I feel the same.

The original is a classic, mostly because of the setup. The predator isn’t even in the movie for the first half hour or so. The movie takes the time to firmly establish Arnie and his crew as certified asskickers, and that makes the Predator itself that much more awesome. The predator isn’t hunting kids at a summercamp or a bunch of dumbasses in the woods. It’s hunting a group of hardass comandos. For people like me, who went in knowing little about the original film, the surprise factor was what made it a classic. It’s impossible to capture that again because the surprise factor is gone.

But if you can watch it on it’s own merits, Predators is not bad. There were a few flaws. I felt it diluted the badassery of the predators a little. But it’s definitely worth a rental.