Box Office Drop! - Predator: Badlands (2025)

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Track 2: Hello, and welcome to Left of the Projector. I'm your host, Bill,

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Track 2: back again with another film discussion from the West.

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Track 2: give us a rating and subscribe so you'll get notified of our weekly episodes

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Track 2: that drop every Tuesday. Now onto the show.

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Track 1: Hello, you're listening to Left with the Projector. This week,

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Track 1: we're bringing you a bonus episode on a review slash hate read comments about

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Track 1: the new Predator Badlands film.

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Track 1: It is directed by Dan Trachtenberg.

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Track 1: You may know him from his previous installments of the franchise,

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Track 1: including Prey, as well as the Predator Killer of Killers, also dropped this year.

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Track 1: Just going to be myself and Bill chatting about this awesome film. yeah.

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Track 2: Yes the hate read of the comments will be uh we will be this is not we will

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Track 2: not be hating on badlands uh badlands is an incredible movie and we will be

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Track 2: reading comments from morons on the internet who don't understand uh movies

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Track 2: or predator yeah that's what we're going to do after we uh just glaze this.

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Track 1: Yes and and the the thing and there is there

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Track 1: is going to be spoilers here i mean all the episodes we do but sometimes

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Track 1: these could be like a quick spoiler free there will be you know spoilers we're

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Track 1: not going to go through the full you know analysis of the film that we might

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Track 1: maybe we will in the future with uh with ward like a longer episode this will

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Track 1: be kind of a a uh as our friends at concessions podcast like to call a quick

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Track 1: hitter episode so tm quick,

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Track 1: tm concessions podcast but i saw it in the theater i saw it in the like the

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Track 1: dolby surround sound and it just was i saw a meme where like the guys it's a

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Track 1: picture of someone like leaning forward and it's Like, this is how I,

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Track 1: you know, was, this was me during the entire movie.

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Track 1: And it really was like from beginning to end, there was just action.

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Track 2: Yeah. This movie rips and that is the fight, your final warning from this point

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Track 2: on, um, there will be spoilers.

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Track 2: I urge you to, I don't like spoilers in general. I like to go into movies, uh, virginal.

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Track 2: Um, I like to get a eyeball and ear fucked by my movies for the first time. Don't.

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Track 2: Go into it fresh. Like, go into it with no expectations. I went into this knowing it was Predator,

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Track 2: and a Weyland-Yutani synth was in it. That's it. That's what I knew. Done. That's all I knew.

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Track 1: I didn't even know there was a Weyland-Yutani synth in it. I just thought that

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Track 1: it was, like, him going somewhere and just killing a bunch of stuff.

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Track 2: That was, like, in the teaser images. You could not avoid that.

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Track 1: Yeah, I guess that's true. I guess I just wasn't putting it all together.

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Track 1: I didn't even realize, yeah, like you said, the the essentially

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Track 1: this is a story about deck who's sort of the runt of

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Track 1: his clan and he you know the very opening scene

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Track 1: is him on his planet and his brother is murdered by his father and while he's

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Track 1: protecting you know him deck from being killed by his father for being the weakest

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Track 1: of their clan his brother activates his ship to go off to another land to capture

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Track 1: a callus which is just like a, uh,

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Track 1: dragon something that can regenerate and be awesome.

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Track 2: I would actually, I think actually it's important to rewind that because actually

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Track 2: where we start is actually with deck training with his brother.

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Track 1: His brother. You're right. You're right.

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Track 2: Actually training him and try and actually uh preparing him to get his cloak

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Track 2: the uh famous you know if you've ever watched predator all predators they all

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Track 2: have it it's the cloak it's one of the most badass things about them they're

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Track 2: cloaking technology and they you know if you don't know,

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Track 2: predators start as little baby predators they don't have anything and they have

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Track 2: to climb up in the ranks, the young bloods get nothing, they have nothing,

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Track 2: or they have very little.

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Track 2: They have little technology that they get to use, and they have to earn their way up.

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Track 2: And one of those things, as established in the lore of this,

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Track 2: as well as elsewhere, but it's a prime point of this, is that he has not earned

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Track 2: his cloak yet, and he has to feed his brother in single combat to get his cloak.

