MOVIE REVIEW: PREDATORS

Both the Predator and Alien franchises have taken some big hits lately with these pathetic Alien vs. Predator films. So Robert Rodriguez decided he was going to step in and try and get the Predator franchise pointed back in the right direction. Thankfully he was successful at doing so.

When I heard that Nimrod Antal was going to be getting in the directors chair, I was a little uneasy, due to his lack of experience. He did last year's Armored which wasn't terrible, but was far from something I wanted to watch twice. People can be at a little more ease now when they see his name, because this film is going to look good on his resume.

Normally the predators come to Earth in order to train for their hunting, but in the latest installment the predators bring the game to their planet. Oscar winner, Adrien Brody stars as Royce who, like many others, wakes up in the middle of a free fall through the air quickly plummeting towards the ground. After a quick parachute deployment and gathering up with other different military experienced people from around the world, they quickly discover that they're not on Earth anymore, but stuck on what seems to be a game preserve on a far away planet.





I found Adrien Brody an odd choice to star in a Predator film. He isn't a big tough guy like Shwarzenegger and his career has been all over the place, from The Pianist to the The Jacket to King Kong to Cadillac Records. I have felt like Brody has had a hard time finding a groove for his acting, but he definitely pulls of the tough guy persona in this film.

I really enjoyed the supporting cast as well. Many will recognize Topher Grace, from That 70's Show fame, who was another odd choice, but I think fit in well. Danny Trejo is in just about every project Rodriguez is involved with. Walton Goggins is, I believe a rising star who I have really enjoyed watching on FX's Justified. And of course Laurence Fishburne has a small role as someone who has been stranded on the planet for years without being caught and has slowly started to lose it. Fishburne's role was small, but very fun to watch and different from any role he has done.





Predators goes back to the roots of the original film. You have a group of military people who are the worlds best at killing, going up against a deadly alien group who are very skilled at killing as well. It worked for the original film and it works for this one as well.

I liked this, because it wasn't CGI being thrown around everywhere, it wasn't stupid teenagers running off by themselves and getting picked off one by one. It was for the most part, a pretty good script with not a lot of cheesey tough guy one liners and it was quick and to the point and payed homage to the original.

The film itself falls short in a few areas, but nothing major. I wasn't crazy about the opening scene. I think they could have taken ten minutes and set the film up just a little bit instead of diving right in, and I was a little unhappy with the way the film ended. They are on a different planet, so it isn't as easy as walking off into the sunset, but a little more effort could have gone into the final scene.

Another thing I thought the film lacked was creativity. They are on this alien planet, but yet you really can't tell. They put in one odd looking flower, show the sky in one scene and show a really big ship, but other than those three things, they look like they are simply just walking around in a jungle. Now, I'm not going to gripe about that to much because CGI has been killing films lately. I'm talking about you George Lucas. But some more props would have been nice.





This should do well enough to get a sequel greenlit, and if that's the case, they need to continue letting experienced people work on this. Because that is why this film turned out so much better than the AVP films. They went and got someone who was proven to make the movie and they went out and got talented actors. Not necessarily A-list actors, but well known names who actually have talent as opposed to a bunch of teenagers who just run around getting picked off one by one. I'm very proud to say that Twentieth Century Fox finally got something right here.

Things are starting to look up for both the Alien and Predator franchises. Ridley Scott is working on two aliens films so it seems that Fox has finally got some sense into them. I think that they don't need to abandon the Alien vs. Predator films just yet either. I think the with they way they ended AVPR, that they could easily tie that universe in with the Predator universe and then back in with the Alien universe. It just takes someone with some creativity, a filmmaker with experience and a cast with some depth to it. Hopefully this is the start of good things to come with these franchises. I give it a seven out of ten.