Hulu’s Prey Is the Best Reviewed Predator Movie Ever

This week saw the official release of Prey, the latest Predator movie and a film with major ties to the series, despite being set three hundred years in the past. The film has also made history for the series in another big way, it’s the best reviewed movie in the entire Predator franchise. Sitting at a 92% rating and a “Certified Fresh” distinction on Rotten Tomatoes, Prey is far and away the biggest critical success in the Predator series, even beating out the Arnold Schwarzenegger-starring original film by a big margin. Here’s how its score and consensus compares to the others in the series:

• Prey – 92%, “Certified Fresh” with 145 Reviews; Critical consensus: “The rare action thriller that spikes adrenaline without skimping on character development, Prey is a Predator sequel done right.”  
• Predator – 80%, “Certified Fresh” with 55 reviews; Critical consensus: “Predator: Part sci-fi, part horror, part action — all muscle.”
• Predator 2 – 30%, Rotten with 30 reviews; Critical consensus: “The thrill of the hunt is gone in this hackneyed sequel.”
• AVP: Alien Versus Predator – 21%, Rotten with 147 reviews; Critical consensus: “Gore without scares and cardboard cut-out characters make this clash of the monsters a dull sit.”
• Aliens vs Predator: Requiem  – 12%, Rotten with 78 reviews; Critical consensus: “The increased gore and violence over the first Alien vs. Predator can’t excuse Requiem’s disorientating editing, excessively murky lighting, and lack of new ideas.”
• Predators – 65%, Fresh with 203 Reviews; Critical consensus: “After a string of subpar sequels, this bloody, action-packed reboot takes the Predator franchise back to its testosterone-fueled roots.”
• The Predator – 33%, Rotten with 296 reviews; Critical consensus: “The Predator has violence and quips to spare, but its chaotically hollow action adds up to another missed opportunity for a franchise increasingly defined by disappointment.”

With the arrival of Prey many fans were worried that the film, technically a production and release from The Walt Disney Company, would be watered down and feature little of the franchise’s trademark violence. Director Dan Trachtenberg previously revealed to ComicBook.com that this was never an actual worry for the production at all.

“The Disney thing did not affect the movie at all in terms of its content,” the 10 Cloverfield Lane director confirmed earlier this year. “That’s why I’m excited for this trailer to come out. And for people who were worried that was this gonna be PG-13, or was it gonna be ‘Disney-Made-Predator.’ It was a 20th Century movie throughout the entire experience. And then Disney has been awesome in receiving the reins of it and now delivering it out into the world, but there was never any mandate from them. I was terrified of some of the wording we had in the script and when they read it, I was like, ‘Oh no, are they gonna freak out over the descriptions of gore and stuff?’ But, no. It is a brutal, intense, very R-rated movie. And I’m excited for that to be dispelled, that Disney’s gonna do ‘Disney Things.’”  

Prey stars Amber Midthunder (The Ice Road, Roswell, New Mexico), Dakota Beavers, Stormee Kipp (Sooyii), Michelle Thrush (The Journey Home), and Julian Black Antelope (Tribal). It’s not streaming on Hulu.