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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Robert Rodriguez said earlier this year that due to the box office success of Predators ($125 million worldwide on a $40 million budget) 20th Century Fox were looking to make a sequel and the next step would be to have writers come in and pitch their ideas.

The set up suggests Adrien Brody would be required, and the actor is looking forward to the prospect.

From MTV:

“I think it’s done well enough to justify [a sequel] for sure,” star Adrien Brody told MTV News. “I think the goal initially was to make a film that is worthy of [a franchise],” Brody said. “The film is even structured that way… to kick in for another one. I’d be excited. I’d be excited to do it. I think that was part of the allure.”

Brody also spoke about a planned cameo by Arnold Schwarzenegger that didn’t end up in the movie:

“I was hoping he would be in this film,” Brody said. “It would have been great. I really was hoping.” As you may have guessed, Schwarzenegger was a bit busy being governor of California, so that never happened.

“There was a version we were going to do that had a different ending that it really would have been fitting for Schwarzenegger to be there,” Brody said. “It would have been like him passing the gauntlet to my character… and the bravery of my character proven. That would have been just epic.”

It would have been, yes. Maybe Schwarzenegger will be free for the sequel?

As for now, Predators will be released on October 19th and you can now pre-order it from Amazon on:

DVD | Blu-ray

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Update: Amazon has now made Predators available to pre-order:

- DVD
- Blu-ray

20th Century Fox has announced that Predators will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 19th and the discs will include exclusive motion comics that reveal the Predator’s backstory, presented by producer Robert Rodriguez (among other features).

Predators hasn’t exactly set the box office alight, but with a budget of around $40 million it didn’t need to. The film has taken $115 million worldwide which means any future takings from DVD and Blu-ray will make Fox consider green-lighting a sequel, which they have been talking to Robert Rodriguez about.

Here are the specs and cover art from IGN:

Predators Blu-ray special features include:

• Commentary by Producer Robert Rodriguez and Director Nimrod Antal
• Motion Comics
  • “Moments of Extraction” – Robert Rodriguez presents exclusive prequel vignettes voiced by the cast of Predators. Witness the secret adventures that turned our world’s most ruthless killers into the ultimate Predator prey.
    • Noland Intro (part 1)
    • Isabelle
    • Cuchillo
    • Hanzo
    • Mombasa
    • Noland Ending (part 2)
  • Crucified
• Evolution of the Species: Predators Reborn
  • Bloodline
  • De-Cloaking the Invisible: Alien Terrain
  • Intelligent Design: The Hunting Camp
  • Predators as Prey
  • Yuatja Transformed
  • Rite of Passage
• The Chosen Featurette
• Fox Movie Channel presents Making a Scene
• Deleted and Extended Scenes
  • Dead Man’s Parachute
  • Cuchillo and Isabelle
  • Team “Orientated” Group
  • Third Most Wanted
  • Cuchillo Unleashes
  • “Why Are You Here?”
  • “They’re Smarter Than That”
  • Stans and Isabelle Naked
  • “They’re Still Coming”
• BD-Live Extras
  • Exclusive Predator Features
• Live Lookup – Powered by IMDB

Predators DVD special features include:

• Commentary by Producer Robert Rodriguez and Director Nimrod Antal
• De-Cloaking the Invisible: Alien Terrain
• Motion Comics
  • “Moments of Extraction” – Robert Rodriguez presents exclusive prequel vignettes voiced by the cast of Predators. Witness the secret adventures that turned our world’s most ruthless killers into the ultimate Predator prey.
    • Noland Intro (part 1)
    • Isabelle
    • Mombasa
  • Crucified

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20th Century Fox likes to keep Robert Rodriguez busy. The director is currently wrapping up work on Machete which will be released in September, and Predators, which he produced, hit screens earlier this month.

Fox also wants Rodriguez to direct their Deadpool movie with Ryan Reynolds, and recently at Comic-Con he spoke about Fox’s intention to make a sequel to Predators.

From IGN:

“[The studio] said, ‘Let’s do some other ones. What other story ideas do you have?’” says the filmmaker. “Because it was like, let’s test out the market with this one. They really wanted it to be pretty contained, pretty scaled-back. They didn’t want to put too many of the ideas into it that we could save for a second one. So we could see what the appetite was, because the bigger movie would actually be what comes following that. That kind of sets up a new storyline, new location and world, and then you can really go crazy from there.”

Rodriguez says he has “an idea” of what he will do with the sequel. The next step, he says, is probably to have other writers come in and pitch different versions of his basic premise, along with new concepts.

