Predators (**)
Directed by: Nimrod
Antal
Starring: Adrien
Brody, Alice Braga, Topher Grace, Oleg Taktarov, Walton Goggins, Louis Ozawa
Chanchien, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, Danny Trejo, Laurence Fishburne
Seen: August 10th
2010
** Out of ****
Predators literally
dumps you in the deep end as the movie starts, with the main character Royce
(Brody), an ex-soldier-turned-mercenary, waking up as he is falling, without
any clue as to what he is even falling from. His parachute opens at the last
minute before a hard landing, and as he gets up he is accosted by Cuchillo
(Trejo) a Mexican drug cartel muscle-man. They join forces when they get shot
at by the next member of the group, Nikolai (Taktarov), a Russian Commando who
just wants something to shoot at. A few more members join them: Isabelle
(Braga), an Israeli sniper; Mobasa (Ali), an African death squad soldier; Stans
(Goggins), an ex-death row inmate; Edwin (Grace), the odd one out, a doctor;
and Hanzo (Chanchien), a Yakuza enforcer who rarely says a word.
The group soon finds
that they are on a planet which serves as a game reserve for big game hunters,
or Predators. They don’t take it quietly though, as they are a group of
Predators themselves. The pace rarely lets off in the opening stages, as the
group barely has time to bond before a pack of alien hounds descend upon them
in a very exhilarating standoff. The action is quick and crisp, and the urgency
is clear. It is only natural to start wondering in what order characters will
get killed, as this is really the main idea of a movie like this. At first it’s
not immediately clear who is the missing member after each action sequence, or
whether someone is even missing, but once the victim is identified you are left
with absolutely no doubt as to his gory fate, whether he is used as bait for
the rest or vaporised by the Predators’ superior firepower.
The group kills one
strange alien just before being surprised by Noland (Fishburne), a long-time
survivor. At this stage the movie slows down and never quite recovers from it,
as the high tension levels from the opening 30 minutes are only intermittently reestablished
during the rest of the movie, with violence and fighting taking the wheel in
the place of growing dread. The group gets whittled down to a few struggling
members by the time the final battle arrives, and even then there are a few
small surprises regarding who actually reaches the end credits.
Predators is to 1987’s
Predator what Aliens was to Alien, and the movie even references events from
the first Predator in passing. Where the 1987 movie had the burly Arnold
Schwarzenegger as the main character, this new version reflects the age we are
in as that of the knowledge worker rather than the factory worker, as Adrien
Brody gives us a thinking action man who does not rely on only brawn to
survive, but brains too. He is not completely de-muscled however, as he is
still a physical combatant and his voice is rather course. Casting him was an
inspired choice. Topher Grace surprises as the odd one out, but somehow he just
looks out of place even taken in context of the story. Danny Trejo, who usually
plays the scary villain, shows a quick will to work together to try and
survive, and since I met him in Cape Town in May of this year I have been
impressed by his screen presence, as he really is a damn cool dude.
Predators caters only
for a very specific target market, and those who don’t appreciate violence and
something in the vein of the first Predator movie should stay away. As is, I’m
divided in my opinion, as I really enjoyed the adrenaline-laced first third of
the movie, with the rest becoming too much for me, too similar to the usual
slasher movies Hollywood churns out a an amazing pace.
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