Predatorstuff Reviews the new Predators Movie!
July 12th, 2010
Good morning boys and girls, welcome to my soap box, my pile of pennies, my verbalicious review of the new Predators movie that was released in theaters on Friday, July 9th 2010. I had my daughter over this weekend so I was unable to catch the film on opening night but I finally made it out last night and I am ready to spew forth my thoughts on the movie, just in case you were wondering what I thought.
Predators is currently rated at 65% on the tomatometer over at www.rottentomatoes.com, which is a hell of a lot better than Alien vs Predator (21%) and Alien vs Predator Requiem (12%) and reviews posted so far range almost evenly from god awful to glorious. Over at the Lair, we’ve got a thread going where Predators fanatics from around the world are sharing their reviews and opinions, you can check that out by clicking HERE!
So, want to see what I had to say? You’ll need to click on the link below to read the review due to massive spoilers…
OK I guess I will come right out and say this… I left the theater thinking the movie sucked, and completely failed at being better than the AvP movies in the slightest. They recycled most of the errors of the AvP films and set it in a lame done-it-a-hundred-times story line that seemed brainless. When all was said and done, the movie stood out as something done as quickly as possible for as little money as possible and cash in like crazy. I didn’t go in this movie with huge expectations either, I just wanted to see Predators with bad ass weapons light up the screen and kill stuff and kick-ass. Unfortunately there isn’t anything like that in the movie. Let me explain… first let’s run through the movie.
Movie Rundown
The movie starts off with immediate action… we start off with Royce, played by Adrian Brody, just starting to wake up as he’s free falling towards the mystery planet. He quickly realizes he’s about to become a large splatter so he struggles to deploy his parachute, which opens on it’s own roughly 50 feet from the ground, and he manages to survive slamming in to the ground at 300 miles an hour. I can’t help but think that was lame, but Predators are coming so I don’t care. The rest of the cast starts to arrive in similar fashion, including my favorite actor in the film, Danny Trejo who is playing the part of Cuchillo. We suspend all reality once again when one of the guys who lands carrying an all out mini-gun opens fire on Royce and Cuchillo from 50 feet away and somehow not a single round hits them as they dash for the nearest available fallen log for cover.
Eventually all the characters simmer down and start cooperating somewhat and we learn that they all have horrendous dialogue that makes you laugh when you’re probably not supposed to. I would like to mention that at this point in the film, I still don’t care because I know Predators are coming and will wipe their asses with these humans. Oh and I should also mention that there is a character played by Topher Grace who seems totally out of place. All the other characters are pro killers of one type or another, yet this guy is simply a doctor. He’s well spoken, smart, and readily identifies plants by their scientific latin names and seems to know all the smarty-pants things doctors know. Which brings me to another point…
We’re on an alien planet a bazillion light years away from Earth… why the HELL does the jungle look exactly like something from Puerto Vallarta minus the Tiki tents? The exact same trees, plants etc all happen to be exactly the same? LAAAAAME. And to really drive home the point, the good doctor even identifies a planet with a neurotoxin that is commonly seen on earth. Look, I’m not expecting Fox to dish out the coin to create another Pandora, but for the love of god I would expect the alien planet jungle to NOT look like my local bike path. About the only thing different from the alien planet’s jungle and something from earth is that apparently that planet has no animals, birds or ANYTHING for that matter aside from 1 mosquito and 1 large crawling bug, both of which Royce kills. There was simply no sense at all of this being an alien planet whatsoever, the entire jungle set lacked even the slightest flavor of being beyond planet Earth.
Eventually we get some action… The Predators apparently send a pack of Predator dogs after our group, and I do admit that I loved this part, it was cool, I dug the dogs! But then disaster strikes… THEY KILL OFF DANNY TREJO’S CHARACTER!!! WTF the best character in the entire movie gets killed off in the first 10 minutes, booooooooo! Oh and you know that line in the trailer “Does this look like a team oriented bunch of individuals to you?”? Yeah, that’s not even in the movie… At this point, I am not a happy camper, but hey… Predators are coming!
By now, Royce is the established leader of the group and he decides the best course of action is to follow the dog tracks to actually find the Predators, rather than the usual tactic of getting the hell out of dodge. This is when they stumble upon the Predator hunting camp, which is decorated with all kinds of carcasses, bones, oozing organs and WTF a P1 Predator strapped to a pole?! Whoa ok, I am digging this part… cool! There is a P1 style Predator tied up to some kind of giant spiky looking column, and when the Russian army guy prods it, the P1 Pred wakes up and start going apeshit, screaming and yelling and fighting against his bonds. The group freaks out, Royce is suddenly missing and then chaos erupts. Turns out, the hunting Predators were in the camp, but they were cloaked and Royce was using the group as bait. The African warrior dude gets skewered somehow and then it’s all guns blazing and random plasma cannon fire from all angles ad we get our first look at Predators in action. As the group runs in all directions to escape, they hit a steep slope, and a la Predator 1, they all tumble down and go flying over a ridge and tumble 100+ feet in to a lagoon and to safety. At this point, we see our first and only cool Predator gadget… a mechanical falcon is seen flying over our heroes, IDs them and then flies back to one of the Predators and sort of transforms in to a little box as it lands behind his shoulder. I was like.. ooo that was badass! Unfortunately it’s the ONLY goddamn cool thing we see. From here on it, the only weapons used by the Predators are wristblades and plasma cannons, end of list. We see no spears, no flying discs, no bombs, no shurikens, nothing, nadda, zip. A HUGE yawnfest in terms of cool Predator tech.
OK so the humans regroup and we finally run in to Morpheus… sorry I mean Laurence Fishburne. He plays the character of Nolan, who despite 10 seasons of being trapped on this planet fighting for survival and scrapping for anything he can scavenge, is fat. Huh?! OK first off, to have been chosen to be on this planet, he would have to be some kind of elite killer. I would think that elite killers, warriors etc would have to be in shape in the first place, and second, I doubt he found a stash of pork rinds on the alien planet, so why is he overweight? First off, he should have been in shape when he got there, and second should be emaciated after years of borderline starvation. Weight issues aside, we soon realize Nolan is actually over-the-top insane and tries to kill our group of friends by trapping them in a room and suffocating them with smoke. First off, once again going back to the elite killer thing… shouldn’t that mean he’s pretty much psychologically hardened? OK fine, even if he cracked over being stuck in my backyard and being hunted by an alien species, his insanity was just too ridiculous and seemed.. well… ridiculous. Anyhow, Royce fires off a round of his auto-shotty to attract the attention of the Predators and get Nolan out of their hair. So, within 5 minutes of finally seeing Morpheus, he gets blown up by a Predator cannon shot and we’re back to the Predators hunting humans.
Before Morpheus got himself perished (I love that line – god bless the Crow movie), we did learn a few thing about the movie to help conveniently explain a few things. Once again we are faced by 3 Predators, and apparently there is a blood feud between the super black predators and the smaller ones we’ve come to know by way of the first Predator movie. No mention of where the football style AvP Predators stand in this relationship by the way. We also learn they have a ship parked in back of the hunting camp. That’s about it.
