end of the movie. Although to be fair his fight with the Predator was great on his own, no matter him being a coward son of a bitch.

He was just an absolute bastard who I wanted to have an especially nasty end, and I think believing he survived and then finding he's surrounded by Predators was just perfect.

Shelby’s arc was probably the best one and provided a good shock: she finally stopped being a danger and became actually pretty useful, showed more bravery than we expected (loved her “last report”) only to be blown up to pieces when she was about to leave. Yes, we’ve seen that trick a million times but here it works because we actually cared about her and her development, which amps the shock.

 

The real heart of the script, though, is Diego. And he is a good lead. He’s a bit of Bill Adama in how he keeps his head and cares about his people even when facing a danger they can’t really overcome, and his connection with the Predators, while a bit of a contrived coincidence, allows for an insanely fun last twenty pages (more on that later).

Diego wasn't the standout character but I liked how stoic and heroic he was, allowing all the action and grotesqueness happen around him.

What about the plot? Well, it’s the same, basic concept of  men hunted by killer aliens, but the changes in setting made it more interesting than a simple rehash of the original. The references to the changes in the future were subtle and used sparingly, so more effective this way. They made me really want to see more of this future world (maybe I will, in a further sequel. Hint, hint.) but at the same time they didn’t draw me out from the core of the action.

Think of it as this is the world of Alien, rather than Predator. We've moved forward. And the possibilities for that going forward are thrilling...

As I said, the closed space allowed for less buttkicking and more thrilling, but this gave the movie his own feel. What happened  in the last scenes made up for the (relatively) less action packed build up. The arena fight was terrific, pure action fun and a chance to explore the Predator mythology in a new way. Loved the Uber-Predator (which really needs to be seen again! Another hint) and Diego’s way to kill him. And Tony managed to squeeze in a Gladiator reference! Awesome.

It was risk, suddenly shifting gears, and it wasn't to everyone's tastes. But I felt it had been set up enough to warrant the payoff and a surprising turn in any script is never a bad thing.

I also liked the Sanetza legacy. It’s a contrived coincidence, sure (it doesn’t seem that the Predators were after the Sanetzas, so two random encounters with two members of the same family are quite a stretch) but it amps up the themes of honor and gives the first scene a more poignant and dramatic link to the main plot. That said, the first scene was awesome. Predators on a Spanish galleon. How can’t it be great?

I know! I'd LOVE to see that filmed because it was ace to write, however brief.

And then it comes to the style: dialogue and scene directions. I’m a big fan of Tony’s writing, and especially of his way to set up impressive, rapid-fire bouts of violence, but I’ve never pegged him for a lover of pure splatter gore. How wrong was I.

Tony doesn’t pull any punches. The deaths are explosions of blood and guts, the Predators take trophies before our eyes and the visual of dozen of bodies piled up to the ceiling of the station wouldn’t have looked out of place in an Event Horizon sequel. Well done.

See I'm not a big gore guy, hence why I much prefer the Predators in the shadows for a lot of this. But when violence explodes, I believe in seeing it. Anything else is just half-arsed and it's part of the way Predator films are made in that we see the horror - yet there still remains room for suspense. That was the balance I sought.

The fight scenes, although a bit brief, are also very detailed and dynamic, as it’s usual in Tony’s works. Loved the description of the Uber-Predator. “The biggest fucking Predator you are ever likely to see” I’m not very fond of swearing in scripts (unless it’s a character trait) but this one was perfect. You read it and you know it’s trouble.

Exactly, that was the idea behind the profanity. I agree, it's not usually needed, but adds a punch here.

The former had her “last report” to show the strength of her quick character development, while the latter revealed his nature of good, professional but compassionate leader in almost every interaction with his crew. Not to mention his Gladiator scene with the Predators crowd.

It's very hard to really create strong characters in a script like this, where you have to try and keep plot and suspense moving. If I managed it just once, I'm happy.

