Predators – Movie Review
The original “Predator” is arguably one of the best action films to come out of the 1980s, and possibly the Manliest Film Ever Made. A story putting a group of people together in an isolated area and killing them off one by one was not a new idea even back then, but “Predator” managed to keep it interesting with a good & diverse cast, great action and some interesting sci-fi ideas, culminating with an iconic modern movie monster.
The 23 years since the release of “Predator” have seen the concept pretty much driven into the ground, with a lacklustre early ‘90s sequel and two recent atrocious crossovers with another once great film franchise, “Alien”.
Then in 2009 producer Robert Rodriguez announced he was making “Predators” and fans of the original film began to hope…
“Predators” had been in Development Hell since the early ‘90s, but the original concept has managed to stay intact; a group of contemporary human badasses are taken to an alien world to be hunted by Predators. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character Dutch from “Predator” had a role in the story, either as the leader of this new team, or as a survivor of a previous hunt and left abandoned on the planet. But with Schwarzenegger busy as Governor of California, he sadly couldn’t be involved with the project. Fortunately, “Predators” doesn’t need such overt links to the past, and manages to take what worked from the original concept and expand upon it.
The audience is thrown into the film with an initial shot of a prone body in freefall high above the ground. The figure wakes up, and realising his predicament tries to activate the unusual parachute strapped to his back. It refuses to respond, only activating when he is close enough to the ground. It barely breaks his fall and he hits the ground hard, knocking him out as the film’s title hits the audience.
The man wakes quickly, but answers are not immediately apparent to him or the audience. Soon he meets up with other previous freefall victims and the reveal of their occupations quickly fill the characters and the audience in on their situation. [Editor’s note: or “and the audience in as to their predicament.”]
God says he can help me, but he says you're fooked.
The story here manages to be even simpler than that of “Predator”; there is no contrived explanation to get these people into the jungle, they are just dumped there. The film moves ahead rapidly, forcing the audience to accept and move on. Given the disastrous plot concepts for the last two “Alien vs. Predator” films, it is good to see that the Morons at Fox finally cottoned on that “Predator” doesn’t need an overblown story. It can rely on a simple plot if the “characters” are good.
Fortunately, they are. The audience is quickly introduced to a US Mercenary (Oscar® Winning Actor Adrien Brody; WTF?), a Mexican Drug Cartel Enforcer (Danny Trejo), a Russian “Spetsnaz” Commando (Oleg Taktarov), an Israeli Defence Force Sniper (Alice Braga), a Yakuza Assassin (Louis Ozawa Changchien), a San Quentin Death Row Inmate (Walton Goggins), a Sierra Leone Death Squad Officer (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali) and, most oddly, a U.S. Physician (Topher Grace).
The Predators decided to give these guys a medic?
Each of the characters here would make interesting protagonists in their own stories. Or more appropriately, “antagonists.” Whilst the squad in “Predator “ was a bunch of crude but “good” men, the majority of the characters here are amoral, bad, or downright “unpleasant” company. Brody’s pragmatic mercenary quickly becomes the leader, and it is easy to see why; he is a little smarter and a little faster than everyone else. But he has no loyalty to any of them, which allows him to make decisions that could not otherwise have been made. Goggins’ convict is good for laughs of the disturbing, “did he just say that?” variety. Changchien’s Yakuza is the most enigmatic, saying little, and for good reason.
Once the characters establish what they were doing before they were taken, they try to find out where they’ve been taken to. That is when the fun begins…
The crew is picked off one by one in true Predator style, and the action scenes are well shot and exciting; in line with the action from the original film. Things all fall into place for the crew when they meet Nolan (Laurence Fishburne), sole survivor of a former hunt. Nolan manages to fill in the gaps in their knowledge, which they use to set up for a final confrontation with the Predators.
He is one UGLY mudda fucka...
The Predators themselves are brought back to their roots, evoking the designs of the first two films, not the weirdly enlarged and bulked up versions from the “Alien vs. Predator” films. While the race has a rich back story in novels, comics and games, not a lot of that has been seen on screen (and what has been seen a lot of times should be downright ignored!) Here we’re once again shown their oddly chivalric code but with the addition of a clear ethnic divide amongst the Predators. This provides escalation as the humans witness Predators fighting their own kind, allowing them a possible way out of their situation by the end.
Director Nimród Antal keeps the film moving at a cracking pace, keeping the tension high throughout the first two acts of the film. Very little exposition is offered beyond what the audience and the characters actually see. Hell, we don’t learn many of the characters names until much later. There is no time for formal introductions as they’re being hunted from the moment they hit the ground.
Special mention should go to the score; Alan Silvestri did not return to compose for this film, but long time Rodriguez collaborator John Debney has taken Silverstri’s original themes and built on them for this film. This gives a score that is both familiar but unfamiliar enough to keep the audience interested, and contributes to it feeling like a Predator film. They even managed to cram Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally” in here over the credits, which is another nice call back to the original.
The final act is arguably not as strong as those preceding; a result of the audience being overburdened by a lot of new ideas at the eleventh hour. Still, the climax manages to be as visceral as you would “hope” from a Predator film, leaving the door open for more stories on this world.
As an action film, “Predators” is a success. As a reboot of the “Predator” series, it is a welcome return to form that has not been seen in far too long. If there are further follow-ups, hopefully they can build upon the concepts here and take them in new directions, attracting new fans without alienating the old.
This gets a “Cool”. It is a good action film, but more importantly in this context, it is a good “Predator” film.
Trailer
Do you agree with Magnus or is this another insult to the name Predator? Will it be packaged in with Predator 1 or as a three pack with AVP 1 & 2? Feedback and let us know!
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The film seemed to drag a bit for me in the beginning. And the part about the Predators fighting each other didn’t have enough explanation. Why was the one predator tied up in the camp? And the scene from the preview, with Brody getting targeted by like 10 predators….didn’t make it into the movie? Or did I miss it somewhere?
I didn’t like what they did with Fishburne’s character, I understand he was a tool to help fill in some gaps but they could have improved his character a bit to give him a longer life expectancy in the film. I mean, the guy was a sole survivor for 10 hunting seasons and killed 2 or 3 predators. You’d think his death would be a little more climactic than just getting zapped after he told his tale.
I really enjoyed this one. It honestly felt like predator 2. a GOOD predator 2, though to be honest i thought it felt more like a predator one part 2. the music was so similar, the shots so similar, the characters all felt like they were continuations… and there is the films strength and weakness all in one.
this film could not have been made as a direct sequel to predaotr. it could only exist as a throwback to happier times. It would not exist if we had not had AVP 1 & 2 and predator 2… This is the predator film you wanted after predator 1, but if it had come straight after then we would have thought, gee that was lazy and didn’t really move the world on that much. it stole imagery, situations and ideas from the first film unashamedly calling them homage. yet did a BIT of original stuff too.
The bits they gloss over are the bits that make the world more interesting to me… the secondary alien races! the survivor who’s been kicking for years… all given too little time.
though there were some ripper sections which made me happy to be watching it.
i’ll agree. its a cool, but it’s almost so derivative that it feel like we haven’t moved forwards. However multiple predators is WIN.