This is when the writer decides to use the ol’ “If I go down, you go down” tactic and we repeat the ridiculous error of AvP by killing off 2 of the 3 Predators within minutes of each other, I can’t stand it when they do this, ARG! So, without seeing ANYTHING from 2 of the Predators, the first one goes down when he’s face to face with the Russian, who is holding two grenades or claymores or some other such devices and they all go down in a fiery explosion as the rest of the group make their escape. Was it just me or was the fire ball CGI hilariously bad… it looked like anime style fire, I was like WTF?!
A minute later, we see yet another familiar Predator 1 scene when Yakuza (he’s the ninja of the group) pulls a Billy and decides to stop running and just take on the Predator toe to toe with his samurai sword, which by the way somehow appears during the Nolan scene… I am guessing it was part of Nolan’s scavenged inventory. So now we completely ignore the established fact that the metal Predators use for their weapons is an alien metal MUCH more dense than any element found on earth and would cut through the steel of a samurai blade like butter, and Yakuza and the second Predator have a sword fight. This was cool I guess even though the Predator would have simply taken one swing and cut through Yakuza’s blade and continued through his neck, but then once again Yakuza and the Pred each deal a death blow at the same time and they both go down and lay bleeding out next to one another. *sigh*
At this point, the remaining characters are Royce, the chick sniper and the doctor, who so far has been useless. In fact, now the doctor is injured from a trap (I love how he exclaims how lucky he is that the trap missed some major artery by an inch as a 1 foot long bear trap is attempting to shear his foot off) so now he’s a complete inconvenience. Royce decides to ditch the loser, but sniper chick being a sensitive woman decides to stay with the doctor (hee hee) and help him walk in the general direction of Royce. Royce actually has a cool plan… he’s going to free the P1 Predator in exchange for it’s help flying the alien space ship back to Earth! BRILLIANT! Fast forward a bit and the P1 Predator is freed and programs the ship from his wrist computer to fly to earth and he fires up the engines… I did have a tear in my eye when the P1 is free and he picks up his battered bio helmet and places it over his face and resumes his complete kick-assedness. Royce is about to kiss him when the last Predator shows up and it severely pissed off. Royce books it for the ship and the P1 takes on the Super Black Predator, and now I am REALLY in to it… GO P1 PRED GO! KICK HIS ASS (I am yelling this in the theater by the way).
While this is happening, the doc and sniper chick have fallen in to a pit of some kind, and this is where the movie takes a wrong turn in to WTFville again. While she is turned around, the doctor pulls out his little pocket knife that he dipped in to the neurotoxic plant I told you about earlier and nicks sniper chick with it. Down she goes like a wet noodle and the doctor starts ranting about how he fooled them, he’s not a doctor he’s a killer, he feels at home with the Predators, he’s one of them blah blah blah. Once again I was scratching my head wondering what the hell this was all about. This cuts out to a scene where Royce is smiling and looking up at the ship that is waiting for him… then it cuts back just in time to see Super Black Predator slice the P1′s head off. I instantly start booing the shit out of the screen. Then Super Black looks up to see his ship flying away, presumably with Royce in it. He looks on for a second or two then casually opens his wrist computer, pushes a button and BOOM goes the ship. I laughed my ass off and then sat back and waited for the scene to switch back to the ranting doc about to do whatever to sniper chick and then see Royce save her at the last second because he decided to go back for them.
Surprise surprise, we go back to the rambling doc who is inches away from sniper chick with his half-inch pocket knife and OMG TWIST OF THE YEAR Royce shows up at the top of the pit and says he guys, wassup? *groan* The doc plays innocent, saying that the Predator did something to the girl and Royce hauls thm out of the pit. Royce has his back to the doc as he’s prattling on about how they got in the pit and Royce’s attention is totally focused on the dazed sniper chick. As he’s talking, he once again pulls out the poison tainted knife and moves in to stab Royce with it, but Royce suddenly tuns, grabs the docs hand and drives the knife through his neck upwards in to his face and delivers a cool line that made me chuckle. With the doc down (but not out), he focuses his attention on killing the Predator.. he uses the doc as bait and dumps a ring of gun powder or some other similar substance (a bag of whatever this is happened to be nearby, possibly from a movie previously shot on this set) and when the Predator moves in to finish the doc, the Super Black takes 10 grenades to the FACE! This doesn’t leave a SCRATCH on the Predator somehow through, despite a shank from the death row guy doing damage to one of the other Predators no problem. Royce then lights up the gunpowder ring on fire and this totally screws up his thermal vision. The Predator appears totally confused by Royce’s tactics (who is covered in mud a la P1 movie again) as he darts in and out with some kind of club and smashed the Predator in the head about 50 times. Right, so let me get this straight… the Predator is a high-tech killing machine and uses these hunts against the best of the best to hone it’s killing and hunting skills, yet is rendered helpless by a ring of fire?! Are you kidding me?!
The Predator finally manages to show a sign of life by firing a plasma bolt towards something he sees with his vision that is caused by Royce’s beating heart. Royce is dazed but luckily sniper chick has regained enough of her motor skills to use her sniper rifle and blows a hole through the chest of the Predator. The Predator turns around and fires his gauntlet blade in to sniper chick and Royce loses his mind. He grabs the same axe that Super Black used to behead the P1 Predator and proceeds to beat the living hell out him with it… we get to see the face of the Super Black for a few more seconds (total unmasked time was roughly 5 seconds) and then Royce beheads him too.
Everything calms down and somehow sniper chick is no worse for wear after taking a two foot Predator blade to the body when they look up to see more prey strapped to parachutes fluttering down and Royce announces it’s time to once again find a way to get off the planet. He doesn’t care that more human psychos and caged beasts from other planets are seconds away from touching down (oh I forgot to mention, at one point in the movie they find broken cages from other kinds of aliens that have been dumped on the planet for hunting purposes).
What was good
Honestly, I have a hard time picking out anything I thought was particularly good about the movie. I liked the music, does that count? I thought some of the lines were funny too, I liked Royce’s character. I am sitting here staring at the monitor trying to think up some other stuff that I thought was cool but nothing is hitting me… let me move along to what I though was bad and maybe some additional good stuff will hit me.
Edit – Just though of another good point! Unlike the two previous AvP movies, this film wasn’t drowned in darkness… you could see pretty much everything that was going on.
Edit #2 – I should also mention I liked the Preds armor and gear from what little I saw, specifically the biomask designs. The Berserker bio with the lower jawbone was pretty damn cool.
What was bad
I’m sorry guys, I just through this movie was terrible… in fact, I enjoyed AvP Requiem infinitely more because at least the Wolf Predator was AWESOME! I know the movie sucked ass, but at least we had a cool, badass Predator! We don’t even get THAT in this movie. So aside from my comments in the movie rundown above, here’s what I didn’t like.