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Track 2: And that's where we start. So his brother has made it a point to go out of his

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Track 2: way to kind of raise Dick almost as a like surrogate father.

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Track 2: Um, and throughout it, you could

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Track 2: tell like, you know, they have a long relationship and they have, uh,

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Track 2: There's a lot of support and fraternal bond there. It's a very important aspect of the character.

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Track 1: You're right. You're right, yeah. I think that actually is what then sets up

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Track 1: the fact that his father, you know, kind of puts what's almost like,

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Track 1: I don't know what they would call the device.

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Track 1: It kind of puts him in a little shield and handcuffs, essentially,

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Track 1: and is going to, you know, I guess, cut off his head or kill him or whatever his plan would be.

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Track 1: And the brother steps in to prevent that and then pays the ultimate price.

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Track 1: And then deck is sent away to this land of jenna or.

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Track 2: Jenna he commands his he commands the brother qui to kill deck and deck instead

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Track 2: frees him from the stasis bonds shoves i'm just getting i'm.

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Track 1: Getting everything wrong i literally saw this like.

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Track 2: I only saw it like three days ago i mean it was an imax and you know imax is

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Track 2: big so it was like in my eyeballs um and you know i have a uh a steel voice-like

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Track 2: memory for shit like this.

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Track 1: Yes. And for people who, you know, this will probably actually come out before

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Track 1: an episode we're going to be doing on the Alien Earth series.

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Track 1: We've done a number of Predator alien movies on this podcast.

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Track 1: And as we mentioned, too, when he lands in this in Gena, he becomes sort of

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Track 1: an ally or friend with Fia, who is a damaged Weyland-Yutani corporation synth.

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Track 1: And we don't really learn until later on in the episode why Weyland-Yutani is on this planet.

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Track 1: And it turns out they also want this callus because Weyland-Yutani goes around

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Track 1: the solar system looking for creatures that they can use to build weapons.

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Track 1: Or I was going to say cure diseases, but not actually for other people.

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Track 2: Like for themselves. This movie, Trachtenberg does not dance around the fact

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Track 2: that Weyland-Yutani is in the game of collecting alien species to use as weapons.

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Track 2: Multiple times it is highlighted on the screen, bio weapons collection.

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Track 2: Multiple times. They do not shy away from that. Yeah.

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Track 1: And we also learned too, so the Ellie Fanning is the one who plays the Synth.

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Track 1: And then we also learned that she has sort of a twin who is,

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Track 1: you know, I guess you could call it sort of like the stronger one amongst the

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Track 1: two or like programmed differently.

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Track 1: And you know the like the the part of it is a whole journey of deck facing all

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Track 1: these creatures on this planet and sometimes getting through it himself other

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Track 1: times getting help from a little creature on the island i think they call him bud bud.

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Track 2: Yes that's what thea calls him bud this movie is very much a movie of uh found

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Track 2: family and also the kind of um,

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Track 2: bucking the, the notions of

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Track 2: predators being a, or the Yautja being a monoculture or being, you know,

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Track 2: slavishly devoted to their singular like mindset that they are a sentient sapient

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Track 2: people that have free will and independence, you know, but they are still very

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Track 2: much their own type of, you know,

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Track 2: person and being because throughout the movie, you know, deck struggles to come

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Track 2: to terms of the fact that you can regard another sentient or sapient being or

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Track 2: even just an animal as an ally and not just a,

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Track 2: as he recalls the multiple times, not just a tool.

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Track 2: He literally has to actually almost salve his own ego in the beginning.

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Track 2: He's like, she's a tool. That's all she is. She's just a tool.

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Track 1: And the way that she sort of describes too, as we learn later,

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Track 1: that she is there and programmed to sort of have higher sense of feelings to

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Track 1: be able to connect to the animals on the planet.

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Track 1: And she's like imparting that onto a deck. And she also like,

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Track 1: she, her like metaphor too, of talking about sort of like the idea of a wolf

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Track 1: pack, like it's not about killing, it's about sort of being one clan.

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Track 1: And I think that sort of, uh, you know, it's changing his, uh,

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Track 1: understanding of the way that his clans work, you know, in the,

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Track 1: uh, versus what, well, she's not a real human. And she's a sin, but still.

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Track 2: Still getting the concept of alpha wolves wrong. Still getting that wrong.

