Movie Review: Predators

Robert Rodriguez is my hero.

The man has developed more "geek-cred" in the past several years than many directors. He's given us Desperado, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and Sin City. Now, his latest production effort explodes on the big screen in a showy display of reverence to John McTiernan's original 1987 film.

I know Rodriguez didn't direct this film (man, don't I wish he did) but he had a massive hand in bringing this project to life. Predators was original a concept of Rodriguez's back in 1994 and has been languishing in development hell since then.

Full disclosure: I hated AvP and AvP-R. Lots of people enjoyed them, and that's their prerogative, but I had problems with them. The Predator designs moved away from the sleek, svelte death dealing stealth machine and toward a bulky, brawling, beefy monster. I didn't mind the attempt to create a PG-13 movie out of two R-Rated franchises (historically, though, that is often an indication of decrease in quality) - what I took issue with was the quality of what audiences were presented with. They were poorly written, the cinematography was nothing outstanding, and the performances were "meh". All of this simply makes them frustrating and mediocre. I hated them because they represented a fundamental lack of understanding of the source material. AvP took an established crossover concept (thank you, Dark Horse Comics) and beat on it, assuming it was malleable enough to fit within the setting of modern day.

It wasn't and it didn't.

The thrill of the AvP crossover franchise as presented in the video games and comic books was the setting. Pulling Xenomorphs (the stars of the Alien series) into modern day COMPLETELY broke the logical progression of plot in the entire Alien Quadrilogy. Throwing Charles Bishop Weyland into the mix only adds to the confusion and frustration. The whole point of Alien is that the Xenomorph is a life form never before encountered in the history of space travel. Given the sheer number of Colonial Marines that are eaten and/or eviscerated in the course of the AvP canon, the fact that even one of the human protagonists that encounter the titular alien species has enough time to say more than "Hey, I -- " is completely and utterly absurd to me.

Why do I talk about these films? Because frankly, they have almost been the death knell for both of the series that spawned them. An additional film could be either the reviving breath of fresh air or else the final nail in the coffin.

Breathe deep, fans, for this is INDEED refreshing.

SPOILER WARNING - I discuss elements of the plot and specific character developments/twists. Go see the film first.

Predators reads like a tender, carefully crafted love letter to the original film. This isn't to say that it's without its flaws (we'll get to those in a minute), but man was this a pleasant surprise. I purchased a popcorn JUST so I'd have something to throw at the screen in the very likely event that the movie took the first exit to Stupidville. Fortunately, I never had to resort to kernel-flinging.

The film opens on a shot of Adrien Brody's character falling through the atmosphere at terminal velocity. Explanations? Initial exposition? Forget that, we're not going to feed you a story, we're just going to throw you into the meat grinder.

See what I did there? Yeah, the film does that too. A LOT. (For those who are now completely lost, go rewatch the original Predator and see if my comment about meat grinders sounds familiar). In many films, any attempt to rework and rehash lines/music/etc into a sequel feels hackneyed and cliched; however, in this film it works. Not because I'm a big fan of the original film (I loved it, but I have no illusions about it being a perfect film - it's not), but because this one is well written.

Let's examine elements of the film individually:

Writing

This film, as stated above, is well written. It's not perfect, and the plot could use a bit of reworking in its minor details, but it's definitely a well crafted piece of work. In my opinion, the third act twist shouldn't have been reserved for the third act. Topher Grace's character is so absurdly out of place in this group of people that as an audience member, I spent much of the movie WAITING for the reveal that he was another Dr. Mengele. So much so that the twist held no power when it occurred. My response was one of "Oh, finally . . ." not "Oh snap! I didn't see that coming!"

My suggestion? Make his role as a serial killer known from the outset and use it as a source of constant tension. The audience will wonder when he's going to turn on his comrades simply because it's an addiction to him.

I had several other ideas, but I think that'll be another post.

Acting

The performances in this film are . . . well, I hesitate to use the word excellent, because they're not about to win any Oscars; however, every character is well defined (if not exactly well developed) and extremely believable (with the single exception of Topher Grace).

Look, let me break for a second and say this: Topher Grace has it in him to be an excellent actor. Unfortunately, he seems to be pulling on 7 years of That 70s Show (which I love and own) for EVERY ROLE he plays. I'm tired of watching Topher Grace as Eric Foreman as [insert character name here]. C'mon man! Give me a performance that WOWS me. Admittedly it takes a while, but it's not impossible.

That being said, he's NOT a huge frustration in this film, just a minor one.

Also, Adrien Brody frightens me. Seriously.

Effects/Cinematography

YES. Yes, yes, yes, dear heavenly Father, YES.

You know what feels hokey and ridiculous in this film? One shot. (Specifically, Laurence Fishburne's demise. I'm getting really tired of the "character explodes in a cloud of gore to reveal the silhouette of our antagonist" shots.) The CGI is realistic enough to not be distracting or effectively break your suspension of disbelief, and the predators themselves are well designed and well realized. This feels like the terrifying creature we saw in the first two films, not the pro-wrestler-esque abominations of the AvP movies. The initial encounter sequence where the group effectively wastes half of their ammo on what amounts to a pack of alien dogs gets your heart pumping.

Also, the final fight sequence is a fantastic nod to the original film's climactic battle and addresses one of my frustrations with the predator's technology - namely: WHY wouldn't a predator be able to sense breathing/heartbeat?!? Answer: he can. So much for mud.

Pacing

It's well paced. Very well paced. It throws you into the action immediately and then lets you stew while everything builds to the final confrontation. Nimrod Antal seems to get that what made the original monster so scary was the fact that you rarely saw it. This is what makes Ridley Scott's Alien terrifying, this is what makes John McTiernan's Predator terrifying, this is what made Hitchcock a LEGEND. What you don't see is far scarier than what you do see. As such, the fact that the predators themselves don't make more than a single appearance in the first two acts is one of the strongest elements in this film.

The movie stumbles a little bit transitioning between acts 2 and 3, but makes up for it with an awesome duel between a katana wielding Yakuza and one of the predators. It was a fantastic shout out to the death of Billy in the first film (complete with musical cue), but it was also its own moment.

In conclusion, it's a great action romp highly reminiscent of the original film. If you enjoyed Arnold's Predator you'll like this one.