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THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Set Visit Preview and 4 Awesome New Posters!PREDATORS Review
by Matt Goldberg Posted:July 8th, 2010 at 10:14 pm
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In today’s action blockbuster marketplace, it’s refreshing to see a film that boils the genre down to its bare essentials and thrives as a lean, mean, disemboweling machine. Not designed to sell collectors glasses at Burger King or have an opening weekend gross that would dwarf the GDP of a third-world country, Predators is a solid B-action movie that delivers fun, thrills, and unapologetic violence for only a fraction of the cost of your run-of-the-mill special effects extravaganza.
Earth’s deadliest killers have been abducted and airdropped onto a strange planet where they discover they are prey for the Predators, an alien species first introduced in the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger action film Predator. It may or may not surprise you* to learn that Predator aliens like to hunt things.** Led by an unnamed mercenary (Adrien Brody), the killer Earthlings discover that no matter your occupation, whether it be an enforcer for a drug cartel, a Spetsnaz soldier, or a death row convict, you may have what it takes to go up against a Predator…provided you’re not completely eviscerated because you happened to make the fatal mistake of leading with your left foot instead of your right.
And that’s the plot: eight elite killers are dropped on a planet and we see who will survive the longest. The film’s not intended to surprise you (when it tries, it fails miserably) or be particularly clever. There’s no cynicism, no irony, and hardly any references to other movies. It’s nasty, brutish, and short-ish, and that’s why it works. It boils away all the fat we’re used to getting with our action films. And sometimes fat isn’t bad. I can enjoy big budget spectacle, but sometimes less is more. And sometimes less is more amounts to a guy wielding a samurai sword against a pincer-faced creature with dreadlocks.
And “guy with samurai sword” is about as much character development as you can expect to find. You have eight distinctive personalities and every actor acquits him/herself well—the standouts being Laurence Fishburne and Topher Grace. Brody seems an unlikely choice as the macho action hero and his forced gravel-voice is a little much. But he’s a smart casting choice because unlike a typical meathead warrior, you can see the character’s intellect and know that he’s a worthy opponent against a race of creatures that rely on traps and tactical maneuvers as much as they do their advanced technology and raw strength. Even though you know that most characters aren’t going to survive the picture, the cast does a good job of showing that if it was a one-on-one fight on Earth, they could possibly emerge the victor. Unfortunately, they’re not on Earth and they’re they’re painfully outnumbered (emphasis on the “painfully”).
It’s a sad truth of Hollywood finances is that most big-budget action blockbusters can’t afford to get away with an R-rating. The expense involved requires that audiences—both mature and otherwise—be allowed to pay the full price of admission. With a small budget, Predators doesn’t have that concern and can deliver quality action that may not blow you away, but still be a lot of fun as you watch things get blown away. Director Nimrod Antal does a fantastic job of working with what he has and using sparse sets, limited CGI, smart cinematography and skillful editing to create thrilling set pieces. The special effects won’t set the world on fire (note: the fire effects are kind of crappy), but they fall in with the ethos of the production: get the job done.
Don’t be mistaken. Predators isn’t trying to skate by on the bare minimum. It simply has the confidence to know what it is and the skills to achieve what it wants to be. Granted, there are elements of the film that are a bit too sparse. The movie could use a little more humor, a little more imagination in some of the kills, and a little more money to spruce up a few effects and perhaps build on a briefly hinted-at plot point that it’s not just Earth’s deadliest killers that are running around on the Predator planet. But even without these nice touches, Predators is a good B-action that provides a lot of fun on its little murder planet.
Rating: B
*But it really shouldn’t surprise you.
**I continue to wonder if hunting is the purpose of the Predator or if it’s just how they unwind after a long day at the office.
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Related Links
- PREDATORS Interview: Director Nimrod Antal and Producer Robert Rodriguez
- Restricted International Trailer for PREDATORS Starring Adrien Brody
- Three International Posters for PREDATORS Starring Adrien Brody
- New Images from PREDATORS and Dwayne Johnson’s FASTER
- SXSW Lands First Look at Robert Rodriguez’s PREDATORS and the World Premiere of Géla Babluani’s 13
I saw it tonight first showing, pretty good. very long battle at the end.
just watched the midnight showing..i liked it…thought the whole cast was awesome..and i like that the original music was used……definately was not dissappointed…
Sounds promising. Loved the Original and pred2. Hated all that came after, so it sounds 100 steps up from those AVP crap.
I like the simple take in movies, Rambo-4, Outlander, etc.. Great gritty but simple films, this looks to blend into that category.
If they do a PREDATORS sequel, they need STALLONE.
If the predators were to abduct RAMBO he could be the man to finish off their species.
I want to see more of the Predator Culture. Maybe abducting the best humans we've got and other beasts, let them fight it out in a old predator ruin. Then for the finale have the best human pitted against the best predator in a predator arena. Then we find out the predators that hunt were forced to, so that they could gain respect amongst there species to be warriors.
The Predator species mirrors culture from several parts of our own world even today. The “hunter/gatherer” mentality is one that we in the civilized world view as being “primitive”, but is still practiced in many parts of the world today. A young man, or in the Predators case a 'Yautja', is sent out to hunt worthy opponents and bring back proof of his kill (trophy) to his tribe or clan. The more trophies you have, the better of a warrior you are considered and therefore have more “status” in your clan. Fighting “soft meat” or humans and gaining a trophy gets you honor. Fighting “hard meat” like aliens (AvP) and winning gets you ultimate notoriety. The predator species also incoporates parts of ancient Japanese culture where it is an honor to fight to the death against a worthy opponent in one on one combat. The humans who survive are viewed by the Predators as being elite warriors and are spoken about amongst their species with honor and reverence. It's a culture that's as simple as it is interesting.
