What’s noticeable is how much more adaptable and pliable a silly movie like Predator is than a genuinely brilliant and artful film like Alien (1979). The two franchises are often yoked together as sci-fi movies full of homicidal monsters, but the original Alien film is simply too good to sustain good sequels (I know, I know, Aliens (1986) is jolly good fun, I grant you, but it can’t hold a flamethrower to the original). Start somewhere stupid and you have somewhere to go.