- WAAAAAAY too much human time, not even close to enough Predator time. We spent way too much screen-time with humans.. I was there to see Predators, and the total 10 minutes of Predator screen time was not even close to enough. We saw almost nothing of the Predators, no weapons but the basics we saw in the first film, no personality, barely any action, barely any time to understand their skill sets etc. We got to know most of the humans right down to the names of their kids (literally), but we didn’t learn a damn thing about the Predators aside from what the humans talked about.
- Once again we have 3 Predators that appear fairly useless and 2 die within minutes of appearing on screen and minutes within each other.
- The story is old, tired and boring. I wish movie makers would stop recycling the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” over and over again… the story was boring back when I had to read it in junior high, and it’s boring now, even with Predators added in!
- The jungle setting was stupid… there was nothing alien about it and there were absolutely no creatures in it of any kind. The hunting camp set felt cheap and indoors.
- We were all happy about barely using CGI and sticking to practical effects… little did we know this had nothing to do with getting back to basics as it did with lets spend as little money as possible. The CGI for the dogs was fine, but looked hockey elsewhere, especially for flames/explosions. They needed CGI to add alien plants/trees and indigenous planet critters for the jungle at the very minimum… Call it what you will, the film felt cheap.
- Stop trying to pay homage to P1 so hard… I liked the occasional nod, but I lost it when I saw Brody shirtless and covered in mud in the firelight like a bad Arnie impression, it was hilarious. Like a before and after Steroid ad or something.
- I can’t STAND IT when companies use scenes in a trailer that is not actually in the movie, in fact I think it should be illegal to do that. At least 4 scenes shown in the trailer don’t exist in the movie.
Conclusion
It is with a heavy heart that I admit that I thought this movie stunk… I disliked the story, the Predators, the sets, everything… I was totally disappointed in every way and didn’t get NEARLY enough Predator action as I had hoped. The plot holes and circumstances were big enough to drive 18-wheelers through them and there was simply no fear, suspense, surprise or interest felt at all. We got no cool Predators with cool gizmos, no mind blowing scenes or effects and quite frankly if this was a fresh new movie and we had never seen or heard of Predators before, I would have thought this was complete garbage.
I know people worked really hard on this film, in fact I know some of the folks that worked on the suits and props etc and I know they are extremely talented, the best in the business. I love you guys and what you do, but I feel the people at the helm of this movie just didn’t deliver anything of quality in this story. The bottom line is that I feel this was just as bad, if not worse than the AvP movies.
What do you think guys, you agree or did you enjoy the movie? Please click the comment button below and share your thoughts!
Take care,
Dan
Hi,
I see it exactly like you, the film was just bad … no excuse … It is a kick in the face of every fan.
greetings from Hannover, Germany
i’d like to say that characters were really interesting.
Nikolai, Hanzo, Stans. But some dialogs were just stupid. Predators moved too strange. Anyway i liked the film.
Yup, it sucked!
Yep, this movie was terrible.
I really enjoy reading your reviews Dan, but I personally think that you lost all credibility on this particular review when you said that it was as bad or worse than the AvP movies. This movie was just so much better than either of them. No clunky bodybuilder predators, no ridiculous team-ups, plenty of ambient light to enjoy the details, and the one thing that both AvP films really suffered from a lack of…a quality cast. I think that there are movies that can succeed due to a cast of new faces, but the Predator franchise is very obviously not one of those. The cast was very talented, and I actually thought that the dialogue was written fairly well.
I would prefer to see a planet that was real as opposed to a lot of CGI. I can suspend belief that it isn’t on location in Hawaii. That isn’t what is important to me. I was just glad that it was back in the jungle this time. And as far as not much predator screen time, that is what was good about P1. Especially when the creature designs aren’t outstanding, I would rather concentrate on how the characters interact and respond to the common threat. I didn’t care for the Berzerker unmasked, but I thought his fully armored character was cool. I’d buy a kit of him. It is obvious that Predator as we knew it died with Stan Winston. They provided a modest example of the P1, but it was still a bit off. The helmet looked especially bad (like a warped, too-wide-at-the-corners resin copy you can find on eBay). But I was thrilled nonetheless to see a familiar face. I don’t agree that Cuchillo was the best character. I found him a bit whiny and forgettable, but I would have liked to see more of the African death squad guy. The convict and the doctor both had some funny lines. I liked the use of the original music and I think they got close, but didn’t go over the top with re-using phrases from P1. It was almost sold out when I went, so I am going to see it again, hopefully not from the second row.
In summary, I thought this was a very good movie, and a wonderful step in the opposite direction of AvP. I would go see a sequel in a heartbeat. It wasn’t perfect, but I didn’t expect it to be. The best part is knowing how bad this movie must make Paul Anderson and the Strause brothers feel about their pathetic efforts.
Dear Dan!
I completely share your feelings’ cause i felt a kind of disappointment and emptiness after leaving cinema. Difficult to explain how very talented people with good budget could made something like lo-fi thriller under name “Predators” where their presence comletely nominal; they could be as well as they couldn’t be. Very boring story, very strange environment, i’ve noticed an ordinary jungle,an ordinary pine grove (or something like that) and a kind of stone-pit in practically one place. Moreover the quite nice pets look extremally unnatural in ordinary pine grove like bad fitted layers in PhotoShop. Yes the pets really nice but i’d like to notice their moving, plasticity etc. but that moments were missed. And if pets’ appearance was maybe understandable the appearance of blue-colored guy with strange musculature where some big cockroaches crawl over from the muscles which was shooted in the same pine grove was completly incomprehensible. Three huge satellites (without any difference with Earth gravitation also looked as bad *psd-file. Maybe it was reason two-legged characters practically weren’t surprised by place they were.
Yes, the characters really indistinct. After an half an hour all-knowing Brody began to annoy.
All was written with heavy heart. The previous crossover AVPR now looks as a masterpiece.
Sorry please for my long chatter. Sorry to all who like this movie.
With great respect,
Greenblooded
Hi Jason! Hey you have every right not to agree with me, it’s all good! But just out of curiosity, how did you know they weren’t clunky bodybuilders? I saw absoluetly no movement of them aside from walking and cloaked movements. We did see a battle scene with the Berserker but there was nothing there that looked agile. I thought they looked pretty damn clunky and didn’t have any of the finess the Wolf had in AvP2. As for cast quality, they were all no-names to me except Danny, Laurence and Brody, 2 of which were killed within minutes of starting their screen time.
And hey I did mention there were a few good lines (I laughed at that part with the gunna rape me some bitches at 5) but a few good lines doesn’t mean the dialogue was good, the majority of it was brutal.
There was also a HELL of a lot more P1 screen time in the original movie than all 3 of these Predators had combined. In the first Predator, we saw how he hunted, we saw him get pissed off, we saw him perform first aid on himself, saw him prep some trophies, prep his weapons and so much more. What did we see these preds do? Die, and that was about it…
I agree with you on the P1, I thought he kicked ass… but I would have preferred more of him kicking ass and hunting down one of those preds instead of all that human face time. And I also mentioned the lighting is way better than the AvP movies! But the Wolf was just so much better and developed character wise than the 10 minutes of Predators we got.
