So, the new movie has 3 acts:
Act 1
This is mostly around discovering/encountering the Predator. It's got the tone of the original where it's a bunch of folks out of their depth against something that could just murder the hell out of them. They follow up on Predator 2 and the humans looking at doing experiments and such really well, and hit on the Predators using the spines they take to genetically modify themselves for better hunting and adaptation on foreign worlds leading to the differentiations in characteristics between them. Also, the premise of the main character as a sniper who they're railroading off to a psych ward as a cover-up works really well. They do a damn good job with the balance of humour and fear, and making the weird little rag-tag group quite enjoyable and making you give a shit about them and why they'd be hanging out together. Tonally, this is like a blend of Predator & Predators and it's pretty damned great.
Act 2
This is where things kick further into the world of science fiction. We get to see the Predator getting outright brutalized by the heavily modified Super Predator from Predators. They really lean into the idea of ideologies being a larger part of the two different groups. This is where things move tonally to feel a bit more like the action in Predator 2 less horror and stalking and more outright fear at a monstrously capable alien being. We get to see more groups of humans opposed to other humans as each is attempting to achieve their own ends insofar as the scientists vs. the main characters. It's a transition that the film manages really smoothly and lets you see more kickass things happening.
Act 3
This is where the film leans more into its own story motivations and stumbles a little bit, and the main characters end up getting some plot armor. The Predators have always seemed to toy with their prey in the end, but it's a TINY bit less believable for this new one because of how utterly fucking ruthless it's been with everything else up to this point. The reason for the motivations of the standard Predator aren't entirely clear, but given what we know about their rivalry from Predators there's at least enough to justify it as being them hedging their bets with getting some extra defenses to the planet of folks who've managed to best their warriors on several occasions. It's cool in a 12-year-old-brain "dial it up to 11" sort of way. (Personally, I think that it's the sort of thing that'd work best if another film just starts off seeing it get utterly wrecked and sets the table back to square 1 with stakes being even higher).
