2 reviews: by di giacomo and by Haumshild

review  by dalia di giacomo____   

“In the original film, I think the way the Predator is revealed was such a success because they took their time and they made a meal out of it,” comments director Antal.  “The terror was supported by the slow burn of the Predators’ reveal.  It was something that you hadn’t quite seen.  You don’t see the Predator for the first half hour.  In this film, we’ve tried to replicate that slow reveal.”

.......even the “original” classic Predator has fallen victim to this new “upgrade” of the race...

...This is hell !

"It would also show why the Predator was attracted to Earth’s jungle [as depicted in the original film], because their hunting planet had similar terrain.”

This is hell. Yes,  but do you need a parachute to get into hell? It's not hell, it's another planet, a hunt reserve, very similar to our South American jungle.  And humans are the prey...the game. Of course chosen humans only: all cold blooded killers, soldiers, criminals. Quite of human predators indeed. Oscar®-winner Adrien Brody (“The Pianist”) is a speedy, agile, intelligent mercenary who lands in almost free fall, at terminal velocity, his parachute deploying only seconds before a deadly impact on an alien world;  his last memory is  a kidnapping ray a light. Confused but determinated to understand and, above all, to survive and to escape from this situation, soon meets other elite warriors who have been caught and launched into this planet exactly in the same way.  He will very reluctantly  lead and coordinate this nervous, bad ass group in the pale hope to find a way for remaining alive or even better a way to escape. Strangely, in this group of "chosen" killers there is one person who seems (and i underline seems..) out of place: a civilist, a doctor. Royce wants to know who is the hunter and leads the group to a savage camp where a classic predator is hold prisoner. Through involving  sequences of hunt we understand there is a second more terrible race of predators, merciless super predators, faster, darker. In comparison, a classic predator could really become (again,  see AvP) an enemy of the enemies, this is to say a friend. But this is the only big connection with AvP, because Robert Rodriguez' Predators gets back to the roots. The parallelism with the 1987 cult movie Predator with Schwarzenegger is evident, sound track included. Predators is not as special as that one, yet it is a good film, the actors are believable, the thrill feeling is well scattered. It is not a copy of Predator 1, although  one can understand that producer Rodriguez is a fan of the original movie. It is said this a fan movie made by fans for fans, and i must admit it is true. I am personally a big Predator and Alien fan too and i was not disappointed by this movie that can be  truly considered as sequel  of  Predator 1.

“I was originally hired only as a writer,” producer Rodriguez explains. “They were looking for a fresh approach to the material, so I jumped at the chance. I was a big fan of ‘Predator.’  When I first came to Hollywood, I met Carl Weathers and Arnold Schwarzenegger, so I thought a new ‘Predator’ film would be a fun project to take on.

“What I really loved about the original movie was that it was a hybrid film; it started off as a traditional commando-type Arnold Schwarzenegger action film, where you fall in love with the characters and follow them on this journey.  Then it starts turning into a science fiction, alien-type picture.  I love doing those kind of mash-ups myself… movies like ‘From Dusk Till Dawn.’ I love mixing of genres. “[For the new screenplay], I knew I wanted to write something set off-world. I loved the atmosphere of the jungle in the original, so by setting my story on another planet I could get back to a similar environment and still make it feel new. It would also show why the Predator was attracted to Earth’s jungle [as depicted in the original film], because their hunting planet had similar terrain.”

The plot is minimalistic but not mediocre: thrill, action, suspence of the hunt  and fear are everything. The stunning discovery that the “original” Predator has fallen victim to this new “upgrade” of the race introduces  the supreme hunter, the ultimate Predator.   3 new  Predators: Dog Handler, Falconer, and Mr. Black. They are bigger, longer, leaner. Brody, Fishburne and Braga ground the film in  reality. Unfortunately Fishburne's role who portrays veteran surviver Noland,  is for me too short. Anyway he plays a key role in the moment he explains more about the history of the Predators. “Once you’ve set up this planet, there’s a lot that can happen there, and once you’ve seen characters like Noland, you know there’s a lot of potential stories to tell,” says Rodriguez. Brilliant is Alice Braga in the role of the group’s sole female, Isabelle, a sniper in the Israeli Defense Force, who reminds of NCIS Ziva David.  Braga’s research led to a kind of “guidebook” for snipers. “I learned that snipers must be precise, methodical, organized, and you cannot have different feelings,” relates Braga.   “You need to be really specific about what you want, what you do, and what your mission is.  She’s a tough cookie and in that gang, Isabelle is a really important piece because she knows a lot about wind movement and everything else in the jungle. Her skill is really needed.” There is an evolution in the predation (by the way other creatures expand  Predators mythology - including the alien Ram Runner and furious Predators’ Hunting Dogs), but, in m y opinion, this movie wants to show that there is an evolution of the human elite soldiers and killers too, whose humanity however cannot be totally switched off. Royce and silent Yakuza warrior Henzo as well Russian spetsnatz Nikolai directly face a super predator, while Schwarzenegger was a pathfinder, while struggling "only" with a classic predator. Anyway our group of human killers are much more human than they believe. 

