When one of their party is taken by a mountain lion Naru tags along on the mission to hunt it down. However there is a much more dangerous threat hunting them all.
This addition to the Predator franchise is a gimmick free shot in the arm for it. There's none of the goofiness of "The Predator" which I enjoyed but was an obvious misstep. It sticks to the formula of the first two: a Predator turns up spoiling for a hunt, takes on various dangerous threats, human and animal before crossing paths with our protagonist. Much ass kicking ensues. There are some nice callbacks to previous instalments in the franchise.
A setting on the edge of the great plains of America in 1719 is more interesting than a contemporary one and it's already established that Predators have been turning up on Earth for centuries. No a female Comanche protagonist isn't a gimmick either really once you've picked that setting. This movie seems to have stirred the culture war pot a little and I can't see why, its absolutely straight down the line retro action movie fare with no preachiness beyond what might have been seen in anything made since 1985. There are some French trappers who are nasty, nothing new there, it's got the sort of "women can be tough too" messaging that's been around for decades and Naru is more smart than tough.
Where it does fall down a bit is it's tame on the violence at times, cutting away on some death scenes I was really expecting it to show. Maybe that was deliberate for a streaming release. Oh and the CGI bear is a bit rubbish while the other animals worked well.
It doesn't do anything new but if you want a Predator movie that's not shit this delivers, 7/10 good beer and pizza viewing.