Back in time for the next – and the best yet – as Alasdair Stuart tries to work out who is Predator and who is Prey as we prepare for the next movie in the Predator franchise…

On the Great Plains in 1719, Naru (Amber Midthinder) is struggling to be seen as a hunter like her brother Taabe. When a friend is injured, she’s part of the search party and soon realises something otherworldly is hunting them…

From the worst to the best. Dan Trachtenberg, and Patrick Alson bring the franchise back from the brink with a standalone movie that’s both a sequel in the sense it’s new, and a prequel in the sense it takes place before every other movie to date. They also find the thematic ground completely lacking from the series since the original, using this brutal clash to tell a story about identity, adolescence and surviving as your world changes around you. This is largely anchored by Midthunder, brilliant in Legion and one of the best physical actors of her generation. Like Mary Elizabeth Winstead in the under-rated pre-sequel to The Thing (and yes it’s better than you remember. I said what I said) she excels at both action and thinking Very Very hard.

A lot of the criticisms of this movie boiled down to ‘But a girl couldn’t win in a fight against a Predator!’ and there’s so much wrong with that it’s hard to know where to start. Where it ends is with Midthunder, whose Naaru is as physically tough as any of the other protagonists but has a much harder, bruising learning curve. She survives in a dangerous world, and lives, because she’s tenacious and smart and Midthunder excels at that. The one mistake made in the movies that followed this were she has yet to return.

But the Predator also gets some surprising depth. In addition to some clever ‘demakes’ of their equipment given the different century, this Predator also plays as younger, angrier. It’s as desperate to prove itself as Naaru and that gives the fight a more personal, raw edge that makes this feel very different even as it hits the same beats. This is still Predator vs Prey. But which is which is very much up for grabs.

Verdict: Wickedly smart, very tough and incredibly good fun. No franchise has had a comeback like this. 10/10