Ben Saw: Predators

In honor of the movie itself I’ll be throwing you right in to the action......



I really liked ‘Predators’. It had a clear sense of what it was trying to do (recapture the feel of the original ‘Predator’, an awesome movie) and did it pretty successfully.

Bam. Done.



Well, I guess I could say more. A lot more, really, because I think ‘Predator’ is a pretty special movie despite the myriad crap that unworthy sequels have piled upon it, but let’s be economical here.

Anyway, I had very mixed feelings when I first heard about ‘Predators’. The choice of producer (Robert Rodriguez) was intriguing, but all the prior sequels had been so terrible and a lot of the casting was just bizarre. Adrien Brody? Topher Grace? These are not the people I see as spiritual descendants of Bill Duke, Jesse (‘The Body’) Ventura and Arnold himself. Would Woody Allen be playing the part of a hard-bitten retired commando?

I’ll be damned if it didn’t work well, though.

Clearly what the creative team did was watch the original on loop and tried to break down what worked so well about the original. Then they basically remade the original in spirit, changing a lot of specifics to keep it fresh but keeping the core concept of ‘isolated team of badasses are stalked in the wilderness’ intact. This time the movie opens with Brody & co parachuting on to an alien planet after (before the movie opens) having been abducted from Earth. They don’t know one another but quickly decide to work together against what is plainly a common enemy. As with the original, the tension and menace builds until the Predators make their appearance and then the action’s on in earnest. Beyond that I’d be spoiling the movie but if you know the original then you know the drill.



The movie doesn’t make many missteps, it’s well-plotted and paced, the action is reasonably exciting and the director allows the scenes to breath instead of sticking the camera in the middle of things all the time. There are unobtrusive nods to the original all over the place which made me smile and actually helped push the plot forward. Crucially, the cast is much better than it could have been which is a secret that a lot of action movies ignore: if you don’t care about the characters and the conflict then no amount of visual trickery can draw you in.

The places where the movie succeeded were also why I didn’t like the movie more than I did. The original is so good in large part because it’s technically very well-executed (creating a similar sense of wonder without modern effects technology) and has an incredibly charming cast. ‘Predator’ is a funny movie that revels in being quirky and over the top, ‘Predators’ didn’t seem as comfortable with that. Meanwhile Brody is a pleasant surprise in the lead, but there’s simply no way that he’s going to be as likable a screen presence as vintage Arnold and that same comment applies to almost every member of the cast. Laurence Fishburne brought me closer to that vibe but he’s far enough from the rest of the movie’s feel that he had to be used sparingly. Between that and the steady recycling of ideas from the original, ‘Predators’ doesn’t feel as fresh. But ‘not as fresh’ doesn’t mean ‘not good’ especially when you're being compared to such a remarkable movie. ‘Predators’ is well-done and a lot of fun whether or not you’ve seen the original. All it was missing is a little extra spark to make it great.

But, really, how could they have missed the opportunity to make Topher Grace describe himself as a “sexual Tyrannosaurus”?

Grade: B+

Favorite Scene: I think I'd have to say the sword fight. But the appearance of the final human (don't want to spoil anything) was a lot of fun for me.