Glad you walked away from the movie enjoying it, better than I felt that’s for sure…
Ha greenblooded, I too wondered about the gravity thing, but I guess you could explain that by saying the preds specifically chose that planet for humans and other creatures that are used to similar gravity levels because of it’s similar size to their home planet.
i hated it. avp-r was better than this. def wouldnt watch this crap again
Hi Faken!
but the size of especially one satllite could make the place modelled by movie artists and designers unsuitable not for humans not for preds not for any other creatures. Yes, maybe i should look at this only like at fantastic movie 
Maybe i’m bad physicist
Regards.
guys really, this was a kickass movie. yeah the 2 preds dying in a short time spand was gay, and the fact that the p1 should have raped the sbp. but you should look at the positive side. at least uoui could see things in this movie and the acting wasnt crapped. i think this was the best pred movie next to p1. so if you dont like it then suck it. 10/10:)
instead of uoui i mean you
LOL Greenblooded… yeah that might be taking things a bit too far, you do have to hang up SOME reality when munching on your bag of popcorn.
LOL Tom – Glad you enjoyed it
I can agree with your rebuttals, Dan. I still think it is impossible to please everyone, and I think it is going to be even harder to really impress the majority of Predator fans. We all have high expectations, but sometimes that can prevent you from the basic enjoyment of a movie. Sometimes, no amount of open-mindedness can make a movie enjoyable (AvP and AvP-R), but I just don’t think this movie falls into that category.
Would I prefer something more along the quality and feel of P1 and (maybe) P2? Of course. Is it ever going to happen? Probably not. P1 was a freak of nature. It was just the perfect storm of director/actors/script/SFX and the novelty of a new concept. It was probably a one-shot kind of thing. I’m just appreciative that I personally enjoyed it so that I can finally wash the bad AvP taste out of my mouth. You like what you know, and unfortunately, as every older generation says, they just don’t make movies like they used to.
Hey Dan,
Your review was spot on. I agree with everything you stated. I really wanted this movie to be better too but ultimately it flopped in my opinion. I dont feel that it was completely terrible, but it also wasnt great….I just feel that it had the potential to be really freakin good but it just felt like to many shortcuts were taken, felt rushed a bit.
some things I noticed that I was curious if you picked out too…..I felt like some of the things the predators did in the movie were uncharacteristic to what we saw in past films. For instance, Nolan was blown up into tiny bits……if the Predators had been looking for him for however many “seasons” and finally found him, why would he just blow him up without taking a trophy? LAME! Didnt make sense. also, the sword fight scene….I was really hoping the predator would take off his mask when Hanzo took off his shirt…..to more or less signal that he was ready to fight to the death. Predators did this in every other movie. LAME! The guy they found dead in the jungle saying it was his last stand, he had the hole in his chest from a plasma cannon…..why didnt the predators take him as a trophy? they did this in every other movie…..why leave him there? LAME!
Aside from the uncharacteristic actions taken by the Predators there were all kinds of other issues I had with the film. Graces character was pointless…do we really need a plot twist at the end with his character? The sword fight was really lame, im still trying to figure out how he killed the Predator considering you couldn’t see anything on him as he fell to the ground other than a scratch across his chest which had been there earlier in the fight. I mean, the Predator in Predator 2 was able to take 5-6 shotgun blasts to the chest, lose an arm, and was still up and running fighting to the end.
I also wanted to see the Predators interact with the dogs to some degree and see how they maneuvered and planned out their attacks.
Also…..WAY too many nods to the first movie.
I counted at least 17 different things throughout the film, either via quotes or through interactions in the environment or how the scene was shot. It just was too much. I actually made a list…..Im crazy I guess.
My #1 problem with the film……duh duh duh duuuuh…*drumroll…….NOT ENOUGH PREDATOR SCREEN TIME! the movie is called Predators….that doesnt just mean more of them….it should also mean more time spent with them on screen, especially since we are on a world they are familiar with!!!!!
Anyway, you get my points, I could go on and on. Just too many weird inconsistencies throughout the film that didnt make sense and really left me scratching my head.
By the way, “Royce books it for the ship and the P1 takes on the Super Black Predator, and now I am REALLY in to it… GO P1 PRED GO! KICK HIS ASS (I am yelling this in the theater by the way).”
Funniest line in your review – simply awesome that you yelled that in the theater!
i see it like you,i mentioned the same problems but i still liked the film.
maybe an unrated dvd can change a bit…
I would like to review your review. It stunk
Kidding aside, there were definite issues (mine were with the poor pred costumes, poor pred agility/athleticism, poor fight scenes and the preds died too easily), but I went to the film expecting entertainment revolving around my favorite movie character of all time…. and I was very entertained. The human element in this film is unique. Not a band of hero military men. Not a band of “good” anything…. but a band of …. well, real people who have done real things in life that made them ashamed (with the exception of the doctor. No shame there.) It’s bad preds vs bad peeps. The only hero was the chick and Anytime, who had a bad fight due to being strung up for too long. Bad mask too. His mouth never closed.
Hi Dan, I very happy with new film since the last predator movie when i was so sad. Remembering scene and some references fron first movie, the new Predato’s are awesome . Im sure we have a lot of new models, soon (bust and new caracters from this movie). I’m sure in this movie Predator saga recovery the importance lost in the last terrible movie. So As predator fan i will waiting for the new kit’s. I’m ready for build and paint thid new kit’s comming
By
I don’t think this is as bad as the AVP movies. I just think it is one of those movies where you have to rewatch it a few times to let it warm up on you. Get it on Blu-Ray and have a Predator night with some beer and wings, that should help.
I couldn’t have agreed more! You’ve touched up on every single problem I’ve had with the film. The only thing you didn’t mention, which I would stick in the “good” category, were the cool new alien races. I wanted to see even more. Oh, and I really thought Royce was the worst character. He was a dick, didn’t even come anywhere near Arnold (or Glover’s) coolness. Also how pointless the rest of the characters were. I agree Trejo should have had more screen time, though. I would have liked to see him “machete” a Predator’s limb. Great review by the way
Hey Dan,
Wow. That’s all I can say after reading all of these negative reviews of ‘PREDATORS’. Now, In all fairness, Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion. With that in mind, I’m going to give my critique of the film. As with any sequels, There are bound to be pros and cons. We have to remember folks that a sequel or a ‘reboot’ (call it what you will.) rarely measures up. There have been those rare exceptions, However I won’t waste time or space on that subject. Onto the film itself. I did enjoy the nods to original films: The score. ‘Ol painless’. ‘Anytime’Predator. Another part I enjoyed was the way the people..the humans showed the darker and sometimes more caring side of our own nature.
Let’s face it guys: Were any of us just dropped on some random planet and hunted down by some bad a$$ creatures with weapons far superior to our own, We’d most likely plant ourselves in the ‘Every man for himself’ state of mind. One of my biggest problems with this film…Though it may seem small to some readers out there was the lack of explanation of the two opposing species of Predator. Where did the Black Pred’s species originate from? Why were they so much stronger than ‘Anytime’? The Predator I remember was not a weakling. A couple well placed head butts would barely phase him.
