Predators

Predators (2010)

The 3rd movie in the Predator series finds what appears to be a group of random people dropping from the air into a thick jungle. Quickly the audience realizes that the characters don’t know where they are and don’t know each other. We get a brief introduction to each character before they start to wander around, trying to figure out what is going on. As the plot plays out it becomes obvious that they are on a different planet and have been brought there to be hunted by the Predators. The rest of the movie is them doing battle with the creatures that are trying to make them the latest trophies in their collection.

This is an excellent example of how a sequel should be made. The story is a nice mix between the familiar, with just enough new material mixed in to keep the movie fresh and exciting. In many ways this is similar to the original Predator with the jungle setting, the booby traps, and the soldiers fighting the predators. The action starts early and never stops until the credits roll. This is again very similar to the original movie. What they did differently is move the movie’s setting to a jungle on another planet, which allows them to populate it with many different alien creatures. It also adds to a sense of hopelessness that works really well with the overall tone of the movie. I also thought not casting the movie with muscle bound action heroes was genius. If you had told me that actor Adrien Brody could carry an action movie as the lead I would have thought you were crazy. But sure enough he does a great job with the role in Predators. Finally my inner nerd sort of “geeked” out a bit over the new Predators and the mention of an ongoing war between the larger and smaller ones. Finally I wanted to mention one other thing that they did differently and better then the original. In the original movie there is a part where one of the men stops and decides to face a predator with only a blade in his hand. We never get to see that fight, which has always bummed me out. In this movie a very similar thing happens, but we get to see the fight. Not only that but as a big fan of samurai movies the sword fight was much appreciated. Basically they gave us just enough new stuff to be interesting without wrecking the mythology behind the 1st movie, which I think is a classic.

The special effects are really good here. The designs of the Predators are killer. Each one has a unique look that makes it recognizably different from the others. The other inhabitants of the planet also look great, from the hunting dogs to the other hunted alien creature. I also thought that the kills in the movie were very well done and properly gruesome for a sci-fi action flick like this. The look of the planet, jungle, and structures are nicely done and give the movie some realism, or as much as you could get from a movie about aliens hunting humans. This is also one of those movies that is helped along greatly by it’s musical score. Of course it doesn’t hurt that much of the music references back to the score of the original Predator.

I could go on and on about this movie, but I won’t. What I will do is say that any fan of the original must have this in their collection. It isn’t often that a sequel captures the magic of the original without blatantly ripping it off, but Predators does. I recommend it.

3 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer