One can only expect so much from a film called Predators. But sometimes having tempered expectations is the best way to experience a movie, and a genre sequel like this certainly benefits from that approach. Predators is easily an improvement over the sub-par entries in the series since the original and is unquestionably the best film involving Predators since McTiernan and Schwarzenegger stomped through Mexico back in 1987.

Producer Robert Rodriguez’s guiding hand can be felt all over this film, shot beautifully in a mixture of locations including Hawaii, on stages at Rodriguez’s Troublemaker Studios in Austin, Texas, and the surrounding Texas landscape. The production designers were able to capture an alien environment that truly separates itself from the lush jungles of McTiernan’s original movie. It’s a shame that director Nimrod Antal isn’t getting much recognition for this film, since I think it’s a competent and entertaining entry into the franchise, but it would appear that Fox is content with using Rodriguez’s name as a selling point. That’s a fair tactic, considering the history of this project; Rodriguez actually wrote a script back in the mid-1990s which was abandoned by the studio, who eventually returned to it in 2009 and decided to move forward with it. Rewritten by Alex Litvak and Michael Finch, Predators feels very much like a Rodriguez movie in that it looks way more expensive than it actually cost.

The ensemble cast hearkens back to the original film, and is rounded out by some actors one might not expect in a film like this. Adrien Brody plays the lead character of Royce, a gruff soldier who is a polar opposite of Brody’s vulnerable con man in 2009′s The Brothers Bloom. While I’d argue Brody never truly gets comfortable in this role, he (like the film as a whole) is not particularly exhilarating to watch but is competent in his execution. Recent science fiction maven Alice Braga (I Am Legend, Repo Men) plays one of the most independent women in an action film in the past few years, embodying Isabelle – her sniper character – with a sense of confidence and ability that easily rises above damsel in distress status. The rest of the supporting cast is rounded out by solid character actors: Walton Goggins, Danny Trejo, Topher Grace, even an Apocalypse Now-inspired cameo by Laurence Fishburne.

By now some of you are surely wondering about the Predators themselves: how do they fare here? The scope of the extraterrestrial hunters has been expanded to dog-like creatures as well as multiple races of Predator, allowing for some non-human conflict to accentuate the horrifying scenario in which the humans are placed. If you signed up for brutal violence, you shouldn’t be disappointed: an alien-on-alien beheading and a removal of someone’s spinal column are grisly highlights in the film. There is an interesting twist involving the multiple races of Predator, pitting one against the other and mixing human interaction in as well. They are still, as Arnold once called them, “ugly motherf*cker[s],” but the designs have been slightly updated for the new millennium (although not so much as to anger hardcore fans of the series).

The Blu-ray special features are pretty extensive, spotlighted by a really cool “making of” featurette detailing the production process and giving an inside look at the sets, both on location in Hawaii and at Troublemaker Studios. The coolest parts revealed how Antal and his director of photography were able to shoot the actors tumbling over the edge of a waterfall in Hawaii: the camera was on a bungee cord pointing down at the water and as actors plunged out into space, the camera followed them down as they hurtled 80 feet down and crashed into twelve feet of water. Some of the actors seemed to do their own stunts, but even if they were stunt men, the footage was definitely worth seeing and was a great insight as to how they accomplished such an impressive shot. Along with the typical special features you’d expect to find (commentary, deleted and extended scenes, etc.), there are also six motion comics detailing the backstories of many of the major characters, which are voiced by the actual cast members from the film. I didn’t find them particularly enthralling, but if you’re into that kind of thing, you’ll probably enjoy them.

Overall, you could do a lot worse than Predators if you’re looking for a decent sci-fi action film. There is some impressive cinematography (a slick sword battle shot from above comes to mind), and definitely enough action to keep you involved in the story. The pacing moves quickly and rarely gives you time to concentrate on any negative aspects of the story. This is definitely a spiritual sequel to the McTiernan movie and will almost certainly spawn direct sequels of its own, but this film was enough to get me interested in the direction of the franchise. Sign me up for the next entry. Until next time…

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While I haven’t seen the original Predator for years now, Nimród Antal’s Predators was pretty high up on my list of anticipated movies. The idea of a group of soldiers and criminals being hunted as game in an alien jungle, by creatures who are both scary and have an awesome array of sci-fi weaponry…well, it has a lot of potential. But does the movie live up to it?

Hmm…let’s start with the good stuff. The first act of the film (let’s say the opening 30-45 minutes) is great. I was really into the film during the beginning. It starts off with a level of Lost-like mystery, as the characters try to figure out what’s going on, and there are a number of intriguing things presented that successfully fuel the Iwanttoknowwhat’shappening part of your brain. In this first section of the movie, Antal also sets up a wonderful atmosphere of isolation within the jungle, along with a feeling of impending dread…it kinda reminded me of Jurassic Park, in a very good way.

Unfortunately though, after an engrossing introduction, Predators falls prey to the tenets of the many cheap films that you can catch late at night on Zone Horror or the Syfy Channel. The whole thing becomes incredibly predictable, and the film doesn’t throw in any sort of stimulating plot twists or anything new. Everyone figures everything out very quickly and there’s no new mystery present in the second half. The chase between the Predators and the humans plays out with lots of running and a few explosions, and by the end it was so tedious that I was just sitting waiting for it to finish. Any form of suspense that had been built up is simply destroyed. To the point that I would definitely not call this a “horror” film.

Perhaps all the chasing and the action would have been more exciting if there was a single character to care about. There are about eight characters juggling screentime here, meaning you don’t get to know any of them, and don’t really give a damn if they’re ripped to shreds in a gruesome manner by a dreadlocked alien who kills for fun. They might not even have been engaging characters anyway, seeing as the cast is made up of the clichés that appear in movies with names like Piñata: Survival Island or Komodo vs. Cobra; the wisecracking ex-con, the geeky doctor, the white badass, the black badass, and the hot, feisty, female Latina badass. Great actors like Laurence Fishburne and Walton Goggins (Shane from The Shield) are essentially wasted here. In fact, the sequence featuring good ol’ Morpheus brings the film to a slow, grinding halt, and is outright boring.

People like Adrien Brody’s character may be cool, but there’s just no development. Maybe this would’ve been passable if the plot wasn’t as predictable as the characters were. That said, there was one twist involving one of the characters towards the end. Regrettably though, it was an awful twist that I found completely absurd and unnecessary.

There are other species being used as part of the hunt in the jungle, and this would have been a cool opportunity to utilise other aliens alongside the Predators. However, this opportunity was mostly a missed one, as the other things that appear aren’t terribly exciting, and are completely computer-animated. Also, the one that did look the most interesting wasn’t fully revealed on camera. I know the movie is called Predators, but some variety would’ve been nice.

While I applaud the filmmakers for using as many practical effects as they could with regard to the Predators themselves, there is still some not-too-great CGI lurking around. At one point there is a CGI explosion that looked really, really horrible, and I don’t understand why the crew couldn’t just have blown up something real. Hell, it might even have looked better if they shook up a bottle of Coke and dropped a few Mentos in. I don’t know if others are more convinced by CGI than I am, but basically every time I see something computer-animated against a real backdrop, it stands out like a sore thumb and completely removes it from any sense of reality that the film has achieved.

Another thing that Predators shares in common with the ocean of horror b-movies (both modern and old) is an incredibly intrusive soundtrack. My brother told me that it was almost identical to the one used in Predator, and I think it’s cool that it makes that connection. But it’s hard to feel any fear or tension when there’s a huge trumpet blasting noise into your face. Don’t get me wrong, some of John Debney’s work was actually good, somehow reminding me of John Williams’s scores for Jurassic Park and Star Wars at different points – it just should have been used in a more subtle way.

There is one scene in particular that I had an issue with, but it’s something that I wouldn’t want to know about if I hadn’t seen the film yet (it’s slightly spoilery), so I’ve made the text invisible:

Out of context, a Yakuza using a katana in a one-on-one duel with a Predator, in the middle of a moonlit field…sounds awesome. In context however, it just didn’t work for me, and came off as pretty ridiculous. Especially seeing as the Predators are meant to be huge, tough, and intelligent warriors who have been fighting humans for hundreds of years.

And the following paragraph is about the end of the film:

I can’t figure out how else they could have done the climax of the movie, but I have a big problem with a Predator helping out the humans. It takes away any inhuman terror or horror or mystery when one of them is actually trying to help the prey, and is fighting against another Predator in order to do this. The script did create a circumstance to justify this, but I didn’t like it. Just as I didn’t like the “helpful” Predator in AVP. The ending as a whole was pretty unsatisfactory, leaving itself open for sequels. To be honest, I wasn’t desperate to see one after this.

And this might be considered spoilery, but it’s about something that doesn’t happen:

You remember that awesome bit in the trailer where it looks like about 15 Predators all have their laser-sights on Adrien Brody (pictured above)? That never happens in the actual movie. The same shot occurs, but there is only one sight on Brody. Looks like somebody decided to add all those extra dots into the trailer to make the film look more exciting.

