Predators Reviewed

Predators.



They’re not nice people. Soldiers, mercenaries, and criminals wake up in free fall above a tropical jungle. Parachutes open (mostly) and they land in a harsh environment, no clue as to why they are there or how they got where they are. They don’t know who brought them, either. They’re fully armed, however. They have their weapons and equipment and it seems that they have one another. Some are well trained, others are natural born survivors, and each person brings a certain specialization to the table. But these aren’t Heroes and their dependence can only go so far in this long awaited sequel to the original Predator series; a sequel that tends to ignore the prior sequels but does reference the events of the first film.



The Piano Player (Adrien Brody) bulks up to lead our rag tag group of survivors as they explore the strange new environment with a sun that simply doesn’t seem to move for several hours, an odd magnetic polarization, and finally a completely unfamiliar skyline with strange moons and planets definitely confirming that they are no longer on Earth. In point of fact, they’re on a planetary game preserve and they are being hunted by the titular characters of the film. They are also being observed and studied, marking a slight difference between the first films’ lone hunter and the Predators of this film. These aliens hunt in a pack, practice different tactics, and use different equipment. They’re a different breed of Predator.



This isn’t a reinvention of the wheel. It’s “The Most Dangerous Game” with aliens; complete with hounds, elaborate traps, and gruesome trophy displays. In many ways this is a love letter to the original film that, unfortunately, packs a few too many references to the original with a number of elements. Still, it never ceases to be less than what it promises to be with plenty of bullets flying, gory death scenes, and adrenalin pumping action sequences. I enjoyed the pacing and had some fun with the predictability of the death sequences. From the get go you can see how each character fits into the plot, how each of them will probably wind up dying, and I looked forward to each scene as it came up. Though a certain trailer moment is an almost utter fabrication, the rest of the movie delivers precisely what you would expect and never tries to be more or less than what it is.



Though I’ve often been accused of being a bit of a little harsh with some action flicks, I have to say that this movie hit all the right notes for me. There are plenty of faults to be found. Never running out of ammunition, obvious stereotypes, brief cup of coffee moment for an established actor, and on and on. But Robert Rodriguez produced this film and it pretty much shared several elements with his prior work… it was a B-Movie with a slightly better budget and no illusions. It was fun, gruesome, and a great roller coaster ride. The characters were pretty much token representations, but that was actually half the fun with typical goofy b-movie dialogue. The action and effects were over the top, and that’s what I want out of a film like this. A good afternoon spent away from the office, away from the responsibilities of life, and a dark theater with plenty of jumps, laughter, and wincing.



4 out of 5.