This is the sequel that Arnold Schwarzenegger and John McTiernan’s 1987 original deserved, as director Nimród Antal delivers enough hardcore sci-fi, explosive action and monster mayhem to justify its belated arrival. Forget the official sequel and the lame Alien vs Predator spin-offs, this Predator sequel deserves one of its own.

Armed to the teeth, a multiracial group of military/criminal killers (plus Topher Grace’s wimpy doctor) find themselves on a Predator hunting planet where they are the game. Faced with an evolved generation of super-Predators, Adrien Brody’s Hemingway-quoting, self-appointed leader (‘There is no hunting like the hunting of men…’) insists that survival depends upon pooling their killer instincts.

Alice Braga’s svelte sniper is a tough yet tender foil for the buff, brainy Brody; with one notable exception, the remaining ‘dirty half-dozen’ are merely disposable. Channelling Brando’s unhinged Colonel Kurtz, a well-padded Laurence Fishburne pops up halfway through as a surprise sole survivor, a striking cameo that nods to his youthful debut in Apocalypse Now.