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Track 2: But we've improved. It improved.

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Track 2: It is closer to the actual definition of the way wolf packs function,

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Track 2: despite the use of the term alpha wolf.

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Track 2: Yes as as a zoology nerd both irked me but also kind of made me feel good i

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Track 2: was like okay we're we're improving overall we're getting someplace it's 2025

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Track 2: we're getting someplace yeah.

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Track 1: I mean and you said too like that trachtenberg does not shy

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Track 1: away from the just what weyland yutani is and while this movie isn't necessarily

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Track 1: about weyland yutani and about the you know the alien universe it's very clear

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Track 1: it's you know the is this the first movie where a predator encounters weyland yutani.

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Track 2: Um who i don't think not.

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Track 1: In prey not in the first predator nine second predator i don't know about the

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Track 1: one from 2010 or whatever year that was.

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Track 2: Weyland yutani as we know them in the future i believe so yes it.

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Track 1: Was 2018 oh yeah 20 2010 was predators and then i'd actually haven't seen the

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Track 1: predator the one from 2018 i heard that one was terrible.

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Track 2: I i believe so and

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Track 2: this is no okay it it is not technically

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Track 2: the first time so this is what i was i was i'm

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Track 2: checking i wanted to confirm in avp

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Track 2: the first alien versus predators movie and now

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Track 2: again this is solely we're only talking about the film franchise at

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Track 2: this point i'm not going into comic or book

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Track 2: lore but in the movies so in

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Track 2: avp uh lance harrison uh is charles bishop weyland he is the head of weyland

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Track 2: corporation and its subsidiary weyland industries but this is not weyland yutani

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Track 2: as we know them in the alien you know franchise this is because isn't that longer

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Track 2: before yes way before I mean,

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Track 2: AVP takes place during like our contemporary time.

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Track 2: I takes place like fucking like.

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Track 2: 2000, if I think, honestly, I think, believe it takes place in the year it was me, which is 2004.

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Track 2: Um, so this is the closest that predators in the movies have come to. And, and.

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Track 2: That in and of itself is an interesting point, because this is the first time

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Track 2: that we have a Predator movie that does not involve xenomorphs,

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Track 2: but does involve Weyland-Yutani.

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Track 2: Which to me, symbols, or signifies that we might be seeing a loosening of this

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Track 2: canon that maybe they're going, they're just, they're letting go of that,

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Track 2: like, division between these things.

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Track 1: There's rumors that Trachtenberg wants to make an Alien vs. Predator movie.

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Track 1: But it hasn't been much more than just sort of a rumor like he,

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Track 1: someone probably asked him and he's like, yeah, that'd be, you know, that'd be cool.

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Track 2: Yeah. If you ask me, I'd be like, yeah, sure. I'll make an Elliot versus Predator

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Track 2: movie. I mean, I've never made a movie before, but I'll do it.

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Track 1: I actually forgot he did have one previous movie before these three.

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Track 1: He also did 10 Cloverfield Lane, which I had forgotten until.

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Track 2: Great movie.

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Track 1: Which is also a great movie. But it's a pretty incredible. He's made four films.

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Track 1: He's made a clover field prey predator killer killers

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Track 1: which is the animated sort of anthology and then this one and he is yet to make

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Track 1: a bad movie and i didn't even mention the top like maybe this will get into

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Track 1: some of the people who just saying stupid stuff on the internet is that the

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Track 1: movie has already made 80 million 82.8 million dollars on a budget of 105,

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Track 1: and somehow they initially predicted it not to

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Track 1: make this much and it's crushing it and it'll probably break you know make money

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Track 1: start making money next week you know because it's going to be out for another

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Track 1: full week so if we haven't sold it already and we did kind of ruin some of the

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Track 1: movie you know maybe if you listened and you heard these spoilers you still

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Track 1: want to go see this movie right.

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Track 2: Away i mean to be fair like historically like predator movies you know like

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Track 2: especially following you know the original pair like they don't make like a

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Track 2: ton of money like they're you Now,

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Track 2: these are not movies that make like, these are movies that people like,

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Track 2: Other than, like, you know, the diehard fans, those of us who will watch every

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Track 2: Predator and every Alien movie, like, they're not, like, mass, you know,

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Track 2: historically, historically, they're not cultural, like, you know,

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Track 2: they don't knock out, you know, they're not cultural touchstones,

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Track 2: you know, outside of the original Predator.