Was it because he was deprived of his need for a certain mixture of breathable air? Lack of food? Torture, perhaps? Who knows? As far as ‘AvP:R’ being a much better film, I have to strongly disagree. The best part of that film was Wolf. I say if a sequel to ‘PREDATORS’ is made, Another Predator–One more like Wolf should make an appearance. Let’s see those supposed super-Preds try to pull their jazz on him. Their ‘season’ would be over with before it even began.
hmmmmmm ….. nice Review Dan,
Finally I am happy, because it’s not me and not because I am living on the other site of the planet Earth! Its the movie!
…. by the way I started laughing loud when I saw Royce covered in mud.
!!!Can please someone surprise us with a real awesome PV? movie, that uses the full potential of the Predator character. Hint: read the books or call me:-)
Cheers chris
But still wondering: …. who attached the parachutes to the humans?
Some of your criticisms are valid but you basically lost credibility the moment you said AvPR was a better film.
While Wolf was definitely a badass hunter, predators fighting aliens in a K-mart trumps any flaw in Predators in terms of sheer stupidity. And for all the knocking of the ‘nods’ to the original Predator, its no different than “I’ll be back/come with me if you want to live” in the various terminators or the countless nods to Aliens in AvPR.
Predators was definitely flawed but your review comes across like “OMG WTF” at any little thing you didn’t agree with. And some of your points were flat-out wrong.
1. Edwin had a surgical scalpel, not a half-inch pocket knife. And um.. a scalpel is an extremely lethal object.
2. Berserker didn’t decapitate P1 with an axe, either. He used his singular wristblade.
3. The ‘some kind of club’ you mentioned was the axe all along. The same one he decap’d Berserker with.
4. Berserker shot Isabelle with 1 blade, in the left shoulder, not 2. All the super predators had long, singular blades. At the end of the film, you can see she is holding the wound and clearly weakened by it. Yes, realistically she would have bled to death but Predators isn’t exactly a realistic franchise now is it.
I could nitpick your review to death about as badly as you did the film. Go watch AvP with its bodybuilder preds, disney-level gore and off-the-charts cheese factor, and then AvPR with its myriad of flaws and then seriously reflect and contemplate how Predators is worse than either.
Edward – Dunno why you see the old review, but I corrected the blade thing yesterday about 20 minutes after I posted the review when Jason read it and pointed it out to me. Anyhow, you lost credibility in your comment as soon as you said that I claimed AVPR was better. I said the Wolf was better and a way more kick ass Predator, I didn’t say anything about which movie was better. I think they all stunk pretty much equally as bad… not sure why you think short stumpy Predators that we had in Predators are any better than tall football players types from AvP? And who said I didn’t roll my eyes at silly nods from other films?
And I’m not sure how any of my points are flat out wrong, nothing you said countered my points or showed any errors whatsoever in their logic. For example a half inch scalpel blade vs a half in pocket knife blade… whoopdi doo! Btw I wasn’t nitpicking about the scene with Royce drilling him in the neck with it, I actually liked that scene and the line he delivers after he jabs him was great. I’d say that the scene with the mocking ’5 o’clock is bitch rapin time’ thing and the maiming of the doc had the two best pieces of dialogue in the entire film!
As for the axe thing, you saying that makes it ever more retarded… he hit him 50 times with it, why didn’t he just decap him the first fuckin time instead of 50 drive-bys and only doing some real damage when sniper chick gets impaled?
As for the blade, it’s retarded, end of story. The blades kill everything in sight, but for her, no problem she gets up and walks away… riiiiight.
You can nitpick all you like, doesn’t change a single point or issue on the film in the slightest, it was still just as lame as the other movies, but at least AVPR had a cool Predator in it that, you know, acted like a Predator. Granted it was easier to see stuff in the movie, unfortunately there was just not much of anything to see in the first place. Trust me, I would have overlooked most of this if simply the movie called Predators had more actual Predator in it.
Ryan – good post and I think you’re right, even if the super duper pooper preds were stronger than the regular P1 pred, I would think being starved and strapped to a pole for god-knows how long would have him pretty weak. Still would have been cool to have him escape and have him hunt down the preds… I still maintain a badass storyline would to be to have the movie set in the future and a ship with humans crash lands in to a planet in the middle of a huge Predator clan war. They need to stop setting these movies in present day terms, it’s boring.
Also, as you said, I don’t really think AVPR was a better film, but the Predator in that movie is a fuck-ton better than the 3 lamers we got in this one.
Chris – I would assume the Predators themselves strap the parachutes on the game and airdrop them over the preserve.
Right on Victor! LOL I think my favorite part of the entire film was the trailer for Machete they played at the start!
“As for the axe thing, you saying that makes it ever more retarded… he hit him 50 times with it, why didn’t he just decap him the first fuckin time instead of 50 drive-bys and only doing some real damage when sniper chick gets impaled”
Berserker had his helmet on and was being struck in the face. The impact snapped his head around a bit but the armor protected him. After the pred was shot (and Isa shot with his blade), one of the blows from Royce unmasked him. Which is when the real damage came in.
As for AvPR/Predators, I took your review as ‘it was even worse than those’ and if I was mistaken in that, I happily concede the point.
But my other comments, however easily you dismiss them, are valid. You can’t post a review on a public site with a lot of inaccuracies and get offended when people call you on them. And mock the scalpel comment if you will, but a scalpel in the hands of someone dangerous is a lethal object. Something sharp enough to cut through bone and tendons is hardly the kind of thing I’d want someone coming at me with.
I am curious though, if you so strongly dislike the ‘nods’ to the other films, how on earth could you like the score? It was practically a carbon copy of P1, even down to some of the musical cues. For me that was the biggest ‘nod’ of all in the film.
The mask doesn’t cover his neck, it covers his face…
And my review doesn’t contain a lot of innacuracies in the slightest, you have 2 or 3, which don’t affect my points in the slightest. I’m not offended in the slightest, I delete offending comments on my site
Again, the scalpel thing is irrelevant, at no point do I have an issue with him using it for anything, I just thought the entire scene of where he turns in to a ranting psycho seemed ridiculous and the dialogue was BRUTAL. FYI a pocket knife will cut tendons with ease, I know first hand
Btw in all honesty, scalpels are for cutting skin, muscle and general tissue… a small stainless steel scalpel won’t cut bone as far as I know (it will chip it when used with enough force).
You can find a list of blades and their applications here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalpel
Hey I didn’t say I disliked all the nods, I just don’t like the ones that seem ridiculous to the point that they are spoofing the original films. For example, I loved when Nolan first appears cloaked and he’s doing the “over here” bit, that was cool. But when we had Brody doing an arnie impression a la mud, I started laughing out loud, it just seemed like a spoof scene like you would see in one of the spoof Scary Movie films. You’re so busy trying to pick apart my review that you’re not really reading what I wrote. I did specifically say I enjoy some nods, but not ones that are over the top:
“Stop trying to pay homage to P1 so hard… I liked the occasional nod, but I lost it when I saw Brody shirtless and covered in mud in the firelight like a bad Arnie impression, it was hilarious. Like a before and after Steroid ad or something.”