*END SPOILERS*

Just in case you were wondering, seeing the first Predator film isn’t essential at all. This sequel references it a few times, but if you haven’t seen it, you won’t be left out by a load of in-jokes, and you’ll understand everything just fine.

In summary, Predators was a mildly entertaining movie that managed to not be a waste of time. And it was better than AVP. However, without the legacy and appearance of the Predator aliens, without that interesting beginning, and without the larger production values, I fear that it might not have been any more exciting than the thousands of straight-to-DVD and made-for-TV horror and sci-fi films that are available. I hope Ridley Scott’s new Alien films fare better.

6/10

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The attendees of the South By Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas were treated to a first look at footage from Nimrod Antal’s Predators last night, and luckily for us a sneak peak has been made available for everyone to see online.

Descriptions of the first trailer and an extended clip that were also shown can be read over at ShockTillYouDrop, and you can check out the sneak peak after the jump.

The film is produced and overseen by Robert Rodriguez (Desperado, Once Upon a Time in Mexico), and there’s an introduction by him included in the footage. The full trailer will be available on March 18th, and the film will be released on July 7th in the United States. I was pretty blown away by this footage; the movie looks a lot more expansive than I thought it’d be, and Adrien Brody definitely seems like more of a badass than I anticipated. And of course the presence of Laurence Fishburne adds an air of gravitas to any production.

What did you think about the first look at Predators? Are you excited for the film? How do you think Brody will perform in an action movie?

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Image removed due to request from 20th Century Fox

CONFIRMED: there are PREDATORS in PREDATORS.

A dozen photographs taken on the set of upcoming Predators have been uploaded on the AVP Galaxy forums. I guess some of them contain minor spoilers, but nothing that’ll have a huge impact on your enjoyment of the film (I think/hope). If you wanna stay completely clean though, don’t check out the rest – particularly the one on the top right.

The film is being directed by Nimród Antal (Vacancy) and stars – among others – Adrian Brody Brody (The Pianist), Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix), Walton Goggins (Shane from The Shield), Topher Grace (Spider-Man 3…disappointingly), and Danny Trejo (Machete). I’m almost 100% sure I didn’t need to give bracketed examples for most of those names. It’s a pretty impressive cast, considering the potential the premise has for awfulness. Keep in mind that it still also has potential for awesomeness. We shall see in July.

The costumes, make-up, set, etc. all look great, don’t get me wrong… But is it just me – or do the Predators look just like they’re about to do some Mighty Morphin’?

UPDATE: Okay, so 20th Century Fox got them. Fox also cancelled Firefly, Futurama, and Arrested Development. My thoughts on the company are rated M for Mature. You most definitely can’t find the Predators pictures elsewhere.

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It was a bit surprising to learn that Adrian Brody had been cast as the lead in Robert Rodriguez’s Predators as he isn’t really known as the action type, however I guess that could be one of the reasons he went for the part. The guy is an Oscar winner so there’s no question he can act, although he doesn’t necessarily have the bulk Arnold Schwarzenegger had when he was taking on the beast in the 80s.

Director Nimród Antal has a pretty good reason for choosing Brody though, as he revealed to ComingSoon:

I think when we cast Adrian, there were a lot of people going, ‘What?’ but at the same time, if we cast a Vin Diesel in that role or if we cast anyone who is Arnold-esque, we would have been attacked for doing that. So we decided early on to go in a very different direction as far as the casting process, but it turned out fantastic. He plays a mercenary in the film and if you look at the guys in Iraq and Afghanistan today, they’re not ‘yolked-out’ Schwarzenegger-looking guys. They’re all very wiry and thin guys, and I think it’s going to play well.”

The director also responded with “time will tell” when asked if Arnie would be making an appearance.

Predators will be set on the Predator home world, where a group of soldiers will battle for their lives against the creatures. io9 managed to get a image from the set in Texas which shows the cast and crew setting up a big shot at Canyon Lake Gorge. “The filmmakers thought the gorge was the perfect look to create an alien landscape.” And I think I agree with him.

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20th Century Fox’s reboot of the Predator franchise will begin filming next month according to Production Weekly. Predators will be directed by Nimrod Antal and produced by Sin City director Robert Rodriguez.

The story will be set on the Predator home world, where a group of soldiers will battle for their lives against the creatures. Recenty Rodriguez told MTV that his reboot will be a direct sequel to the original, possibly ignoring Predator 2, Alien vs. Predator, and Alien vs Predator: Requiem, saying “Maybe people will forget all the bad sequels and only think this one and the original exist”.

That’s fine by me!

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