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Track 1: And it's interesting, too, because Prey was not released in the theaters,

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Track 1: and they— Damn shame. I think because it was so popular, they decided to release this one.

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Track 1: So I'm looking at the, here are the totals from the, from the previous movies.

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Track 1: The original Predator made a hundred million.

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Track 1: Second Predator made 60, 57.

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Track 1: The third one, 127. The fourth one, 160. And this one's already at 84,

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Track 1: probably going to, you know, eclipse a hundred.

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Track 1: And the, those aren't, that's not blocking that. I mean, only,

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Track 1: not any of them cracked 200, you know, for an action movie where in a time where

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Track 1: there just aren't action movies that often anymore anyway.

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Track 1: So this one is, it's easily the best one, not including Prey because it's talking

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Track 1: about the ones in the theater.

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Track 1: It's definitely the best one for me since the original.

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Track 2: Absolutely. In terms of like theatrical releases, absolutely.

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Track 2: I do think that Prey is, and this is possibly a hot take, and I don't want to

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Track 2: get, you know, traditionalists too upset, but Prey is, in my opinion,

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Track 2: the best Predator movie, hands down, bar none.

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Track 1: I think you're right, honestly.

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Track 2: It's an incredible... Prey is an incredible film. We should do an episode just on Prey.

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Track 2: And the fact that they did an entire Comanche dub absolutely...

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Track 2: Just from a cultural perspective, the respect paid to the people of the culture, absolutely,

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Track 2: it has gotten nothing but praise from the Comanche people that,

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Track 2: you know, in general, but also the people that were involved in it,

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Track 2: Comanche actors and the community beyond that, nothing but praise.

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Track 2: It has been spoken of highly in terms of basically it's set the bar for the

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Track 2: way any movie should be made if it handles indigenous culture, period, end of story.

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Track 2: Like I literally just read an article from an indigenous like film,

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Track 2: like critic is like, this is the way it should be done. Like, give us the respect.

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Track 1: Yeah, I also agree that it's the best Predator film.

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Track 1: I mean, if I'm separating like the old ones and the new ones,

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Track 1: I mean, what's amazing about the first one for me, too, is that it was people

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Track 1: don't, I think, realize that it's really an anti-imperialist satire on the military

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Track 1: that people don't quite ever get,

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Track 1: especially, you know, conservatives, of course.

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Track 1: You know the i mean the what's his name mcteeran has

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Track 1: said very clearly that that's what it was you can go listen we

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Track 1: did an episode on uh both predator and predators with

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Track 1: uh resident predator and alien expert who's been on the show a few times joe

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Track 1: wrote so you can uh go check out that i think that was it was also the hundredth

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Track 1: episode of this podcast so it was worth it and also what's his name um fuck

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Track 1: died right as we were releasing it carl weathers yes carl weathers maybe that's a good,

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Track 1: maybe that's a good segue to just read some of these ridiculous takes now that

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Track 1: you kind of have an understanding of the movie and the context.

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Track 1: Do you want to read this first one?

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Track 1: And these are from threads, by the way, like people talking about this on threads.

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Track 2: My review of Predator Badlands as a lifelong Predator superfan is complete woke garbage.

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Track 2: The writers, directors, and producers that have taken over

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Track 2: the film franchise seem to have been on a mission after

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Track 2: avp my personal favorite to absolutely

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Track 2: destroy the quintessential hunting culture and

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Track 2: reduce it to a humanistic faux morality quest

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Track 2: don't waste your time or money on this film it was aggravating to sit through

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Track 2: okay i just want to point out okay in this movie which is woke garbage and humanist

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Track 2: humanistic faux mortality quest um deck kills his father Okay.

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Track 2: He kills his father and denies like the literal humanity of like most other things.

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Track 2: They are, he's still very much a predator. Yeah.

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Track 1: I mean, thinking from it, taking your Marxist brain away, and you're looking

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Track 1: at this and saying, what is woke about it?

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Track 1: Is it that they're portraying Weyland-Yutani as it's bad, and the way that it's

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Track 1: always been portrayed? I don't...

