The Plot

An iniquitous group of trained and untrained killers are dropped, against their will and by an unknown source, on an alien planet where Predators lurk at every turn of an opaque and Earth-like jungle, and, unfortunately for our human protagonists, the Predators have set out to target them as prey. With an almost insuperable game of predation and death now thrust upon them, our human predators must seek to survive by means of ‘kill or be killed’, against an enemy which thrives on the thrill of the hunt, and even more on the thrill of the kill.

The Thoughts

As an avid fan of the initial Predator (1987) movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, I have always since approached the sequels with a deep sense of trepidation, and ultimately apart from the immediate sequel of Predator 2 (1990) starring Danny Glover (which was enjoyable though not magnificent), this fear has been well-placed. As most fans of the series will agree, the amalgamation of the Predator and Alien franchises in Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007) fell far short of the movie magic captured in the original. It is fair to say that without the timeless ability of Arnold Schwarzenegger to deliver impeccable one-liners such as “if it bleeds, we can kill it” and “get to the chopper!!!”, the Predator series has lacked the gusto needed to ensure a continued and growing fan-base.

Naturally therefore, when I saw that another Predator movie had been released, starring none other than Adrien Brody in the lead-role, it instinctively conjured fears of yet another Hollywood miscarriage, with one more debacle added to the list in an attempt to make a dishonest buck at the expense of the credibility of the original. Despite the fact that I have tremendous respect for Brody (who deservedly received an Academy Award as the famished Jewish protagonist in Roman Polanski’s The Pianist (2002)), I initially thought that this would be a classic case of an actor crossing-over into a genre which had until that time stood at the periphery of their previous epicentre of work, and in which they are ultimately out of their depth. Nonetheless, the bar had been so lowered by the Alien vs. Predator franchise that my initial hypothesis made the clairvoyant presumption that, at the very worst, it would at least be tantamount to what had come before it.

The film wastes no time in placing its assemble of nefarious killers neatly together, and within an almost infinitesimal period of time, nearly the entire cast of the film’s human characters are together and befuddled at their situation. Whilst I found it slightly irksome that the film wasted literally no time whatsoever in the brevity to which it cuts to the chase, I was pleasantly pleased by the use of Alan Silvestri’s classic musical score from Predator, which really sets the scene for viewers familiar with the original. It also gave me the feeling that Director Nimród Antal is a man well-versed in what fans loved about Predator, and is also a Director that would unashamedly give the fans generous smatterings of what they want and need from a Predator flick. I was also pleased to see the cast of familiar deviant faces, including Danny Trejo as Cuchillo and Topher Grace as Edwin, who always seems to bring an ominous sense of foreshadowing to his roles.

As the film progressed, I started to realise that whilst it had thus far been entertaining, it lacked the ability to deliver the same cheesy (though entertaining) clichés of the original, and the meteoric presence of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s muscle-bound no-nonsense protagonist Dutch. Although Brody’s Royce is adept as leader of the group, he lacks the ability to convince you that he could go toe-to-toe with a Predator in the same way that Dutch could and did in the original. Also, whilst many of the one-liners are entertaining, many of them are also pedestrian at best. Nonetheless, some of the best dialogue of the film does come from Royce, as well as the likes of Walton Goggins as the humorous ‘clown’ of the film Stans, and Laurence Fishburne’s brief spell as battle-weary sole-survivor Noland, which adds plenty of A-list calibre to what is in essence a B-movie (barring the cast and special-effects).

However, once Fishburne has graced the film with his impeccable talents, and the assemble have finally figured out the nature of their visit to the Predators ‘game preserve’, the film really does start to pick up the pace in a rather pleasing fashion. Whilst not a precocious film (despite its attempts to be), Predators does manage to really grab you in the latter half, as the relationships between the characters also start to bear fruit (there is ample sexual tension between Alice Braga’s Isabelle and Royce to hold the viewer’s intrigue for romance as well). With the gold-jawed alpha-Predator also exposed, and with both sides cards well and truly on the table, what ensues thereon is rather exciting. For instance, the fight between Louis Ozawa Changchien as Hanzo and the Tracker Predator alone (in which Hanzo uses a Samurai sword to cross blades with his alien foe) warrants Predators an extra star from this critic.

Overall, for Predator fans this is certainly the finest instalment there has been since the series first took roots in 1987. Although lacking in originality, Predators has such a strong cast of actors and special-effects (as well as the fight between Hanzo and the Tracker Predator and the end-brawl between Royce and the Berserker Predator, both of which were great) that the generic B-movie tendencies of the plot (and oftentimes dialogue) are obscured enough for this movie to warrant a fairly copious amount of kudos. Predators has reaffirmed for fans of the franchise everywhere that even in the absence of fan-favourite Dutch, there are still enough human killing-machines around to take on the Predators anytime, any planet.

The Film Buzz Rating: (7/10)

UK Release Date: 8 July 2010

Director: Nimród Antal

Writers: Alex Litvak, Michael Finch