OK back to work I go! I want to post some awesome new “Making of” pics from HT on the new Berserker fig!
LMAO – haven’t read much of your review, but I got the impression you didn’t like it much (lol).
This is one of those rare occasions where we disagree (I believe the last time was about 4 years back – it was raining … )
I loved every minute – finally a fitting follow-up to Predator and Predator 2.
I am really grateful that I knew hardly anything about the movie going in. I had avoided everything online and on TV in the hope of not being let down like I was with AVP and AVP-R. It worked. I won’t be true for everyone, but I’m sure that some of those who were disappointed simply overexposed themselves to too many details before seeing the movie.
I have the utmost respect for everyone involved in this film, and have realised that (from now on) I will NEVER again watch any trailers, forum threads, or spoilers of ANY kind for movies that deal with any franchise I hold near-and-dear to my heart. My experience with PREDATORS took me back to the days of PREDATOR and PREDATOR 2 where zero (or minimal) exposure to the plot meant you were TRULY surprised when you watched a story unfold.
I am VERY confident this will result in a follow-up. The audience from AVP and AVP-R is now old enough to get to see this movie – and once they realise what a REAL Predator movie is all about – FOX will have a huge market to tap into. I can rest easy that this is EXACTLY what it needed to give it a HUGE boost.
Q: Was that a better-than-average case of value-for-money?
Q: Will this improve peoples respect for the franchise?
Q: Will this mean further Predator movies will be made?
Q: Does this show that with the right amount of talent, even FOX can finance something worthwhile in this century?
Q: Was it a blast watching it?
For me – the answer to each of these is a resounding “without question”.
This bodes well for the franchise, and the collectibles market and the GK hobby. Geez – the first pre-paint put up by Sideshow on Friday RULES, as does the Hot Toys Berserker.
Antal & Rodriguez are now in my will, alongside Jim & John Thomas, John McTiernan and Stephen Hopkins who have always been there.
The good old days are back.
Ian/Spike.
.
KICKASS MOVIE. ALL THE NEIGH SAYERS CAN SUCK AVPR. THE ONLY GOOD(AT THE SAME TIME BAD) THING WAS THE PREDALIEN.
Is it me or did the predators started shrinking height wise since the first movie.
And is it now popular to start decapitating predators?
The movie at least attempted to be suspenseful in the beginning; which was good. Went downhill when Noland appeared. Good one for pointing out his weight. Noticed it during the trailers but no one seems to be making a super big fuss out of it. Strange.
Him, the Flusher Pred and the Falconer Pred were basically useless in the film.
The Hanzo duel seems pretty weak…..
until I watched Batman shattering the Pred’s wristblades in Dead End. Utter bullshit.
The Hanzo duel doesn’t look as bad now.
Storywise, Predators did much better than those AvP crap. But the Black Pred got their work cut out for them if they wanna uphaul Wolf.
I have to agree with this review. I was disappointed with the film. I thought the intra-clan warfare subplot was completely wasted. There seemed to be no reason to include it other than to include the P1 predator as a bone thrown to the fans. To compound the mischief, they have the original predator killed off straight away after his release. If a sequel is made (The film appears to be a modest hit), I would like to see an all-out war between the clans, with the supposed “super” predators getting the wood laid to them.
One more thing-can we please try to get Ian Whyte & other actors or stunt people who are at least 7ft or better to play the predators? Maybe it’s me but the predators didn’t seem tall enough to me.
By the way, I feel that a decent AVP film could be made, as long as it’s based on the ORIGINAL Dark Horse graphic novel. That story was better than anything Paul Anderson could come up with if he lived to be 100.
I agree JN144, the Predators in this film appeared to be only slightly taller than Brody himself. These were definitely the shortest looking Preds to date.
I have to agree with Dan on his review .For me as soon as the super blacks were shown I told my wife this sucks the reason being , ever since AvP movies the predators have been getting bigger and not in a good way they are starting to look like pumped up steroid pigs have you ever seen a good bar fighter a steroid pig ? No usually it is the lean fast moving people .I just don’t know why they go back to basketball type body frame like the actor Hall in P1 by the time you add the gear he filled out prefect ,my vision of the Pred is like the Masi warriors very tall and ripped muscles not some fat pilsbury dough boys.big and fat are not always better .
Regards Pat
The problem with Paul Anderson is that he only knows how to make one movie…Resident Evil. AvP is just RE with different actors. And actually, some of the actors from RE are in AvP (the black guy who was the team leader in both movies). He even died the same way in both movies. In RE he was cut into little squares by the laser. In AvP, he was going to be cut into little squares by the pred’s tightening razor net before the pred speared him.
I do agree that the Predators should be taller. They should appear imposing. They should also not be so bulky that they can’t hold their arms down (AvP) or have runner’s legs (AvP-R). I don’t care what anyone says, the pred from the first movie would have beaten all three of the Super Predators. It was just something about the stature and the presence of the first one. I would put him and P2 up against all of the preds that have come since, collectively.
I agree with Jason as far as the first two performances by Kevin Peter Hall being THE predator. However, I feel Ian Whyte’s portrayal in AVP-R as the next best thing. The first AVP was definitely the worst, with the offensive lineman predators.
Honestly, did anyone really expect it to be good? Seriously? Predator hasnt had a good track record recently and I didnt expect this to be any different. Specially when I saw the new Pred’s. Sorry but I say this to most who thought it would be something new….told ya so.
Now in saying all that I think picking apart the hell out of a movie is kinda stupid. I mean, we are dealing with aliens hunting humans, you have to suspend all reality and just go with it. So picking at the a human cant live from a drop from the sky and why Fishburne isnt starving or something is a little too much. I mean, come on, in the first Predator there would be no way Arnold could have survived that beating nor run the amount of distance he did (beaten up to mind you) to get a safe distance from the explosion. Yet, that movie is loved and I loved it to but you gotta let go of these little things when watching these kinda movies.
I am a huge predator fan, so dont think I am just talking out of my ass. I expected it to be crappy and therefore wasnt really disappointed. It had some good points but I have to just tell myself, at least it was a Predator movie. We dont get too many of those these days and I live mainly through the comics and statues. Oh well. Move on and wait for them to try again….
I also SO dont agree that AVPR was way better. Predators was bad but I was far more entertained then I was with AVPR. I wanted those few hours of my life back after AVPR. I could just pick at the parts where they mixed in scenes from Aliens and I swore the music sounded just the same. Its one thing to pay respect to a great movie but another to just rip it off. I dont care if was ALIENS vs Predator. Get a new idea. Predators I could at least stomach and just take it for what it was. At least there were new Preds (I could care less about technology and lack of) and I wanted to at least stay in the movie and watch it. AVPR my friends had to restrain me from leaving.