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Track 2: You can't, if you watch this movie and you come away with this,

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Track 2: or you have any of these things, you don't understand, number one, media.

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Track 2: You don't understand science fiction at all.

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Track 2: Like, one of the hardest things to do in genre fiction is portray alien species

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Track 2: that are both recognizable and relatable,

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Track 2: but are also still alien.

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Track 2: And the fact of the matter is, is like, Yautja are fucking aliens.

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Track 2: Like, they're aliens. They're not going to be humans. They're not going to behave the way humans do.

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Track 2: And in this movie, you see a very extraterrestrial, a human psychology,

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Track 2: an alien psychology grappling with concepts and moving forward as he would in

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Track 2: his culture, including killing his own father. Yeah.

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Track 1: I mean, just brain, brain rot.

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Track 2: And not killing him because he's like, he's a bad man. Like,

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Track 2: killing him because he's like, I am owed this.

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Track 2: No, my favorite is from Jacob Cage.

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Track 2: My biggest worry with Dan Trachtenberg's direction for the Predator franchise

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Track 2: is that he's making the Yautja as a race inherently evil.

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Track 2: Which, what movies are you watching, man? What movies?

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Track 2: Like what movies are you watching like they're

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Track 2: not evil but they're also not superheroes they're

Speaker: 00:19:48

Track 2: fucking aliens with their own culture and like i'm not saying this is well garbage

Speaker: 00:19:53

Track 2: but i'm also not saying they're evil i'm saying they're aliens that live their

Speaker: 00:19:57

Track 2: own culture including the murder and hunt of other sentient species i mean his.

Speaker: 00:20:05

Track 1: Like it's for one it's missed it's to me I'm not like an expert on like everything,

Speaker: 00:20:09

Track 1: but he's missing the point of understanding what they do as a species when they

Speaker: 00:20:14

Track 1: go to other worlds and kill something that should be impossible to kill humans,

Speaker: 00:20:19

Track 1: you know, in this movie or whatever.

Speaker: 00:20:21

Track 1: And so that's just what they do. And to say also that they're inherently evil

Speaker: 00:20:26

Track 1: is also, I almost want to call it racist. Can you be racist towards the Yautja?

Speaker: 00:20:32

Track 2: It's xenophobic.

Speaker: 00:20:33

Track 1: Yeah.

Speaker: 00:20:34

Track 2: But, like, beyond that, beyond that, so Dan Trachtenberg has directed three

Speaker: 00:20:41

Track 2: alien films, Prey, Killer of Killers...

Speaker: 00:20:45

Track 2: And bandwins. Preying presents us with a very straightforward Predator movie.

Speaker: 00:20:51

Track 2: It's excellent. In terms of the character of the Predator, very straightforward.

Speaker: 00:20:57

Track 2: It is a hunter. It is there to hunt. It hunts. That's the story.

Speaker: 00:21:00

Track 2: From the point of the Predator.

Speaker: 00:21:03

Track 2: So, you can't be like, oh, Trachtenberg invented this concept.

Speaker: 00:21:07

Track 2: That is literally what it was from fucking day one.

Speaker: 00:21:10

Track 2: Then we got Killer of Killers, which presents three different

Speaker: 00:21:15

Track 2: predators in the unit first stories and then a clan which the way the stories

Speaker: 00:21:24

Track 2: in general have always operated is that there's different clans of predator

Speaker: 00:21:27

Track 2: and they all behave different ways they have the different ways being like which.

Speaker: 00:21:32

Track 1: Is funny because in the in the comment below the one you just read someone is

Speaker: 00:21:36

Track 1: complaining that they're making the ouch a monoculture which is couldn't be further from the.

Speaker: 00:21:40

Track 2: Truth right which couldn't be further from the truth because for straight up

Speaker: 00:21:44

Track 2: First of all, the very fact that in Killer of Killers...