So was it a worthy read and a worthy sequel to what many call Schwarznegger’s best action movie?  I think it succeded, but it really was something of its own. Don’t get it wrong, it really ties in the Predator canon (and I love the bits about its ties to the Alien franchise: Weyland-Yutani just can’t stop thinking they can experiment on killer aliens!). But in many ways it’s a film on his own, one that I’m quite sure can be enjoyed even if you have never seen Predator (you heaten).

Hats off to Tony (ever thought of a sequel? You should. Hint, hi- no, wait this is actually an open request).

Thanks for the kind words Andrew, so glad you got a kick out of it. And as you already can see... you'll get your sequel wish eventually. 

[Tony O'Black]

Brian now...

Just got done reading Predator III!  As promised, here is my review:

The review: This, for me, had some of the same problems as Predators did.  The characters were all a bit cliche and didn't divert too much from the action/sci-fi molds we see all too often.  I thought it was interesting to see Diego parallel his ancestor's struggle in his lifetime and I jived to that neat new twist in the Predator mythos, but other than that, Diego was a cardboard cut-out "I'm the LEADER, dammit!" type character that becomes kind of grating after 60 or 70 pages.

And there's the opposite view! Fair enough. I liked how Diego came out, but maybe it would need a charismatic actor to carry it off for him to really work.

Lei was your typical damsel in distress with moments of action heroine splashed around for good fun, Milena the stereotypical hard-ass soldier woman, Jackson the predictable hothead that's just gonna get everybody killed or worse, Shelby the annoying sidekick type persona.  And then of course the various victims sprinkled around the main cast to serve as cannon fodder.  That aspect of the flick felt very mundane and by the numbers to me.  I don't know how anyone could have done it differently, but this should have felt like a fresh approach, being the first actual PREDATOR film to take place in space and not on Earth (not counting the AVP's) - yet it felt just like any other people vs aliens/beasts film.

I felt the characters and story did fit the feel and world of Predator, though. Sure I agree, there are some cliched factors about them, but I don't feel that means they necessarily aren't enjoyable to read.

I will give the script this much credit, and I'll give it in droves - it knew how to stage an action sequence!  No expense was spared in giving us a few balls-to-the-walls fight sequences and plenty of gory bloodshed to quench any gorehound's thirst.  Too bad it took almost 70-75 pages to actually GET to that bloodshed though.  I caught myself yawning a couple of times at the paint-by-numbers machinations of the space crew until we FINALLY got to the good stuff and witnessed some Pred vs human action.

You do need that setup though. I make the point that in the original, it's AGES until we see the Predator. The first half almost is Dutch and his men trawling through the jungle trying to figure everything out. I wanted here to try and create something beyond an archetype with these people so you'd give a shit before they died.

On the slight negative side to that point, I would have liked to have seen some slightly more creative death scenes than what we got here.  All of the kills were very reminiscent of kills we've seen from all of the other movies.  It would have been cool to see the Predators utilize some new technology we haven't seen before or invent something new, instead of just treading familiar ground we've already crossed.  Also, kudos to you to actually having a shot where someone gets completely covered in Predator reticules, which I was SO PISSED got removed from Predators - that shot looked so badass in the trailer.

Indeed it did, I wanted it in there too! As for death scenes, that's a good point. Something to ponder for any future scripts.

On the ending: Honestly?  I wasn't a huge fan of the ending.  The idea, in and of itself, is a pretty neat one, but it's pretty much just piggybacking off the plot of Predators, only taking it in a slightly different direction by having the battle take place in an alien colliseum versus a game planet with loose prey.  Also, I totally was NOT buying Diego's sudden transformation into Bad Ass Predator Slayer.  He spent the first half of the flick talking about how he's an explorer and not a fighter and didn't even want weapons aboard his ship, and now I'm supposed to believe in the space of a day and one weary escape pod flight later, he has morphed into some superhuman fighting machine that can take down not just 3 Predator warriors but ALSO a mega-sized Uber-Predator in hand to hand combat, straight after just barely surviving the ordeal aboard the Yutani Station.

Ah but there was nothing to suggest Diego couldn't do this, and the way I see it he was placed in a position where he had no choice. Diego IS an explorer over fighter but he's also devoted to the lives of his crew - he was fighting for Lei, not because he wanted to do it.

