Review: Predators

Review: Predators

What a way to wake up, falling 200mph straight toward the ground with no clue how you got there. That’s exactly how we meet Royce (Adrien Brody), a former US military spec ops soldier turned mercenary. Thankfully whoever dropped Royce from the sky was nice enough to strap a parachute on him. He’s only on the ground for a few minutes before Cuchillo (Danny Trejo), another mercenary type but from Baja, drops out of the sky. Once they get over the fact that they are not enemies Royce and Cuchillo find more soldiers all of which came to be in the jungle which they currently inhabit the same way, waking up after a blinding light falling out of the sky. All the major warring tribes of earth are represented; There’s Nikolai, a member of Spetsnaz Russian special forces, Mumbasa, a Sierra Leone death squad member, Hanzo a Yakuza assassin, Stans, a death row inmate and one of the FBI’s Top 10, and Isabelle a Israeli special ops sniper. The only one of the group that doesn’t seem to fit is Edwin (Topher Grace), a doctor without a tactical bone in his body. Once the group is together they set out to find what dropped them there and why. They find out rather quickly that “here” may not be earth, and that they are being hunted on a planet sized game preserve designed for the baddest things in the galaxy. Now the real game is on for the group to not only survive, but find also to find a way home…little do they know the galaxy’s greatest hunters are invisibly stalking them the whole time and the battle of their lives is not far away.

As a diehard fan of not just the original film but the Predator character in general, I can admit to being a little biased when it comes to this flick. Well maybe biased isn’t the right word, I will readily admit there were problems with the two Alien Vs Predator movies, I would say predisposed to liking it is a better term than biased. Even if this wasn’t the case I’m confident in saying this movie is bad ass, with some of the most intense action scenes filmed in the last 5 years. It’s a real throwback to the 80’s style of blow shit up and have your heroes run a lot and shoot more than what seems humanly possible, sounds simplistic but it works. The story is a bit basic and predictable but not so much so that it talks down to the audience. There’s just enough there in terms of plot and story to move along the awesome action sequences and ultra cool Predator scenes. Let’s be honest, were not going into this flick looking for an evaluation of the human condition we want sci fi action awesomeness and that’s exactly what we get.

There’s SO much here for fans of the original film. Not only is the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger classic referenced directly but there are literally dozens of little nods to the originator. From ‘ole painless to the classic line “Come on DO IT KILL ME I’m Right HERE!!”. A real treat not only because it has such love for the source material but also because it adds quite a bit to the lore of the Predator. We learn things like that there are more than one breed of Predator and that they always hunt in three’s. One of the things I kind of disliked from the more recent editions to the saga was the decorative masks that some of the Predators wore. I always thought the plainness of the original mask added to it’s creepiness, the way the Michael Myer’s mask was scary due to its lack of any distinguishing characteristics. That being said I didn’t mind it so much in this one, while there are personalized masks for the higher up Predators the reason behind it is explained in a way to make you like it more.

I can’t sit here and tell you this is a perfect movie, as much as I may like to. It, like every film, does have it’s problems. First of all is the lack of memorable kills, this wasn’t something that bugged me at first but in retrospect it becomes a bigger issue. The Predator has so many ways to kill a man that it shouldn’t be hard to make every kill stick with you, unfortunately the kill seemed to be secondary to the chase in this flick. Most of the characters are killed off rather unceremoniously with a shot from a shoulder cannon and even when the kill is at the end of a build up the climax of the scene is rather disappointing. The flick is also a bit slow at first, this changes quite quickly with the release of the preda-dogs but you may find yourself staring at your popcorn for 5-10 minutes before this happens. Oh and by the way, those preda-dogs I spoke of…I really thought they were going to ruin the movie, while they are not the coolest thing since sliced cheese they were a lot better than I thought and the director shot there with an angle that makes it real seat grabbing, anxiety inducing stuff. I’ll also add in here that Laurence Fishburne’s character has probably the coolest intro in recent history.

Is Predators the best movie of the series? No, it doesn’t manage to oust the original as the best of the bunch, but in this critics humble opinion it comes damn close. Let’s see, what action movie cliché can I use here? Predators is a rip roaring, white knuckle, blood filled good time. There, that should make the DVD cover! Seriously though if you’re a fan of the original, or any of its successors than you’re guaranteed to have a good time with this one, it’s simple fact. Definitely worth the trip to the movie theater, this movie is the definition of a summer popcorn flick. So go out and see Predators and then GET TO THE CHOPPA!

4 out of 5 Guttenbergs