Thats my humble opinion and I stick by it.
Dan,
Your review was spot on. In fact, you were somewhat forgiving…maybe even kind. This monstrousity, (no pun intended), isn’t even worthy of being called a movie. It was a nostalgia festival. It was a very poorly written, cheaply conceived and produced ‘commercial’ for a coming explosion of new toys, models, and whatever else type of associated product one can imagine. FOX is notoriously at the top of CHEAP studio production. They put an exclamation point on that fact with this abomination.
Everyone is entitled to his opinion and the criteria important to forming an individual critique. However, much of what I read here seems to be a defense unnecessary to the protection of the genre. All of us love the ‘Predator’ character. Why else devote time, money and the effort to scribe our interpretations and thoughts? But, to suspend or disregard all the qualifications needed to create and produce a well done film/movie is laughable. That type of argument ‘has no legs to stand on’. What impressed us all in the first, (and finest), film of the series was the complexity of the character itself, the suspense and, albeit fear induced by the subtle story development, the action and shock value of the evisceration, (when it was appropriate), the cool ‘new’ types of special effects, and the directors ability to imbed you with ‘first person’ voyeurism. Hell, it’s probably Arnies finest hour as an actor. That cast was an ensemble. How many of the other franchise films have produced Governors?
Anyway, if you enjoyed it as an E-Ticket ride….way cool for you. But, facts remain facts regardless of opinions. The facts to the negative regarding this dungheap stand on their own timeworn merits. I didn’t get my money back from the ticket booth. There were several of us that asked but, like the writers, producers, and director of this piece-of-crap, the office manager was dumbfounded.
Personally, Heavy Metal Spike/Ian….I’m surprised and shocked at your positive nod to this dog of a production. From your comments and cerebral additions to ‘The Clubhouse’, it was clear that you were a ‘Pred-freak’. I just had no idea you were so sadly lacking when it comes to competant movie reviews. Unfortunately, your financial analysis was frighteninly on point. The less-than-demanding summer film goers will flock to see this film…maybe to just get out of the heat. The same folks who love ‘The Simpsons’ will love this. (Maybe they should have CG’d Homer into the human prey mix)…he would have added more realism than freakin’ Topher GAYce….and no, I didn’t misspell his name. FOX most definitely will disgorge another of these mutated, bastard children…maybe a whole litter of them before all is said and done. More’s the pity for us all. But, it’s all good Ian. (Let me know if you need any more ‘Kothoga’ model pictures brother.)
That’s my take on it. It’s a couple of hours I’ll never get back…but that’s my fault. I should have known that any action movie starring the illegitimate son of Ray Bolger has got to be lame. Later on children.
LMAO – glad to be of service
Dan,
Not as bad as I thought it was going to be considering how I already new that the P1 would not do well. Could have been much better though.
Good points:
Actually liked how Mr. Black looked without the mask, maybe because it was only on screen for a few seconds. Don’t like the jaw bone thing on the mask – looked like a cheesy ornament stuck on with crazy glue?
Liked the dogs which I expected to be the worst part of the film.
Acting was decent.
Bad points:
Saw nothing to indicate these new Preds were bigger or meaner Preds than any previous. Did not convey any sense of power or agility. In fact, their height seemed shorter than in any other film. The P1 looked only slightly taller than Brody. I really liked how they had to have Nolan say that these new “larger Preds hunt the smaller ones” because they couldn’t show it convincingly on screen. Way to pay homage to the original Pred by having him tied up only to then have his head handed to him on a plate (literally) – added nothing to the film except an easy plot device to say our new Preds are better than the old Preds.
Doctor knowing toxicity of supposedly foreign plant life and the amount of poison that would only cause paralysis and not death.
At the hunting camp battle – a sweep of the mini gun that fires 3000 rounds a minute would have cut anything in half or at least hit one of them because they certainly didn’t look like they were trying to evade anything, unlike in Predator where P1 had the sense to flee in the face of firepower bearing down on him.
How did the Preds select the Doc on Earth because I assume his crimes were not done in wide view of anyone? Same with death row boy – maybe they read newspapers or have human spotters on retainer? I can see the others being chosen as they could presumably be spotted in fire fights and what not.
For being superior Preds the first two were dispatched rather easily and far too quickly. We don’t need sophisticated weapons against Preds just a few samurai dudes and that should do the trick – come on!
Mr. Black looked liked he had lead in his ass and Brody looked like the Flash considering the number of times he struck Black, within a few seconds, with the axe (really poorly done).
Didn’t know these new Preds were impervious to grenade (and multiple ones at that) shrapnel. I know Preds can take a lot of punishment but at least show some shrapnel wounds which would have made Brody’s beat down of him a little more believable.
Nolan’s Sybil behavior – why the hell would he bring them back to his sanctuary if he didn’t want to help them or have extra help in fighting the Preds? Same with douche bag Doc, why would he want to kill off fellow humans with the Preds still running around?
Direct lines from the first movie – very lame.
Mr. Black’s decapitation – his head falls backwards and body falls forward, yet in the next shot of Brody standing over him the head is in front of the body. Maybe the heads of these new Preds bounce?!
Dave
I don’t want to keep beating up on the film, but perhaps a better idea would have have been a clan of preds hunting soldiers in present day Iraq or Afghanistan? What did Gary Busey’s character say in P2 “drawn by heat & conflict”? That way the film could avoid the problem of Earth vegetation on an alien planet, the doctor & criminal characters, & other plot elements that many found questionable. This would have allowed for a more streamlined & simpler film more in line with the first 2 movies.
I agree with Heavy Metal Spike’s comments.
I only saw the film last night as I’ve been waiting for my brother to have a free evening, then the showing was nearly sold out and we had to sit on end seats behind each other!
I have nothing bad to say about it. It all made sense to me and far better than if they’d done a full on remake with John Cena like they were once suggesting/threatening.
I avoided everything clip-wise online bar the trailers and catching up with them today I’m really glad I did, because otherwise you do that jigsaw game in your head and guess all the twists and ending before ever seeing it.
I’m pleased that the super black predators weren’t ridiculously larger and my impressions from their armour made me wonder if Wolf was one of their clan. His face was also similarly more far forward and didn’t use the actor’s eyes.
It’s been 23 years since Predator 1, most have already seen it but I think that having plenty of reminders now helps when making more follow-ups, as we will then be relating to Predators events for reference rather than always thinking back to the original and P2.
When the characters were sat resting in Noland’s place I realised how well paced it was that they allowed us a rest to reflect and for character development rather than just continuing full-pelt, and having time for this must mean they weren’t cutting out scenes all over.
The Yakuza fight was right out of a comic, we’ll always hear disagreements about inconsistencies as to Predator blade and armour strength, but Samuria and Highlander swords in movies are established in fan knowledge as being the strongest due to the folding when they are forged. If he had fought using a Predator weapon his arms would probably have shattered on first impact.
I’m also glad there weren’t any gauntlet self-destructs for once, they were faithful by sticking to the 3 Pred rule established in AVP which could have been disregarded, we saw Pred vs Pred, I even liked the dogs as they kept coming while taking hits like something really set on getting to you.
