Predators is a 2010 action thriller about a group of elite warriors who parachute into an unfamiliar jungle and are hunted by members of a merciless alien race.
With the next film in the long-running, often unstable Predator franchise releasing this September, many are probably (hopefully) revisiting the older films, much like we’ve been doing. While most, including critics and fans, have pretty much dismissed the creatively conceived but poorly-executed cross with the Alien movies, there’s still hope that another stand alone movie could find some promise. Of course, films like this, including flicks like Jurassic Park and most Zombie fare, all suffer from the same problem, that of a very limiting premise where something nasty chases people, with most ending up being dinner. What makes any of these better than the rest are of course, the characters. Get that right and we might actually care about who is getting chased. This of Jurassic Park versus Jurassic World.
Predators doesn’t quite make it about the characters, unfortunately, the film more a deliberate homage to the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger original with many scenes a callback of sorts to that film – and for the sake of the story, sometimes directly referencing it. We should remember that, while we have the fondest of memories for the John McTiernan-directed first, most critics didn’t like it, and it took some time to earn its now classic status. I actually saw it in my local cinema on its theatrical run and came out pretty stoked, the effects, the monster, the Schwarzeneggerisms, the action and the suspense all making the ticket price more than worth it. It took the formula of the 80’s hulking hero fighting against all odds and gave it an energizing spin. Plus, you know, you’re one ugly mother–
With this 2010 chapter, there’s no taking away from the commitment, the film deserving some credit for at least trying something new with the now infamous space hunters. The story plot centers around a group of ragtag misfits who all have a dark past, most dealing with violent death. The film opens with each of them falling through the clouds (in an admittedly thrilling sequence), awakening mid-drop and scrambling to activate parachutes. Some don’t make it. Splat. But the ones that do are faced with more than questions about how they ended up here and why. They soon learn they are being hunted.
Royce (Adrien Brody), a former Special Forces soldier turned mercenary finds he’s already carrying his favorite rifle. So too are a few others, including Nikolai (Oleg Taktarov), a big Russian with an even bigger gun, Cuchillo (Danny Trejo), a Mexican cartel thug, Mombasa (Mahershala Ali) a revolutionary, Stans (Walton Goggins), a death row madman, Hanzo (Louis Ozawa Changchien), a Yakuza enforcer, and Isabelle (Alice Braga), an Israeli sniper. The only odd one in the lot is Edwin (Topher Grace), who is rather meek and seems only sent for his skills in medicine. There’s not much time for introductions though as the jungle is alive with dangers, and soon enough, strange creatures on all fours burst from the underbrush and it’s time to run. And shoot. There’s a lot of shooting.
It’s these beasts that have Royce thinking things are not what they seem, and after they lose one of the gang to what appears to be different, unseen, intelligent hunters, the crew, surviving a harrowing escape, make an even more jarring discovery, one that changes everything. I won’t say what that is, however, it makes not only their plight for staying alive troubling, but what they should do even if they do a major concern.
Obviously, the hunters are Predators, and the story does a cool thing by splitting the species into two pacts, with one fighting the other. It kind of gives the species a more convincing depth and really could have proven far more interesting than it’s played out on screen, but given that there are already so many characters to keep track of – a mid-movie arrival of Laurence Fishburne adds even more to the mix – it sort of makes sense to just let be it expositional. This is an action movie after all.
Speaking of such, there are several good action moments to mention, with a highlight being a showdown between Hanzo and a Predator that starts off giving a nod to Billy (the late Sonny Landham) from the first movie before evolving into something out of a Japanese sword fighting matinee. Surprisingly, Brody holds his own here, buffing up into a fine form and using what he learned from Predator history to provide some smackdown of his own. You wouldn’t really think of him as a leading action star but he pulls it off well with great intensity and a knack for the genre attitude.
The weak points are Grace and sadly, Fishburne, with both failing to make their characters click like they should, Grace especially lacking any significant presence to give Edwin’s twist any punch and Fishburne all too one-dimensional. Otherwise, the rest of the cast do what’s intended, though Trejo is gone far too early and Ali somewhat wasted. Seriously, there are way too many people in this movie.
The Predator franchise has yet to really find a script that makes the unique alien hunter feel as impactful as its debut. It’s always been the humans around them that are more interesting, which is probably the way it should be, but think about how well the Alien movies handle their monsters (for the most part) and you can see the failings on this end. Either way, this effort is nonetheless a fun bit of jungle mayhem with a good cast and some decent visual effects. While it might not be all that scary, and seriously lacks the suspense of the Schwarzenegger film, it’s still a fun monster in the dark movie worth a sit through, and should help get you more primed for the upcoming next chapter.