Predators hasn’t exactly set the box office alight, but with a budget of around $40 million it didn’t need to. The film has taken $80 million worldwide which means any future takings from the box office and DVD/Blu-ray will make it profitable and justify a sequel (for Fox anyway).

Robert Rodriguez also spoke to MTV about Deadpool, which he may or may not direct depending on his schedule:

“They sent me a script to read, [but] I’ve been really swamped with this other stuff,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve not decided whether … anything I do would be after ‘Spy Kids’ — that gives some breathing room. So whether or not I would help develop or not is the question right now.”

And what did he think of the script? “It was really good,” Rodriguez enthused. “It wasn’t supposed to be sent out, it was one of those early drafts, they were probably like ‘Robert just finished ‘Predators,’ let’s see what he thinks at this early stage’ … I got an early sneak peek at it.”

Zombieland writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese have been working on the screenplay so we can probably trust Rodriguez when he says it is “really good”. I think it would be cool if Rodriguez could direct it, but there are also people wanting a Sin City 2, so he will have to decide which movie he wants to make.

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Despicable Me managed to stomp every prediction regarding its opening by over-performing beyond expectations and reaching $56.3 million when it wasn’t expected to pass $40 million. Surprises like this make things interesting at the box office.

For a movie that cost $69 million and coming from newborn animation studio Illumination Entertainment (I have a feeling we will continue to see good things coming from them in the future under Universal’s distribution deal), this is a pretty darn good score, so good that it passed previous highest grossing computer animated flick distributed by Universal Pictures, The Tale of Despereaux (with $50.8 million) in just 3 days. With Toy Story 3 still making the rounds and holding a lot of the 3D screens, makes this performance all the more impressive. So, Despicable Me 2 (bad title, I really hope it won’t be this) coming out in 2013?

Also strong was The Twilight Saga: Eclipse with $31.7 million (that I totally called) down only 51.1% from last weekend (an all time best for the series, obviously helped by the fact this one opened on a Wednesday instead of a Friday). With $239.7 million so far (including Monday numbers) in 13 days, Eclipse is neck a neck with New Moon, $237.8 million after the same amount of days. I believe now more then before that this one might pass the $300 million mark in North America. Oh, and for those wondering, Eclipse stands at $458.7 million worldwide with the movie still not out in a lot of countries.

Predators performed exactly as expected (called it again), $24.7 million and a great debut for this R-rated genre movie that I can’t wait to watch. Hopefully it will at least show decent holds at the box office, good enough to carry it past the $60 million mark before the end of its run. Also, second best opening for the series (first if we leave Alien vs Predator out).

As mentioned above, Toy Story 3 is still rolling the big bucks, this time $21 million for $339.2 million so far and if we include the $2.8 million it did on Monday, this just became Pixar’s highest grossing movie ever in North America (not adjusted for inflation, obviously) beating former champ Finding Nemo ($339.7 million). $555.1 million worldwide and it has barely scratched the surface internationally. $900 million definitely a strong possibility, $1 billion not out of the question either.

The Last Airbender, $16.6 million, $101.8 million so far (including Monday) and going down, maybe not as fast as expected but still fast enough to keep it from reaching $140-$150 million.

Grown Ups keeps making twice as much as Knight & Day ($15.8 million versus $7.7 million) on a weekend basis with Swiss precision while the Karate Kid also continues to dominate The A-Team in the battle of the 80′s ($5.3 million versus $1.7 million).

Finally Cyrus ends the top 10 with $1.2 million after expanding from 77 to 200 theaters this weekend.

Next weekend is looking even more interesting with The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Inception, my money is on Inception but more on that soon.

For a more detailed look at the top 10 numbers for last weekend, go here.

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Another weekend, another batch of new movies, this time Despicable Me and Predators.

Despicable Me, the latest effort from Universal to tap into the gold mine that animated movies have become in the past decade (since computer animation took over), debuts into 3474 theaters and is looking to surpass The Tale of Despereaux ($50.8 million, Christmas 2008) as the studio’s biggest computer animated movie to date. With a 79% RottenTomato average so far, this looks like it might have something to say, and who knows, it could become this year’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I see around $30-35 million for the weekend in a tight race for first place with The Twilight Saga: Eclipse that should also finish around $30 million.