No cool preds?
The berserker was awesome.One of the best predators I´ve ever seen.A real badass.And his heardbeatscanner..great.
But the movie sucks for real fans,becaue the preds have not enough screentime.For “normal”people the movie works fine..look at the boxoffice.
I hope for a DC-Bluray with more predatorscreentime.Can somebody send an angry letter to the moviemakers,please?;-)
I give predators a 6,5 out of 10,because the berserker,the goreeffects and the berserker vs classicfight(first seen in a predatormovie) were very good.The badest Predatormovie,but way better than the first AVP..and on one place with AVPR(Wolf was so cool..but the movie was crap,too)
Predator 1 9/10
Predator 2 8,5/10
Predators 6,5/10
AVP 4/10
AVPR 6,5/10
Totally agree with you, Dan!
I expect a more detailed journey inside the Pred world, expanding hugely the Pred myth, but this is far from what this cheap movie deals with!
Anonymous human charcters against even more anonymous Preds, both driven towards the worst open ending af all times. Preds completely lack of hunting skills or hi-tech devices, so they can’t bear the camparison between City Hunter Pred from “Predator 2″ or Wolf Pred from “AVP-R”!!!
Well, Falconer Pred looks fine, exactly like Celtic Pred from AVP, but they both share minimum screentime!!! What else? The rest was crap!
The superb art from Narin, for example, with its high-detalied variations on the Pred design, is more exciting than any screenshot from Predators!!!
Greetins from Italy all Pred fans!
Keep on hunting!
Paraz
I agree with you Dan, till this day I still think the P1 Predator is still the most hardcore, my favorite scene in this is where he escapes his bondage and suits up, I did’nt want to see him die, if this was the Predator that fought Arnold and his special ops squad,(lets remember this Predator wiped out not 1 but 2 special ops units!) the Black Predator and Royce would be toast, but I’m glad to see the predator franchise is getting a fresh start, mabey paredators 2 will be better? but I had low expectations for this movie to begun with, but walked out pretty satisfied, I did like this more than Predator 2. 7/10
I see a lot of comments about these predators not displaying many hunting skills, but I don’t think they were meant to. I think these were more like the Predators in the Bad Blood comic. They are deviants and don’t follow the hunter’s code. They don’t have pride in their hunts. They are very brutal, sadistic killers, not hunters. They enjoy toying with their prey and inflicting pain. If they were supposed to be honorable hunters, they would have hunted their prey in their own element, not bring them onto their hunting planet where the Predators have all the advantage. You can be disappointed that they chose to script these types of Predators, but you can’t say that they weren’t true to what they were intended to be.
I think that we would all enjoy these movies more if we wouldn’t endlessly dissect them and speculate about them for months before they are released. I think that J.J. Abrams did it right with his trailer for Cloverfield. He piqued your interest without really giving you any idea of what the movie was about. It wasn’t the best movie ever, but I had no pre-conceived expections that couldn’t be met.
And I know a lot of us would like to see more expansion of the Predator world and universe. Maybe a movie taking place on the home world. But from a Hollywood standpoint, that is probably more appropriate for a fan-made movie. It probably would not appeal to anyone other than die-hard fans, and that small audience doesn’t equate to a profitable movie.
Great post Jason.
Well constructed, and even though you obviously disagree with a number of those who have added their feedback here, your comments were in no way irrational, argumentative or rude.
I’d go along with pretty much everything you said – nice one dude.
Maybe this whole experience will encourage others to stay away from the trailers, promotional material and forum comments when the next one comes around – and it WILL come around.
.
I watched it a second time..and now I think its a little bit better.
The Bad Blood Predators are a good point.;-)
I have to agree with everything except that avpr is better than this movie. You are kidding me. Avpr is a black abyss of darkness. If you are complaining about not be able to see predators, you never really get to see wolf in avpr. The lighting was horrible. I think over time predators will rank as the second best predator movie out there. I like dont love it like the orginal.
Thanks
E. Lopez
Come on guys really !
The movie stank but was the better of the 3 I have to say, that does not mean that it was worth the $$s spent to see it,
So they bought in old fat morpheus to boost the ratings but seriously nothing made sense in the movie at all,
What this movie should have been was colonial marines, predators and aliens on one planet, how they got their (who cares) and just slugging it out, would have made more sense and a tribute to Stan Winston who is probably spinning faster than a dodgy satellite in his grave right now.
Come on a return to LV426 then a kick ass tag team challenge – watch the movie and then go home and play the game
Well, I went to see the movie again tonight. I gotta say that I was happy with it the first time, and it was even better the second time. I just find it increasingly hard to believe that Predator fans don’t like this movie. But to each his own.
As I was watching it, I was thinking about some of the complaints about the movie. The story didn’t make sense, sloppy effects, plot holes, aspects of the movie that weren’t realistic. So I started thinking about all of the things about the first one that would fit into that category that no one finds any fault with.
1. The Predator destroys himself at the end of the movie with a nuclear device. It levels seemingly acres of jungle, but Dutch survives despite only being about 50 yards, or less, from the explosion.
2. The Predator shoots Blain with the plasma cannon and blows a basketball-sized hole in his chest and completely cauterizes the wound. When he shoots Dutch with it in the shoulder at end of the movie, it does almost no damage.
3. When Dutch slips and slides down the mountainside and over the cliff, water can be seen blowing off of his body even though he hasn’t been in the water yet.
4. Dutch swims to the bank of the lagoon, pulls himself a bit out of the water and then lays one side of his face down into the mud. When he crawls into the tree root cover, somehow his entire face is covered in mud.
5. The Predator’s wrist blades are made out of some unearthly metal that is many times stronger than anything humans have. That would make them extremely rigid. Yet when the Predator pins Dutch’s head against the log, they are somehow able to bend outward and then at a 45 degree angle to accommodate the width of a head.
6. When Dutch activates the dead-fall he set up for the Predator, the rope attached to the tree trunk flies upward across the screen. It is a horrible post production effect. I know that special effects weren’t what they are today, but honestly, they couldn’t use a real rope? Or do a better job with the SFX? They managed to do that with the plasma bolts and the thermal vision.
7. Water interferes with the Predator’s technology, yet he jumps in the water to follow Dutch and appears surprised when his cloak fails. Surely since he is an intergalactic hunter, he has encountered water before.
I’m not complaining, it’s still one of my favorite movies and still holds up really well even today. But movies are kind of like traffic stops. A cop could find something wrong with every person he pulls over. The same could be said for a person watching a movie.
SDCC 10: Rodriguez Confirms Predators 2
http://movies.ign.com/articles/110/1108015p1.html
(* thanks to Nothingface35 on the HIVE for the heads-up *)
.
I agree with the 65% score. It was a good action movie, but did very little to add onto the franchise. Over all, it was alot less mind numbing than anyting Michael Bay can produc. If anyone doesn’t take anything from that, then I enjoyed this action/scify movie more than alot of more sucessful ones.