I do applaud you for taking the more realistic approach and having your lead be killed.  It kinda bugged me that the two leads from Predators made it out with nary a scratch on their beautiful little heads.  You're going up against a PREDATOR for God's sakes.  The final scene with Lei being escorted onto the Predator ship and sent to her freedom was a nice scene and it kind of reminded me of the end of AVP1 where they let the woman go after helping to fight the aliens.

Another inspiration. And yeah, it didn't feel right for Diego to get away alive. I wanted him to win but choose to go down with his ship, go down fighting.

The bottom line:  I found this film to be a mixed bag.  There were parts I outright enjoyed, such as the first arrival of the Predators and scrambling about the ship to escape during the initial bloodshed, as well as the opening scene being a highlight as well.  Overall, this was slightly let down by the cliche, stock characters with little development to them and a fairly weak ending that didn't really do anything for me or add any new layers to the Predator storyline.  I applaud the effort, because writing a movie script is no easy feat and the fact that Tony was able to do it, and do it in a respectable manner, is worth the price of admission alone!

I give this 3 out of 5 stars. 

I can live with that. I do appreciate the honesty, Brian, and many thanks for reading. 

[Tony O'Black]

And now Jay:

Pretty good. I liked the focus on a more futuristic setting than recent Predator films, taking us closer to the world of Alien, which the early scenes here with the crew really reminded me of a lot.

As I say, definitely the intent.

I'm afraid I don't really have a whole lot to say, TBH. I enjoyed it; not much negative at all. Perhaps my one gripe would be that it seemed a little unrealistic that Diego managed to kill three Predators by himself at one time. Not impossible, of course, but unlikely. Three in separate fights, perhaps, but I felt like three at one time was pushing it a bit, but again, it's certainly not impossible given what we've seen in the other movies.

I guess that's true. I echo what I said to Brian, but perhaps I could have foreshadowed this a bit better.

I really wish this had been filmed because the visual of the Predator arena - not to mention the uber-Predator - would be fantastic. The opening with Alberto and the Spanish ship as well.

Wouldn't it? Shame Robert Rodriguez never got to do it eh?

Overall, I expected to like it and really did. Wouldn't mind seeing a Predator 4 one day...

You'll get it. One day.

Thanks muchly for the thoughts Jay. 

[Tony O'Black]

Next up, Pete:

PREDATOR III

I wasn't sure what to expect coming into this - every time we've seen Predators on screen, they've been handled differently, and never successfully except for the original film.

I dunno about that. Predator 2 is underrated, as is AvP for my money.

But this feels like a brand new franchise - or, now I come to think of it, more like another. This film has many more traits in common with the Alien franchise than the Predator one - but seeing that I love both Alien and Aliens with unbridled passion, then that's a win in my book!

An advancement of an old franchise into new territory is how I view it really.

The plot is simple enough, but necessarily so. This isn't a film to be lost in narrative complexity - it does what it sets out to do, and does it well. Like Alien, Aliens and the original Predator, the first half of the film is dedicated to building atmosphere and introducing our ensemble - before all hell is let loose in the second half. It's a tricky balance to get right, but is handled well here - any longer and it would have been plodding, any sooner and we wouldn't have cared about the events.

Spot on. That's how I see it. A very tricky balance I hope I did nail.

There were surprisingly few nods to the Predator films - I half-expected a chopper to feature, or a few cheesy one-liners - but they aren't needed here, which is a good thing. In fact, the most continuity-concerning stuff is everything to do with Weyland-Yutani - which is the Alien franchise again...

Nods to the 80's films would have felt retrograde in this futuristic atmosphere to me, but Jackson has in his DNA some of the cocky asshole behaviour we saw in a few characters from the earlier movies.

Negatives? Well, the Predators themselves, unfortunately. For the vast majority of the film, the Predators are presented as almost feral beasts - much more like Xenomorphs in fact. They spend most of their time ROARing and chasing our team down corridors, instead of displaying the intelligence and vast array of weaponry they have at their disposal.