Predators, from Fox opening in 2669 theaters, is trying to be a love letter to fans of the classic 1987 Predator staring good old Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger and so far based on what critics say (surprisingly 63% after 115 reviews counted on RottenTomatoes) it might just be that, the long lost sequel that we always wanted could finally be here. So I say $24 million this weekend and a good shot at making around $60-70 million in total at the North American box office. And yes, the name Predators is a homage to Aliens, the sequel to Alien.

Toy Story 3 keeps on having fantastic weekdays and is headed for around $20 million this weekend while Grown Ups will pass the $100 million mark before the end of Sunday, thus becoming the 11th movie in the career of Adam Sandler to reach that high.

Finally The Last Airbender should bring in another $16-17 million or so over the weekend for a total of probably $100 million in 11 days. Looking at the reviews and most of the fans reactions, I’m sure Paramount must be happy that none of those had a huge effect on the tickets they managed to sell so far, but it will from now on and I don’t think The Last Airbender will finish its box office run with more then $140 million, if that.

1. Despicable Me (Uni) $34 million (NEW)
2. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (Sum) $31 million ($234,6M)
3. Predators (Fox) $24 million (NEW)
4. Toy Story 3 (BV) $20 million ($338.2M)
5. The Last Airbender (Par) $17 million ($100M)

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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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I had the impression that Predators was just another way for 20th Century Fox to milk the Predator franchise even further following the whole Vs. saga a few years ago. The trailers that have been released thus far for Predators have been decent enough, although it didn’t look like it would be as good as the original.

Well today IGN debuted a new international red band trailer for the reboot, and it actually looks pretty good.

Watch below: (contains bad words from Mr. Laurence Fishburne)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X92Cv3T9s7o

Adrien Brody plays Royce, a mercenary who reluctantly leads a group of elite warriors who come to realize they’ve been brought together on an alien planet… as prey. With the exception of a disgraced physician, they are all cold-blooded killers – mercenaries, Yakuza, convicts, death squad members – human “predators” that are now being systemically hunted and eliminated by a new breed of alien Predators.

Predators, directed by Nimród Antal, will be released on July 7th and co-stars Topher Grace, Danny Trejo and Alice Braga.

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Mike Finch and Alex Litvak, who wrote the script for the upcoming Predators reboot, have been hired by Columbia to write the script for Masters of the Universe.

In September Warner Bros. decided to let the He-Man project go after not seeing see eye to eye with Mattel over the direction of the film. Apparently Warner Bros. saw the movie as a “gritty fantasy” but Mattel, who are in the business of selling toys, wanted something different. Columbia snapped up the property soon after, and now it seems they are starting again from scratch (at WB the movie had Kung-Fu Panda director John Stevenson attached and a script written by various writers)

From HeatVision:

Getting the go-ahead to tackle any major toy-brand film can be tricky. Depending on the property, writers and directors need to get a thumbs-up from the studio, which then has to win approval from the toy company. In the case of “Masters,” Mattel has story approval.

In their pitch, the scribes attempted to balance a treatment that would convince the studio it was cinematic and keep the toy company satisfied that its characters were being portrayed appropriately.

I liked the sound of the movie when it was at Warner Bros. and John Stevenson seemed to have a real passion for the universe. My big concern was that Columbia would make it a big dumb summer blockbuster. He-Man has the potential to be a franchise of epic proportions and I hope the writers lean towards this more than the commercial toy selling aspect.

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20th Century Fox has uploaded a new behind the scenes video for Predators onto the films official YouTube account. The video focuses on the character Royce, a mercenary played by Adrien Brody who is “not afraid to die”.

Apparently Brody was keen to land an action role to shake up his image a little. Since winning an Oscar for The Pianist in 2003 he has been in a number of solid dramas, as well as Peter Jackson’s King Kong, but a full on action movie will give us a chance to see the actor do something different.

At the South by Southwest film festival earlier this month Brody said that he put on 25 pounds for the role, and his nightly ritual involved poring over survival manuals and military training books.

“I was reading Sun Tzu, I was studying meditation, I was on a very strict diet, I wasn’t drinking, I wasn’t eating sugar, I wasn’t having sex. I was very focused. I had to kind of go there, for me, because this is a tremendous opportunity for me.”

“They didn’t hire me to be a bodybuilder. I’m not a bodybuilder, but I felt in order to be playful with it as well I shouldn’t be strapped. It’s not the physical strength that outsmarts an alien with energy-based weapons and high tracking skills and a culture of hunting and trophy hunting. You have to outsmart them.”

Predators will be released in July, and 20th Century Fox will probably be releasing more behind the scenes videos in the meantime.

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