7.09.2010

PREDATORS.

I've never considered myself an uber-Predator fan. I mean, I've seen the films (including both vs. Alien ones), and the Predators themselves are cool. They're enjoyable films (OK, so maybe not Requiem). But at the same time, I'm also not a big fan of Nimrod Antal's other films (such as Vacancy and Armored). I guess my point is that while this movie did interest me and looked like fun, I wasn't going to go out of my way to see it. Luckily, I didn't have to. Despite going to an afternoon show 5 minutes before it started, I didn't have to fight any lines or struggle to find seating. And after this long, pretty pointless diatribe, what am I getting at? Predators was freakin' awesome.

Technically a sequel to the first film (as it does make reference to it), this one picks up years later (I guess) where a bunch of people fall from the sky and land in a jungle. These people appear to be some of the most dangerous people on Earth, including Royce (Adrien Brody), Isabelle (Alice Braga), Stans (Walton Goggins), Nikolai (Oleg Taktarov), Cuchillo (Danny Trejo), Hanzo (Louis Ozawa Changchien), and Mombasa (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali). In fact, the only one that doesn't seem to fit the mold as "most dangerous person on Earth" is a doctor named Edwin (Topher Grace). Royce leads the group through the jungle, trying to figure out what's going on. And then, slowly, they begin to discover they're being hunted by an alien race, and they'll do anything to stay alive and get off this strange planet. The movie also stars Laurence Fishburne, but he doesn't come in until later.

To me, the movie was like mixing LOST with Pitch Black, except where everybody is Riddick (though much less cool). The first third of the movie is basically them walking around the jungle, finding other survivors, scoping out the land, and trying to figure out what's going on. It doesn't sound interesting, but this part of the movie was so engaging and encapsulating that I completely forgot I was watching a Predator movie up until right before the aliens showed up. There was one point where I was literally like "Oh crap, and they still have to fight dangerous aliens!"

And then the action kicks in, and it grabs you even more. There's a variety of action, too. There's gun fighting, explosions, hand combat, traps... there's even a, I kid you not, samurai-style sword fight. There's human versus human, human versus alien dog thing, human versus Predator, and even Predator versus Predator. This movie really covers all your bases. There's literally something for everybody. The action is high, the suspense is good, and there are even some creepy moments. Oh, and a character gets his spine and skull ripped out. Hardcore.

The acting is nothing to shout about, but this is a Predator movie. What do you expect? Most people, before the movie came out, complained that Topher Grace seemed completely out of place. Well, that's because he's supposed to be. They actually casted the role well, because they needed an assuming person like Topher to pull off the role. And Adrien Brody, the other questionable casting, was pretty good. He pulled off the gruff bad-ass aspect really well. In fact, the only character that bugged me was Laurence Fishburne's. He was a necessary character, but there was just something about him that bothered me.

There's not all that much to say about this movie. If you want a good, unapologetic action flick, totally check this out. It's totally predictable, but for the most part you don't care. Or at least I didn't. I was too engrossed with the thrills that none of it really bothered me. There were parts that made it seem to drag slightly, near the end, but not for too long. Overall, I really recommend it. I had a really fun time with this one. And Alice Braga is hot (though totally giving off a "Michelle Rodriguez" vibe throughout).

Photobucket
A Keanu 'Whoa'

6 comments:

  1. Agreed! This was a really fun, damn well made piece of popcorn that is easily the best PREDATOR film since the original.

    I disagree with you on Fishburne though. I thought his character served no purpose. Fishburne overacted the hell out of it, but it didn't really help that much. Had he not been in the movie, I don't think there would be that much of a difference.

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  2. SPOILER

    What Fishburne brings to the story is, well... the ship. Without him telling them about the ship, they would have never gone back to that one place and there wouldn't have been a 3rd act. Granted, they probably could have pulled off a "they have to have some kind of ship to get here" thing... which might have worked better, actually (there's one line from Fishburne that bugged me specifically. When he goes "In all the time I've been here, I've never thought of commandeering their ship. And he WASN'T being sarcastic). He also introduced the armor that the criminal wore at one point not long after.

    Still, in the realm of the movie they made, Fishburne's character did have purpose, despite his overacting. But I do think they could have handled it much better.

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  3. Ok, I guess that's a fair argument. And as for my comment on how the movie focuses on Fishburne for a good amount of time, yeah, it was only about 15-20 minutes, but it was 15-20 minutes where there wasn't a single predator.

    And then regarding my "predators aren't in it enough" comment, ok, you're right, they are a pretty constant presence after the dogs. But, I still think they could have featured more heavily in the thing. I mean, we see them decloak in the big reveal after the camp firefight, and then we don't see another one until the end of the Fishburne segment, and then after that, it's PREDATOR, PREDATOR, PREDATOR, sword fight, PREDATOR! I don't know. That's just how I felt.

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  4. Well, I don't know about you, but I probably would have gotten bored had the entire movie been non-stop Predator action. You gotta have SOME downtime. We didn't get that much character development, but it's good to get SOME interaction that isn't "RUN!" Eventually, suspense wears off and you have to build it back up again.

    The reason it bit after the Fishburne segment was Predator heavy is because it was the climax. It kinda needed to be.

    And that sword fight was awesome.

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  5. So Fishburne said the line without sarcasm? I just assumed it was. The way he acted I could never tell if it was his 'normal' state of being cuckoo man.

    I thought the Predators were in it a good amount. In the first one, it wasn't a constant threat until the final 25 mins. (same with this). PREDATOR 2 featured the Predator quite heavily, and this one mirrors the first in many respects, such as the interlude periods between a Predator appearance and/or fight scene.

    The sword fight was indeed awesome, and a nice little callback to Billy's Last Stand in the first picture. Just wish the Yakuza guy wasn't thrown to the ground so many times and would have had a more fierce fight.

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  6. Good fun is all you can ask for, and after the shit storm of mediocrity this summer a movie like this is something we all could use. Perhaps it won't have The A-Teams momentum, but aren't we all secretly waiting for Inception anyway? I plan to see it tonight, and as a huge fan of Predator and Predator 2 I can live with the results if it lives up to you and Sebastians reviews. At least it'll be a good time.

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