Predators
By Nick Manteris · 1 Comments · Leave a Comment
Predators is the second direct sequel to the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger film Predator, but it’s the fifth movie to feature the alien hunters. Sadly – even though the creatures have been featured in (dozens of games, almost two dozen comic book storylines and) multiple movies – the original film is the highlight of the franchise. So, when your franchise isn’t doing so well you have a couple options: you can reboot/re-imagine the series (Batman, Star Trek, James Bond) or you can throw out everything and go back to basics…figure out what people liked at first and try to recreate that to the best of your abilities. It’s easy to tell which direction they went with Predators…in the opening moments of the film: the characters find themselves in a jungle, someone is firing a minigun, and in the big group of tough guys there’s a single girl. Okay…that last one is a bit of a stretch, but it would be valid if she had some previous knowledge of the aliens that plan to kill them.
This film is filled with implausibilities, but, then again, the entire franchise was pretty much based on them. There are technologically superior hunters that prey on species from other planets and keep skulls as trophies? …but they use invisibility cloaking, high-powered lasers and suicide bombs? This film shares those inconsistencies, but also adds some new ones, like: “dogs” with horns (tusks?) that make their mouths inaccessible. (Hey, writers/designers of Predators, don’t fret – Avatar also has some animals that weren’t completely thought-out – it’s okay.) Thinking has never been a prerequisite for this series anyway.
- Score
- 5/10
So how does Predators stack up against the other stories in the franchise? Actually, it holds up rather well against the others, but that isn’t saying much. It’s obviously been designed to be a lot like the first film, but there is enough that’s new and different that it can be overlooked... for the most part. For the record, the only thing that Predator 2 had going for it were new weapons and an alien skull trophy, so it wasn’t difficult to top that. And Alien vs. Predator shouldn’t even count because of Paul W. S. Anderson’s involvement. He’s never made a decent movie and is second only to Uwe Boll on the list of terrible directors. On the other hand, the original Aliens versus Predator comic book from Dark Horse was great, and it’s probably the only reason that anyone has any interest left in Predators at all. Seriously. The games would not have existed without the comic and the franchise would have ended in 1990 without the games. (Btw, thanks, Chris Warner.) Predators is a step in the right direction, but probably not what all the fans are hoping that they will get. Perhaps a fellow moviegoer said it best when we exited the theater, “Well… it wasn’t terrible.”
correction !
I said this:
"Paul W. S. Anderson [...] is second only to Uwe Boll on the list of terrible directors."
...but that was before I was completely aware of the writing/directing team of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (Vampires Suck, Epic Movie, Meet The Spartans, etc.) They had no trouble knocking Uwe Boll out of first place in the “worst director” category.
Just to clarify: I would stand in line to pay to see a Paul W. S. Anderson film before I would accept a cash donation to watch another one of their films.
Fri, 09/03/2010 - 14:59 · Nick Manteris