Paladin
07-24-2010, 11:02 PM
Predators, starring Adrien Brody, Alice Braga, Danny Trejo, Topher Grace and Lawrence Fishburne. Directed by Nimrod Antal.
Predators is the latest attempt to return the Predator franchise to the silver screen after a pair of AvP movies and a 20 year gap from Predator 2. When I first heard about the project, and that director Robert Rodriguez was the driving force behind the project, I was really looking forward to it. When I found out he wasn't going to direct it himself, my enthusiasm dropped a good bit. Fortunately, the guy they did get to direct it managed to do a decent job and the movie works pretty well overall.
The action starts out very quickly, opening with Adrien Brody's character in freefall plummeting to the ground. He finds himself in the deep jungle and immediately discovers he's not the only one being dropped in the pot. A whole group of oddball killers (and one doctor) find themselves trapped on an alien planet, brought there to be hunted by the predators. One thing I dislike about sequels is that all too often when someone new takes over the writing/directing, they feel a need to add to the mythology. Predators does this by adding a second species of predator. These are bigger and stronger than the ones Arnie and Danny fought in the original movies, and they apparently find their sport in hunting their smaller bretheren. First of all, if they're so much stronger than the original predators, why are there any of the original breed left? Secondly, why bring humans (and other species) to another planet to hunt when you have such formidable prey already at your disposal?
That's the one issue I really had with this movie. Bringing a bunch of humans across the galaxy to be hunted, by itself, seems like an incredible waste of effort. To do it when you have something even more badass to hunt already just seems stupid.
The movie has plenty of action otherwise, and Adrien Brody surprised me as being a better lead in a action film than I ever thought he'd be. He's not the biggest or the toughest, but he gets by with speed and smarts. The rest of the cast turns in good performances, but they aren't a team. This movie has kind of a split personality in that regard. On one hand, it goes out of it's way to not try to match the macho swagger and comraderie of the soldiers in the original Predator. On the other hand, it has some elements which look like entire shots were lifted from the original. I was most disappointed by Danny Trejo, who plays a Mexican enforcer. He's easily the biggest and strongest guy in the group, and frankly I like his movies, yet he gets relatively little to do. Lawrence Fishburne was another (minor) disappointment. I was looking forward to seeing him play a badass who has been beating the predators at their own game. We don't get that. What we do get is interesting, and a bit humorous, but he wasn't the tough guy I like to see him play (and he's gotten kind of pudgy).
Overall, it's good summer popcorn flick. It's not a summer blockbuster like the original Predator, but it definitely falls right in with Predator 2 in terms of quality. The ending makes it quite clear a sequel is planned, but based on the movie's sales so far, I'm not holding my breath, which is a shame. The predator, as a movie monster, is a great villian. Fans of the series (and the AvP comic) know what they want to see in a Predator movie. I don't understand why the studio can't seem to figure it out and put it on screen, but I'm all for them continuing to try to get it right.
Predators is the latest attempt to return the Predator franchise to the silver screen after a pair of AvP movies and a 20 year gap from Predator 2. When I first heard about the project, and that director Robert Rodriguez was the driving force behind the project, I was really looking forward to it. When I found out he wasn't going to direct it himself, my enthusiasm dropped a good bit. Fortunately, the guy they did get to direct it managed to do a decent job and the movie works pretty well overall.
The action starts out very quickly, opening with Adrien Brody's character in freefall plummeting to the ground. He finds himself in the deep jungle and immediately discovers he's not the only one being dropped in the pot. A whole group of oddball killers (and one doctor) find themselves trapped on an alien planet, brought there to be hunted by the predators. One thing I dislike about sequels is that all too often when someone new takes over the writing/directing, they feel a need to add to the mythology. Predators does this by adding a second species of predator. These are bigger and stronger than the ones Arnie and Danny fought in the original movies, and they apparently find their sport in hunting their smaller bretheren. First of all, if they're so much stronger than the original predators, why are there any of the original breed left? Secondly, why bring humans (and other species) to another planet to hunt when you have such formidable prey already at your disposal?
That's the one issue I really had with this movie. Bringing a bunch of humans across the galaxy to be hunted, by itself, seems like an incredible waste of effort. To do it when you have something even more badass to hunt already just seems stupid.
The movie has plenty of action otherwise, and Adrien Brody surprised me as being a better lead in a action film than I ever thought he'd be. He's not the biggest or the toughest, but he gets by with speed and smarts. The rest of the cast turns in good performances, but they aren't a team. This movie has kind of a split personality in that regard. On one hand, it goes out of it's way to not try to match the macho swagger and comraderie of the soldiers in the original Predator. On the other hand, it has some elements which look like entire shots were lifted from the original. I was most disappointed by Danny Trejo, who plays a Mexican enforcer. He's easily the biggest and strongest guy in the group, and frankly I like his movies, yet he gets relatively little to do. Lawrence Fishburne was another (minor) disappointment. I was looking forward to seeing him play a badass who has been beating the predators at their own game. We don't get that. What we do get is interesting, and a bit humorous, but he wasn't the tough guy I like to see him play (and he's gotten kind of pudgy).
Overall, it's good summer popcorn flick. It's not a summer blockbuster like the original Predator, but it definitely falls right in with Predator 2 in terms of quality. The ending makes it quite clear a sequel is planned, but based on the movie's sales so far, I'm not holding my breath, which is a shame. The predator, as a movie monster, is a great villian. Fans of the series (and the AvP comic) know what they want to see in a Predator movie. I don't understand why the studio can't seem to figure it out and put it on screen, but I'm all for them continuing to try to get it right.