Will mythoughts really be posted?
I enjoyed this version. It was a good action pic. I was in shock at how much Fishburne let himself go. Woah nellie! He really blimped out. I liked how he was introduced in the movie tho.
just watched now!! LOL i think it was the best predator movie since the orignal movie LOVED IT, great cast aswell
just wish is was a little gorrier not that it wasnt gory just need to be a little more is all…
I was gonna wait for the R5 anyway..
Totally had the vibe of the first movie down. All the actors make the movie. They did touch on some things that I would have liked to be expanded but sometimes its cool to just imply something.
The one thing that bothered me was the PREDATORS are suppose to be the ultimate hunters and have all these techniques, but when it comes down to it. They pretty much just use that gun on their shoulders then they stab you.
Good movie though, really entertaining.
In a word: lame
“I want to see more of the Predator Culture.” I agree with this especially since while watching Predators you discover to be some inter-racial fighting going on within the races of the Predator species. it would have been nice to have a little more insight into that without it being over-explained as midochlorins demonstrated.
well i just watched it and it turned out to be exactly what i knew it would be from the moment that this project was announced: TURD
lazy writing and unimaginative direction.being unoriginal and shamefully recycling parts from the original movie.bad acting,boring dialog,stereotypes instead of characters,plotholes and lapses of logic,cheap production values,uninspired action and killings,totally cliche.
this movie is more of a bad,really bad remake of the original one,rather than a true sequel,which so arrogantly the producer Rodriguez claimed to be,to the masterful original.
its like a bunch of geek fans gathered together and instead on focusing on how to make a great movie they started thinking how awesome it would have been if the started throwing in the Predator concept a lot of other seemingly cool things.the japanese guy with the sword (because all the japanese guys know about sword fighting,thats right) the russian guy with the big gun (because a russian guy is always a better badass soldier from lets say a soldier who lives in caves and defends his land by kicking the butt of the biggest militaristic power in the world for some time now),the chick with the guns (it could have been cooler if she carried bazookas.get it? “bazookas”) and so on.
but the irony is that even for a fanfiction “movie”,they missed the whole point of the original movie: that the Predator is the most ruthless hunter in the universe and even a group of the most hardcore,badasses soldiers could not stand a chance against him.it took a Schwarzenegger to defeat him and that only from pure luck.
But instead what did we get in the remake/reboot/sequel piece of shit movie? instead of ruthless,cunning,fearsome and coolest hunters who attack their prey based on a plan,we got a bunch of the most idiotic,numb,slowest and pathetic killing machines.no plan,no strategy,being beaten up by a guy who runs faster than they can fight and so on.jesus.and lets not talk about the big baddie which was the joke of the whole movie.
Predator 2 and yes even AvP (not Requiem) are a lot better films that this laughable piece of bad entertainment.Especially Predator 2 which is a worthy sequel to the original because not only reuses the same concept efficiently in a different jungle (urban jungle) but it also expands the mythology a lot (code of honor,new toys,multi vision,longevity,the Alien reference)
thats all from me.to sum it up: this movie sucks.go watch it if you want ,but dont whine next time when Holywood more crap movies.
ps.and yes Brody's nose was a f*king distraction.For a moment i thought that the movie was 3D,since his goddamn nose kept popping out of the screen.jesus.
This was a good movie, but the FX shot of the floating planets was awful. This movie cost $40 million? For a couple grand I could have rendered that better. Where does the budget go, Danny Trejo's stylist or Alice Braga's Israeli dialect coach?
http://MovePix.com — Watch Predators Full Movie in High Quality
My god this film is poor. Both myself and my girlfriend sat there in disbelief as we watched this remake. Yes remake, it's extremely similar to the original, but all the style has been removed to be replaced with 10 tonnes of boredom. Very poor. It just proves that George Lucas isn't the only one determined to destroy an awesome movie franchise.
I totally agree!! thank you for stating everything on my mind. this movie should have gone straight to dvd. what a joke.
SHIT!…This is all I have to say..(irony intended)
I agree Vampy, complete and utter turd of a film, doesn't even deserve the time it takes me to write this out….Oh well.
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Rodriguez has just put the final nail in the predator world, I missed the film at the cinema and waited for the Blu-Ray release, wish I rented it first, what a crock of shit, hardly any original ideas, ripping off original characters, I love predator and this poor effort at a proper sequel flopped badly, get all hyped up when the original music starts, half an hour in and I just sit watching the rest in disbelief, utter crap!
Your review, just like the movie “Predators”, is a big, steamy, stinking pile of manure. This is the worst abuse of the Predator-franchise EVER.
And the cast? Adrian Brody?? Really, dude???? And that gaggle of morons are “the deadliest killers on our planet”? Really??
This wasn’t a movie, this was nothing but a long wait to see if something, anything on that planet would mulch those assholes any quicker than the alleged “predators” did so this travesty could end.
RR just copied everything from the original movie, and took it down to 2010′s PINKO-FEMI-EMO-level.
And next time you make a movie, have the cast use a hollow plastic copy a weapon so that it at least can look like they can handle the weight of it. That chick clearly had never handled a firearm before.