“The monsters in PREDATORS are not necessarily who you think they are,” says director Antal.  “The film is essentially about a group of people that you wouldn’t want to spend time with, and who are monsters of their own worlds.  They’re disoriented, confused and paranoid, and they’re thrown into a situation that they don’t have control over, which is frightening for them.  The human ‘monsters’ face off with one another, only to learn that there’s a bigger [alien] monster in the jungle waiting for them.  Their journey brings out their humanity.”

dalia di giacomo   rating: 8,5         

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excerptions from official webchat with Robert Rodriguez:

Rodriguez about Predators:  There’s more than one type.  More than one tribe.  And more than one type of creatures.  The humans aren’t the only ones being preyed upon on this planet.  The Predators evolve and make themselves better hunters because of the creatures they do hunt and learn from.  The Predators we do see are from a different tribe.  They are just more sadistic and evil.  They’ll do anything to win. 

Because I originally conceived it back in the day after Predator 2, I pretended that didn’t exist and went right to Predator 1 and made this a follow up.  So there would be Predator and this is Predators.   Like Alien and Aliens.   So you don’t have to see any of the other ones.  This has a nice through-line to the first movie and has a small connection to it.  Of course you can see it by itself but, of course, I encourage to see the first one.

review by dalia di giacomo

Most of that fight was pretty cool, despite how short it was.

There are a few obvious rules everyone should be aware of when viewing an action movie: 1. don’t expect great acting. Action movies are about visual stimulation not about much else; 2. The story will not be too complex. Why? Because it’s an action movie, it’s for visual stimulation, it’s not supposed to make one think too much. There are explosions, more explosions, fighting, blood, weapons, cool scenery, and attractive women; and finally rule number 3. Action movies are predictable. That’s okay, this is consistent with the other rules. Now that you know the rules of an action movie, on with my review!

                Going by the rules stated above, “Predators” is no different than any other movie, except that there’s only one woman in it, but that’s okay. The movie is really about a group of “killers” that wake up in a freefall, descending to an unknown jungle. Eventually the group figures out they’re no longer on Earth and try to survive. Great, I’ve covered the first 25 minutes of the movie, keep reading.

                I rather enjoyed the characters although I do think that Mahershalalhashbaz Ali’s (yeah, I know…long enough first name right?) character, could have been a little better. Despite that, he was still one of my favourite characters. His character was that of a member of a death squad out of Sierra Leon. I think it’s cool that the writers threw in a character out of Africa which I think was quite original although the only question I had was; “How does he know English?” But, that would violate a few rules listed above. The other character I really liked was Louis Ozawa Changchien’s Yakuza character, a quiet, well dressed, deadly man, straight out of Japan. As the cliché follows; he has a sword and his back is full of tattoos. Following rule number 3, I predicted there would be a fight between one of Predators and Changchien’s character involving his sword and the Predator’s blade. Most of that fight was pretty cool, despite how short it was. I realize there’s very little more the makers of the movie could do with that scene. Lawrence Fishburne’s character was a bit interesting, he plays a scavenger that is going crazy but had learned to survive. It was a very different role for him to play and I think it showed off his obvious superior acting abilities over the rest of the cast. Adrian Brody’s character, Royce, was stereotypical as was Alice Braga’s character. There’s not much I can say except that they fell in line with keeping the movie predictable. “Royce” was the “hard-ass, loner” character, and Alice’s character was the deadly female character with emotions.

                Probably the best moment of the movie came when the two predators were fighting. I liked the fact the writer’s wrote in that there were two types of Predators, a smaller one and the larger one and they didn’t like each other very much which is something I didn’t see coming and was one of the brighter parts of the movie which eventually led to another violent scene with decapitation.

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