Speaker: 00:21:48

Track 2: They abduct humans that have killed predators

Speaker: 00:21:51

Track 2: is a separate concept from any

Speaker: 00:21:55

Track 2: other predator movie or story ever it's

Speaker: 00:21:58

Track 2: never been presented it's never been presented before that is

Speaker: 00:22:01

Track 2: not a thing not like in it's like because if

Speaker: 00:22:03

Track 2: you killed them it's like you're honored and you are left that's the traditional

Speaker: 00:22:07

Track 2: way it's treated it's like you're honored and you are left the fact that they're

Speaker: 00:22:11

Track 2: doing that is and it is implied in the movie of killer killers that like basically

Speaker: 00:22:15

Track 2: it's like We can't let them get away because they're going to blow our spot up, basically.

Speaker: 00:22:22

Track 2: And the other clans are going to be like, what the fuck are you doing?

Speaker: 00:22:25

Track 2: Don't do that. That's bad.

Speaker: 00:22:27

Track 2: And you're possibly bad bloods, right? Something like that.

Speaker: 00:22:32

Track 2: And then we have this. And we have no reason to believe that Dex clan is the

Speaker: 00:22:39

Track 2: same as any of the other ones. like you're just imagining flaws in a movie so you can complain.

Speaker: 00:22:45

Track 1: Well the the one that's maybe not as

Speaker: 00:22:49

Track 1: the opposite of the other ones where it's you know people who

Speaker: 00:22:51

Track 1: are maybe conservative that are like this is woke is this one that says quay

Speaker: 00:22:58

Track 1: is a good brother he saw through the fascist beliefs of his father that undesirables

Speaker: 00:23:03

Track 1: are to be purged in order to propagate yucha supremacy He understood that everyone

Speaker: 00:23:07

Track 1: deserves a chance to live,

Speaker: 00:23:09

Track 1: regardless of the stature or perceived physical disabilities.

Speaker: 00:23:12

Track 1: Quay is Antifa. Be like Quay.

Speaker: 00:23:15

Track 2: This person voted for Kamala Harris because she was going to stop the genocide in Gaza.

Speaker: 00:23:20

Track 2: This person thinks Gavin Newsom is Antifa. Like, that's...

Speaker: 00:23:24

Track 2: This is your brain on liberalism right here.

Speaker: 00:23:26

Track 1: It's just, it doesn't, I don't really need to analyze what this says because

Speaker: 00:23:30

Track 1: it just doesn't make any sense.

Speaker: 00:23:32

Track 1: And look, this is a podcast that's entire thing is to put political meaning

Speaker: 00:23:38

Track 1: into movies and like understand what they might mean.

Speaker: 00:23:41

Track 1: Give us, give our, you know, your takes on them.

Speaker: 00:23:43

Track 1: This is not a good take. It doesn't really make any sense.

Speaker: 00:23:47

Track 1: How could the Quay be Antifa? Like, he just went against his clan,

Speaker: 00:23:52

Track 1: and actually, he didn't really go against the clan. He actually went in the

Speaker: 00:23:57

Track 1: way that it's supposed to be.

Speaker: 00:23:58

Track 1: If you can challenge someone in your clan and defeat them, that's it.

Speaker: 00:24:02

Track 2: Yeah, he maintained the status quo. Literally, he made an exception on an emotional

Speaker: 00:24:08

Track 2: basis for his brother. That's it.

Speaker: 00:24:11

Track 2: It is safe to assume that if it was any other runt, he'd be like, fuck that, dude.

Speaker: 00:24:21

Track 2: He's not going to save you, man. He's not going to save you.

Speaker: 00:24:24

Track 2: He's not going to vote for healthcare. It's not going to happen. He doesn't care.

Speaker: 00:24:30

Track 2: He was perfectly willing to send his brother to die on Genna.

Speaker: 00:24:34

Track 2: Once his brother was like, I'm going to kill the Kalisk.

Speaker: 00:24:36

Track 2: He's like, you're going to die. And he's like, I'm going to go anyway. He's like, okay.

Speaker: 00:24:40

Track 1: Can I just assume that all the people that are writing these things,

Speaker: 00:24:44

Track 1: complaining about it, the monoculture, it's woke and all this.

Speaker: 00:24:47

Track 1: Are these like just the same collection of people that whenever a Star Wars

Speaker: 00:24:52

Track 1: movie comes out, they're like, oh, look, there's a person who's not waiting in this.

Speaker: 00:24:56

Track 1: I can't watch this. Or, oh, look, they made the Little Mermaid black or something.