Hmmm. That's a fair point. I could have utilised their brain power a bit more in the plotting.

All in all, then? A firecracker of a script, playing right to Tony's strengths and giving us exactly what we wanted with this - plenty of good action spliced with characters you care about and some eye-popping visuals.

Character of the Film:
Shelby. I didn't expect to say this after her first couple of scenes, but Shelby was the character who had the best arc of the lot. She matured considerably over the course of the narrative, and her death was easily the biggest shock of the lot.

Quote of the Film:
Diego: Comforting to know, even in this day and age, the Russians still make for poor company.

Rating:
8/10

A fine rating and great review - cheers for the thoughts Pete! 

[Tony O'Black]

And finally Aaron, our resident expert on the PredVerse...

I'd been very interested in reading this script since I stumbled upon the pitch thread. I think I may have been coming at the script with a slightly more critical (fan) eye than the other readers here. For those that don't know, I co-run the biggest Aliens/vs/Predator fansite online (www.avpgalaxy.net) and I've dedicated over half of my life to those franchise. While I prefer the Alien franchise, I have some strong views and opinions on the Predator series that most don't agree with.

It's brilliant to have someone with such a knowledge of the series, stronger than mine, cast an eye over this.

I believe one of the strengths of the Predator franchise, be it movies, games, novels, comics, etc, is it's flexibility in storytelling. It can easily be placed in...World War 2 (I still want to see something big revolving around this), present day, Ancient Japan, other worlds, etc. So I believe the story for A.J Black's Predator 3 works very well. As far as the rest of the (single) Predator franchise goes we've only see 1 other entry set in the future in the novel Predator - Forever Midnight (which was less than stellar) and all other future entries have been the AvP's and all been focused around the Alien side of the franchise.

Predators in WW2? Hell YES would I love to see that. Wonder if I can find some way to incorporate that somewhere in the future? Hmmm...

Predator 3 follows that direction...kinda. We get the not-so-distant future, which works very well and brings about a fresh environment but then it still has to tap into the Alien franchise through the Weyland-Yutani reference. This is a pet peeve of mine in that it seems people don't believe that Predator can survive without something Alien propping it up. You wont be seeing anything Predator in Prometheus and you never saw it in Alien Resurrection (bad movie, I know).

I wouldn't say I included it for that reason. I believe Predator can certainly stand alone, it's just fun to expand the universe and take in a broader picture behind the scenes - plus there are elements of those W-Y linked scenes here that inform the sequel I'm doing...

In terms of characters, I think Shelby was easily the standout. She was the one with the most growth and change and greated genuine sympathy. I rather liked Jackson. I hadn't anticipated his turn so I was surprised by that. While he obviously clashed with Diego, it seemed more of a (ex-)military vs civilian kind of thing. Plus, he was charming and soft spoken. It was surprising. I did rather enjoy his segment with the Predator and ending though.

I'm delighted Shelby came across so well and Jackson's demise too - they were both things I'm proud of, so being vindicated on that is great.

And I think I can now know a Tony script! It's gotta have BANG! BOOM! ROOOAAAARRR! PPPPPFFFFFTTTT! in it. That really made me smile as I had been expecting plenty of sound effects.

My personal quirk. Some hate it, the rest tolerate it. Only I love it I think.

Nit-picking here. I don't like the Yautja. I don't like this "honorable" crap. It humanizes them too much. I much prefer a sadistic race revolving around hunting for pleasure, not some ritualistic honor. That is my opinion and as such I didn't like the inclusion of it in this script.

Fair enough. I must admit, I prefer the Predator when he's being brutal, so I tried to maintain that as much as possible here. But I also like the concept of them perhaps only hunting those worthy of fighting back, which was the idea with Diego here.

I had been worried when I read Uber-Predator. I had been fearing some mutant, four armed monster thing (it's happened) but you handled the "boss" enemy well and it made complete sense.

That just sprung up in my head and I'm glad people took to it so well.

I think over all I'd rate Predator 3 a 3 out of 5.

Great. Happy with that. Huge thanks for reading Aaron - definitely going to consult you over the next one too!