Speaker: 00:25:01

Track 1: It's just the same idiots complaining about things that aren't like them.

Speaker: 00:25:07

Track 2: If it isn't a rehash of the same thing they have seen 20 times before, it's not acceptable.

Speaker: 00:25:14

Track 2: And I'll be honest, I loved this movie. I thought it was amazing. My wife enjoyed it.

Speaker: 00:25:20

Track 2: I have criticisms. You know, like I personally don't like over like,

Speaker: 00:25:25

Track 2: you know, like the over quippiness,

Speaker: 00:25:27

Track 2: like there was a little too much of like the, uh, the banter from Thea,

Speaker: 00:25:31

Track 2: uh, which, uh, you know, I could have done with less of, but overall I don't know.

Speaker: 00:25:38

Track 2: It's a really good and it doesn't detract from

Speaker: 00:25:42

Track 2: the predator as a being and the fact that like they did not make the predator

Speaker: 00:25:48

Track 2: which i want to talk about like with you evan is like he never he doesn't speak

Speaker: 00:25:53

Track 2: english he's fully subtitled which i appreciated so much yeah.

Speaker: 00:25:59

Track 1: Well and the thing too i mean i don't think that because disney owns it that's

Speaker: 00:26:03

Track 1: why it has sort of the the script this way.

Speaker: 00:26:06

Track 1: I think that's just what Sackenberg was going for.

Speaker: 00:26:09

Track 2: But also it's just culture has changed. That's what people, that's what movies

Speaker: 00:26:12

Track 2: are right now. And you know what? Because if we look at movies from the 80s, guess what?

Speaker: 00:26:17

Track 2: They all have similar, there's through lines because that's the way culture

Speaker: 00:26:22

Track 2: works. That's the way media works.

Speaker: 00:26:24

Track 2: That's the way art works. That's the way it is.

Speaker: 00:26:26

Track 1: Well, it's interesting because now there's rumors that Arnold Schwarzenegger

Speaker: 00:26:30

Track 1: would return as Dutch in a future,

Speaker: 00:26:33

Track 1: predator movie i don't know if that means that somehow

Speaker: 00:26:36

Track 1: he's like you know rescued from his

Speaker: 00:26:39

Track 1: sort of being put on ice in that other movie or

Speaker: 00:26:42

Track 1: if it's going to be you know a flash i don't know like who knows but it's not

Speaker: 00:26:48

Track 1: going to be the same as the arnold of the 80s where he just like says you know

Speaker: 00:26:52

Track 1: uh the same little one-liners and you know then spends 35 of the minutes of

Speaker: 00:26:58

Track 1: the minutes of the movie where there's no talking at all. It's just like the hunting.

Speaker: 00:27:01

Track 1: That was the 80s. The 90s action movies was much different.

Speaker: 00:27:06

Track 1: And then you had the post 9-11. Now you have now.

Speaker: 00:27:09

Track 1: If the movie was bad, I would be there with them being like,

Speaker: 00:27:12

Track 1: yeah, this movie sucked. But it didn't.

Speaker: 00:27:14

Track 2: No.

Speaker: 00:27:15

Track 2: It was very much a movie of this time, while still being faithful to the core

Speaker: 00:27:24

Track 2: concepts of the Predator universe, and the Predator as a species,

Speaker: 00:27:30

Track 2: and the lore of that.

Speaker: 00:27:32

Track 2: Because that's another thing. I do think a lot of people, they talk about this,

Speaker: 00:27:36

Track 2: minus the super fan, all they've ever seen in the movies. and they've never

Speaker: 00:27:43

Track 2: looked into the deeper lore.

Speaker: 00:27:45

Track 2: And Schrechterberg is drawing from lore beyond the movies.

Speaker: 00:27:49

Track 2: He's drawing from the decades of comics and novels and video games that have

Speaker: 00:27:56

Track 2: been made presenting this world.

Speaker: 00:27:59

Track 1: He is clearly a nerd. I didn't know this, but he was a host of a podcast.

Speaker: 00:28:03

Track 1: And then he was also a co-host of the Geek Drome podcast, clearly about media

Speaker: 00:28:09

Track 1: and comics and all these kinds of things.

Speaker: 00:28:11

Track 1: And he i guarantee you he's seen every

Speaker: 00:28:14

Track 1: single or read every single comic about predator and knows all this shit and

Speaker: 00:28:19

Track 1: is making it you know he's putting a spin on it but he's not just yeah these

Speaker: 00:28:23

Track 1: people's come on and then also the big complaint too that people didn't like

Speaker: 00:28:28

Track 1: was that it was rated pg-13 okay yeah and not go to the second to last.

Speaker: 00:28:32

Track 2: Review they mentioned that go to the second to last complaint that they talk

Speaker: 00:28:35

Track 2: about that with the big uh two thumbs down jif.

Speaker: 00:28:38

Track 1: Oh yeah Yeah, someone said, Predator Badlands was a disgrace to the legacy of Predator.

Speaker: 00:28:43

Track 1: Whose idea was it to turn the Predator into a feel-good Disney Quest movie? Two thumbs down.

Speaker: 00:28:50

Track 2: And right above that, I did, however, think it was super smart to make their

Speaker: 00:28:55

Track 2: PG-13 movie full of alien and robot gore to keep it as violent as possible.

Speaker: 00:29:01

Track 2: That's what a lot of people have complained, like, it's PG-13.

Speaker: 00:29:03

Track 2: But as this person rightly points out, it is also gory as hell.

Speaker: 00:29:09

Track 2: It's just not human gore.

Speaker: 00:29:11

Track 1: I think we covered all the idiots and that anyone who wants to see this movie

Speaker: 00:29:16

Track 1: should, should see this movie in the theater.

Speaker: 00:29:20

Track 1: Keep seeing them in the theater, because the more you see in the theater,

Speaker: 00:29:22

Track 1: the more they're going to put them in the theater and stop doing the bullshit streaming.

Speaker: 00:29:25

Track 2: I do think Johnny Boy Slayer, I do think this is the best one, though.

Speaker: 00:29:31

Track 2: Unpopular opinion, Disney killed Predator. They turned something R-rated into

Speaker: 00:29:35

Track 2: something weird, Guardians of the Galaxy, cutesy PG-13.

Speaker: 00:29:38

Track 2: And this person responds, and this is an amazing thing.

Speaker: 00:29:41

Track 2: No, they did not. Stop being a fragile. I'm sorry you couldn't beat your meat

Speaker: 00:29:46

Track 2: to macho sweaty men getting their cheeks clapped by the more dominant alien

Speaker: 00:29:50

Track 2: species of hunters who are almost halfway naked.

Speaker: 00:29:54

Track 2: Anyways, Predator Balanced is not Guardians of the Galaxy. It is about a character

Speaker: 00:29:59

Track 2: that wants to prove himself to his father and clan.

Speaker: 00:30:01

Track 2: The odds are against him and he must find a way to overcome those odds.

Speaker: 00:30:04

Track 2: It's a great new direction to take the Yautja and their lore.

Speaker: 00:30:08

Track 2: And Johnny Boy Slayer? Mad props. You are 100% correct.

Speaker: 00:30:13

Track 2: That is the absolute correct take on this.

Speaker: 00:30:17

Track 1: It was perfect. Yeah. And Dan Trachtenberg, if you're listening,

Speaker: 00:30:21

Track 1: well, first, you could come on the podcast.

Speaker: 00:30:23

Track 1: But second, you cannot let them put movies straight to streaming.

Speaker: 00:30:28

Track 1: If you make a credit, I mean, I'm sure after it's done really well,

Speaker: 00:30:31

Track 1: they're going to keep doing that. But Dan, if you're listening, keep them coming.

Speaker: 00:30:36

Track 2: If you could get Killer of Killers into the theaters, please, I'll go see that.

Speaker: 00:30:40

Track 2: If you could get Prey outside of a one-day, one-showing double feature,

Speaker: 00:30:47

Track 2: please, I'd like to watch it for the 20th time on the big screen this time.

Speaker: 00:30:54

Track 1: But this has been sort of a bonus episode, if you will, and maybe we'll do a

Speaker: 00:30:59

Track 1: full episode once Ward sees it.

Speaker: 00:31:00

Track 2: Yes, hopefully.

Speaker: 00:31:02

Track 1: Excellent. Well, you've been listening to Left Up Ejector and Bill and Evan signing off.